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Hottest Pepper
The world’s hottest pepper is constantly changing, evolving almost.
It seems every year a new pepper is either created or discovered so subscribe to our email list to be notified of new record breaking peppers!
PepperHead® has the most up-to-date list of the World’s Hottest Peppers.
Here at PepperHead® we have been growing these “super hots” for over 15 years and have grown and eaten every pepper on this list.
We are dedicated to providing you spicy lovers with the ability to grow all of these insanely spicy peppers in your own backyards.
Without further ado, here is our Top 10 Hottest Pepper List.
Top 10 Hottest Peppers In The World [2020 Update]
SHU = Scoville Heat Unit (A measure of Spiciness)
Pepper Scoville Scale displayed as Peak SHU Values
SHU is a way of quantifying how spicy a pepper is by measuring the concentration of capsaicinoids. Capsaicin is the chemical responsible for the spicy sensation within a pepper.
1. Carolina Reaper 2,200,000 SHU
The previous world champion, Carolina Reaper has been beat! by itself… The Carolina Reaper is once again officially the Worlds Hottest Pepper.
Originally ranked as world’s hottest in 2013, the Reaper was tested again in 2018 with an even higher SHU. (71,000 SHU higher to be exact) This gives the reaper a renewed title as World’s Hottest!
It was bred for heat and that it is, with an average SHU of 1,641,000 SHU and peaks at 2.2 Million SHU!
Let’s put the scoville rating into perspective for you:
The Carolina Reaper pepper is 200x hotter than a Jalapeno #WorldsHottestPepper
Just looking at it, you know its one mean pepper. The Carolina Reaper has a unique stinger tail that is unlike any other pepper. It gets this insane heat from being a cross between a Ghost Pepper and a Red Habanero.
Oddly enough this pepper doesn’t just have heat, but excellent fruity flavor to boot. Well, that is before it melts your face off.
Carolina Reaper Info
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Watch these Chicks eat The Carolina Reaper
10 Even more Hilarious Videos of The Carolina Reaper Challenge
Test your heat tolerance with the PepperHead Challenge! Eat a whole Carolina Reaper Pepper on camera and receive a FREE T-Shirt!
You can now buy the reaper as powder, live plants or seeds so you can grow your own plant and try for yourself.
2. Trinidad Moruga Scorpion 2,009,231 SHU
Straight from the depths of hell the Trinidad Scorpion Moruga Blend, AKA Moruga Scorpion, is a rare sought after pepper that was only just recently discovered.
Native to the lands of Moruga in Trinidad and Tobago. Once you take a bite of this formidable pepper the heat never stops building.
This pepper may be lacking the Reaper’s stinger, but don’t let that fool you. The Moruga Scorpion is every bit as hot as The Carolina Reaper.
Moruga Scorpion Info
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Watch Rhett & Link from Good Mythical Morning Eat the Moruga Scorpion
3. 7 Pot Douglah 1,853,936 SHU
Well renown in the pepper community as one of the hottest peppers with the best flavor.
The 7 Pot Douglah is the hottest pepper you can find that isn’t red.
The hottest “superhot” peppers are traditionally red, but the Douglah defies the odds by being brown AND scortching hot.
You can’t go wrong with fresh, dried, or powdered Douglah on any food.
Also known as 7 Pod Douglah, Chocolate 7 Pod or the 7 Pot Brown.
Read More
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4. 7 Pot Primo 1,469,000 SHU
The 7 Pot Primo is very distinctive with its long skinny “tail”.
This pepper was created by horticulturist Troy Primeaux.
Some peppers cultivators have tried to replicate the Primo look by breeding their own peppers to have a long stinger.
When you just look at this pepper, you know it’s going to be INSANELY hot. It coincidentally looks strikingly similar to The Carolina Reaper…
Read More$10.00 $8.95Add to cart
5. Trinidad Scorpion “Butch T” 1,463,700 SHU
The Trinidad Scorpion Butch T is a previous Guinness World Record Holder (2011) from Australia.
No doubt it’s insanely hot, but other peppers have been proven to be hotter.
It’s aptly named due to the scorpion stinger found at the tip of the pepper and also the creator, Butch Taylor.
The burn from this pepper is unlike any other.
Read MoreThe Trinidad Scorpion Butch T pepper burns like you swallowed a 1,000 suns.
