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Checkout the wonderful article in AAA, Highroads Magazine on the Chile Pepper Institute
AAA Highroads
Questions About the Official World's Hottest Chile Pepper
Mark Twain famously said "The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated." The same can be said about the new world's hottest chile pepper, it has been greatly exaggerated. The Chile Pepper Institute has had many inquiries about several new chile peppers that claim to be the world's hottest chile pepper. The Chile Pepper Institute cannot confirm any of these new varieties or any other chile pepper is the world's hottest, until unbiased, scientific replicated experiments have been done.
The Chile Pepper Institute is research based, and we base all of our information on this principal. What the Chile Pepper Institute can state is that the only extremely hot, commercially available chile pepper is the Bhut Jolokia. The Bhut Jolokia AVERAGED in replicated plots, 1,001,304 Scoville Heat Units. These new varieties were single plants, and are not commercially available, nor have they been tested in replicated trials.
The world's hottest chile pepper has become a real worldwide phenomenon. A "record" may or may not be legitimate. Good science is necessary to distinguish the “true” records from the “maybe” records. Research has proven that chile pepper heat can vary quite a lot among the same variety grown in a single field at the same time. When single plant heat levels of genetically identical chile plants were compared to the field average, we found individual plants that had heat levels as much as 78% above the field average, indicating the environment contributes significantly to chile pepper heat level. Thus, one single plant may be a record setter for that year and location, but it does not prove the variety as a whole is record setting. While a single pumpkin can be crowned the "biggest" in pumpkin size contests, should a single fruit of a very hot Capsicum variety deserve to be listed in the records? The 'Bhut Jolokia' data came from replicated trials with appropriate controls. We reported the average heat level of the 'Bhut Jolokia' across all the replications in comparison to identically-grown ‘Red Savina,’ at that time the world's hottest chile pepper. In order to conduct a scientifically valid test to determine the hottest chile pepper variety, an ample seed sample must be planted in replicated trials that include the current hottest variety and appropriate controls. A random sample of fruit from the replicated varieties should then be tested at an independent legitimate testing facility. The variety with the statistically higher heat level could then be considered as the reigning hottest variety. Single fruits would not qualify, nor would samples without appropriate comparisons. If the 'Bhut Jolokia' had been in the Butch T field, might it have been hotter than 1,463,700 SHU? Only a controlled scientific test would give us the “true” answer.
Currently, the Bhut Jolokia pepper remains the hottest pepper that is commercially available. The Chile Pepper Institute will keep our members apprised of future developments.
February-2011
