Are you a lover of hot chili peppers? If so, then you've probably been under the impression that the habanero is the hottest pepper in the world. But that is no longer true. As hot as a habanero is (and it's extremely hot), there's now a pepper from the northeastern Indian province of Assam that knocks the habanero off it's perch.
Recently, Guiness World Records declared the Bhut jolokia, or "ghost chili" as it is more commonly known, to be the hottest chili pepper in the world. One farmer who grows the ghost chili says, "It is so hot you can't even imagine. When you eat it, it's like dying."
How hot is it? Here's how it stacks up to other peppers in Scoville units (the unit used to measure a peppers heat):
Jalapeno..........2,500 to 8,000 Scoville units
Thai pepper..........80,000 Scoville units
Habanero..........580,000 Scoville units
Ghost chili..........1,001,034 Scoville units
That means it's about twice as hot as a habanero! But don't try to find this at your local supermarket. Last year they only exported about a ton of them. Since it's become recently famous, they hope to export about 10 tons this year, mostly dried or in a paste.
But new fields are being planted, and the Indian government is going to help the farmers to produce more. So soon we may be seeing the newly discovered pepper.
I bet it would make one hell of a bowl of Texas chili!
If it's hotter than the habanero, I pray I never meet one! I love hot and spicy that makes my nose run and causes beads of sweat when I eat but I don't want it so hot that I call an ambulance.
ReplyDeleteI would love to know how i can get some of that ghost pepper.
ReplyDeleteI love hot stuff.
Please let me know how can buy a big quantity because i eat it every single day on all kind of food.
I wish I knew BK. They are trying to increase production right now, but they only have a small amount to export at present.
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