The Official Hottest Chilli!

Just read an article about the hottest chilli in the world, Dragons Breath, developed by Mike Smith a hobby grower from Wales. Also unpacked my backpack and realised I had two gifts of chilli pods with seeds from Homegrown Nurseries.

The Dragons Breath has not been certified by Guinness World Records, but is in the process as it dwarfs other chillies around the world. After all it is considered a weapons grade, record breaking, one bite airway burn that will seal your lungs for good. Might go with a good Durban curry.

It measures more than 2.48m on the Scoville scale, and it could potentially cause a type of anaphylactic shock for someone who eats it, burning the airways and closing them up. Sauce

I recently bought the Ghost Chilli (aka Bhut jolokia) plant from a farmers market and was told by a local chilli enthusiast that it was the hottest chilli in the world. It was the hottest chilli in the world in 2007, and the man that told me is probably still living in the late 60’s and early 70’s.

The Ghost chilli is rated at more than 1 million Scoville heat units (SHUs). However, the ghost chili was shortly superseded by the Infinity chili in 2011, followed by the Naga Viper, the Trinidad moruga scorpion in 2012, and the Carolina Reaper on August 7, 2013.

But lets get to the bottom of the hottest chilli in the world, 2017, atleast the top 5.

1.Dragons Breath
2,500,000 SHU ( Not certified )
Mike Smith the grower of the Dragons Breath is waiting for his entry into the Guinness Record Books. Holding thumbs, with a baited dragons breath.

2. Carolina Reaper
1,569,300 – 2.200,000 SHU
As a rule, the hottest chillies are the ugliest, and the Carolina Reaper is one ugly so-and-so. Five hundred times hotter than Tabasco, if your mouth can do the maths.

3. Naga Viper
1,349,000 SHU – 1,382,118 SHU

Briefly the world’s hottest chilli in 2011, the Viper is a hybrid of other super-hots, including the Bhut Jolokia and the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion.

4. Trinidad Scorpian

1 ,200,000+ SHU – 2,009,231 SHU
Another record hot chilli, the Moruga Scorpion (Capiscum chinense) is from the islands of Trinidad and Tobago.

5. Habenero

500,000 SHU – 1,100,000 SHU
Originally from the Caribbean, it is called the Seven Pot because each little pod can add fire to seven family-size pots of stew.

To give an indication of the Carolina Reaper’s spiciness, a Jalapeno can score anything between 2,500 to 8,000 SHU on the scale. While commonly referred to as vegetables, chillies are in fact fruit from the plant genus “Capsicum”.

The heat comes from the substance “capsaicin” which is found in all chillies. As well as livening up dishes, the heat also makes the body produce pleasurable endorphins afterwards.

Where does the Ghost Chilli fit in, 855,000 SHU – 1,041,427. So we have all been rambling about the hottest chilli in the world, without asking questions and crediting a guy who spends most of his time in a pub talking horse manure.

Scoville