I am a big fan of hot sauces and hot peppers. I recently ordered a bottle of “Zulu Fire Sauce,” made in South Africa, and I am growing a chili pequin bush in a container on my back deck. The bush is currently loaded with little round, green peppers.
The Zulu sauce turned out to be disappointingly mild, so I am now in the market for something a tad hotter. I have researched the matter and discovered the ten hottest peppers in the world, in descending order of hotness, are Carolina Reaper, Trinidad Moruga Scorpion, 7 Pot Douglah, 7 Pot Primio, Trinidad Scorpion (Butch T), Naga Viper, Ghost Pepper, 7 Pot Barrackpore, 7 Pot Red Giant and Red Savina Habanero.
By the way, the “7 Pot” designation means one pepper can heat up seven pots of stew. Frankly, I find the average jalapeno pepper way too hot to nibble, and the Carolina Reaper tested at 200 times hotter than the jalapeno. Wow.
On a long-ago trip to Trinidad, I purchased a jar of pickled Scorpion peppers and when I got back home, I found that just a tiny bite of the pepper was like tasting molten lava. So I am a weenie when it comes to really hot peppers.
I am told the Carolina Reaper “has an excellent fruity flavor – right up until it melts your face off.”
While I look forward to my chili pequins turning red, and eating one occasionally mixed with other food, I’ll leave the Carolina Reaper to someone who will appreciate its excellent fruity flavor.
