Hottest pepper? the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion, experts agree

"There are super-hot chile varieties. And then there's the sweat-inducing, tear-generating, mouth-on-fire Trinidad Moruga Scorpion.


The Trinidad Moruga Scorpion, the new hottest pepper on the planet. The golf ball-sized pepper has a mean Scoville Heat Unit value of 1.2 million.


With a name like that, it's not surprising that months of research by the experts at New Mexico State University's Chile Pepper Institute have identified the variety as the new hottest pepper on the planet.


The golf ball-sized pepper scored the highest among a handful of chile breeds reputed to be among the hottest in the world. Its mean heat topped more than 1.2 million units on the Scoville heat scale, while fruits from some individual plants reached 2 million heat units.


'You take a bite. It doesn't seem so bad, and then it builds and it builds and it builds. So it is quite nasty,' Paul Bosland, a renowned pepper expert and director of the chile institute, said of the pepper's heat.


Researchers were pushed by hot sauce makers, seed producers and others in the spicy foods industry to establish the average heat levels for super-hot varieties in an effort to quash unscientific claims of which peppers are actually the hottest.
That's something that hadn't been done before, Bosland said.


'The question was, could the Chile Pepper Institute establish the benchmark for chile heat?' he said. 'Chile heat is a complex thing, and the industry doesn't like to base it on just a single fruit that's a record holder. It's too variable.' The academic institute is based at the university's agriculture school and is partially funded by federal grants, as well as some industry groups depending on the project.  ------------------ "


(My note:  There's a lot more to this great article.  Use the link and read the rest it if you want to learn more about chile heat and hot peppers.)


http://www.nola.com/food/index.ssf/2012/02/hottest_pepper_the_trinidad_mo.html




email:  newmexicocuisine@gmail.com


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