Ready for the world’s hottest pepper? The SC creator says you’re not.
“Suffering unbelievably, I couldn’t even move,” the Pepper X creator said.
FORT MILL, S.C. (WBTV) - A York County man is breaking records with his newest hot sauce.
Pepper X has lovers of spicy foods excited. It’s from the founder of the PuckerButt Pepper Company.
Before trying it, people should know that the pepper it comes from is hundreds of times hotter than anything like it and eating one raw can cause real problems.
“Suffering unbelievably, I couldn’t even move,” the Pepper X creator said.
Not the sales pitch one would expect to hear when looking to try a new product. It’s more of a dire warning from a self-proclaimed mad scientist.
“It is brutal, and it is painful,” Ed Currie said.
Currie is the founder of the Puckerbutt Pepper Company in Fort Mill. He came up with the Carolina Reaper and now Pepper X. What he does makes his business live up to its name.
“The hottest pepper in the world at 2.693 million Scoville heat units,” Currie said.
Scoville heat units are how heat in peppers is measured. Currie even has the hardware to prove the heat, grabbing the Guinness Book of World Records for the hottest pepper on the planet.
Related: Pepper X marks the spot as South Carolina pepper expert scorches his own Guinness Book heat record
“Women handle it a lot better than men. Men think they’re dying; women are like ‘Oh yeah,’” he said.
Currie bioengineers new pepper seeds until he perfects the recipe. In this case, it took him 13 years to create what he’s calling Pepper X. The secrecy around it has everybody on high alert.
Ron Edwards is a farmer here and said they’ve caught plenty of people snooping around trying to get the secret of Pepper X.
“It’s really a big deal, bigger than I ever thought it would be,” Edwards said.
Currie says the secret really is about cross-pollination and finding what works and what doesn’t.
“They’ve gotten hotter since we first started,” he said.
For the connoisseurs of the flame, it’s something they’re lining up to try.
“Putting a little-bitty-bit of it and going from there,” hot sauce fan Chris Creamer said.
For those who think they can handle the heat of a raw pepper, there is a warning from someone who knows first-hand.
“I don’t recommend that anybody try this,” Currie said.
The owner added there’s a massive demand for the pepper and he’s busy shipping it out to dozens of countries all around the world.
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