Representative image.
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The record for the hottest chili pepper in the world changed hands on Monday after more than a decade when Guinness Book of World Record crowned 'Pepper X' as the new king of chili peppers. The maker of this chili pepper felt its heat for three and a half hours before the cramps hit which lasted for an hour.
Pepper X got an average score of 2.69 million Scoville Heat Units (SHU), snatching the record from Carolina Reaper, which averages 1.64 million SHU, according to Guinness World Records.
To put things into context, a jalapeño is around 3,000 to 8,000 SHU.
SHU is the unit to measure the heat in a chili pepper, the higher the score on this scale is the hotter the chili tastes.
This method to measure chili pepper heat was developed by American chemist Wilbur Scoville in 1912. It measures the amount of capsaicin which is a part of chili peppers and causes a burning sensation when it makes contact with human tissue.
Pepper X has been developed by Ed Curie, the same man who had developed the earlier record holder, Carolina Reaper.
Curie first unveiled Pepper X on an episode of hit YouTube series Hot Ones.
Currie said that the new record holder is a crossbreed of a Carolina Reaper and a "pepper that a friend of mine sent me from Michigan that was brutally hot".
Curie is among the five people who have consumed an entire Pepper X and he described his frightening state after doing that.
"I was feeling the heat for three and a half hours." Currie told the Associated Press. It did not end there as Curie was then jolted by “horrible” cramps.
"Those cramps are horrible. I was laid out flat on a marble wall for approximately an hour in the rain, groaning in pain."
Pepper X will not be available for purchase or use by the general public.