Pepper, Yellow Moruga

The Habanero pepper has a maximum hotness of 350,000 Scoville Heat Units. Thats nothing—like eating an Altoid—compared to the mouth-searing Trinidad Moruga Scorpion. It tops out at over two million SHU and has just been named the worlds hottest pepper. As super-hot peppers go, Scoville ratings can vary greatly within a variety depending on the growing conditions—the harsher the environment, the hotter the peppers will be. Thats why researchers from New Mexico State Universitys Chile Pepper Institute, at the behest of the hot sauce industry, developed a new method of determining a varietys average burn. The team planted 125 plants of the hottest known varieties—the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion, the Trinidad Scorpion, the 7-pot, the Chocolate 7-pot and the previous world record holder, the Bhut Jolokia. Once ripe, several peppers from each type were harvested, dried and ground to a powder. From that powder, the team extracted capsaicinoids (the compounds that give peppers their heat) and rated them. The Trinidad Moruga Scorpion averaged 1.2 million SHU with some individual fruits measuring a face-melting two million-plus SHU.