$7.95Add to cart
6. Naga Viper 1,349,000 SHU
Naga Viper is an extremely rare pepper cultivated in the UK. Hybrid of many different peppers and years of cross pollination created this variety of “Super HOT” pepper.
It was never fully stabilized before being released so pod variation is expected.
Read More$9.95 $7.95Add to cart
7. Ghost Pepper (Bhut Jolokia) 1,041,427 SHU
The Ghost Pepper is the most famous “Super Hot” due to the amount of press it has received in the past.
It exploded in popularity on YouTube and other social sites where pepperheads ate whole Ghost Peppers as part of a challenge.
This is the first pepper to scientifically test over 1 million scovilles.
Many mistakenly believe the Ghost Pepper is still the World’s Hottest pepper, this list shows it is far from it.
This isn’t 2007. If you have friends that still think the Ghost Pepper is the hottest pepper, share this page with them.
However, don’t be fooled by how low this is on the list as it can still bring a grown man to his knees.
Ghost Pepper Info
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Kid swallows ghost pepper, instantly regrets it.
8. 7 Pot Barrackpore ~1,000,000 SHU
The 7 Pot Barrackpore is one of the hottest of the 7 Pot peppers.
This one is from the Town of Chaguanas in Trinidad and Tobago.
Many of these “super hots” come from this region.
Read More$7.95Add to cart
9. 7 Pot Red (Giant) ~1,000,000 SHU
The 7 pots were named after their ability to heat up 7 pots of stew and that it does! (other varieties include Jonah and Yellow)
$7.00 $5.95Add to cart
10. Red Savina Habanero 500,000 SHU
Back in the early years of super hots, the Red Savina Habanero was KING!
The Red Savina has since been dethroned and many peppers have passed it in heat.
The Red Savina just barely makes the Top 10, but does so in fashion with its great flavor and extreme heat.
Read More$7.00 $4.95Add to cart
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Honorable Mentions
Lets talk about some upcoming hybrid peppers that show promise. These two hot peppers will be added to the list once their validity has been confirmed.
Dragon’s Breath 2,483,584 SHU
There have been recent reports of a Dragon’s Breath pepper claiming to be hotter than the Carolina Reaper.
Preliminary testing of the Dragon’s Breath pepper pegs it at 2,483,584 SHU which would blow the Carolina Reaper out of the water.
It could be a publicity stunt in which the “news” websites ate up, even claiming Dragon’s Breath could kill you. Technically a pencil can kill you too…
$10.00 $8.95Read more
Pepper X
Pepper X is another pepper claiming to be TWICE as hot as the Carolina Reaper has surfaced, but this might have more merit. Very limited information is know about Pepper X as the creator has kept it under wraps
However, we will have to wait and see if Pepper X is real before adding to our Top 10 list.
Would like to know more about the dragons breath and pepper x.
Like to purchase the seeds
Always like to keep up with the ratings
Wow this was a great pepper to see and watch and grow and learn and love! My favorite pepper was the tic toc yelling boy gamer! He was eating a pepper that I liked to watch and see and grow and learn and watch and loved pepper! Wow wow wow wow wubzy!
Where is the Peruvian Death Pepper?
HI,
I JUST WANTED TO GET ON YOUR E-MAIL LIST. GREAT WEBSITE WITH REALLY COOL INFO. THANKS FOR YOUR TIME.
Also if the Pepper X is 2x as hot as the Reaper, WHY ISN’T IT NUMBER ONE!?!
At this point Pepper X is still a rumor, an unverified claim.
For a few months i thought the Scorpion pepper was the hottest pepper ever
you forgot the naga dorset ; is 1.5 million SHU
Inform me on pepper x availability
I see a lot of the top North American peppers on this list. I was just wondering how the Thai Pepper matches up on this heat scale. Thai peppers can be intensely hot but It feels like a different type of burn than many north American peppers. It doesn’t affect your lips as much but it’s quite intense on the tongue.
Sorry to inform you. Dragons breath was a sauce. It was a mixture of Bhut Jolokia and Habenero mix with spices.
Is your 1 oz of reaper pepper powder by volume or by weight?
1 oz by weight
Some of the comments below are funny. Listen, if you feel any heat at all from a jalepeno, then don’t claim to be able to eat C. Reapers. If you can eat a C. Reaper, then you are unable to detect heat on a jalepeno. I know cause if I am cooking, I have to have my wife taste the level of seasoning because if I can even _detect_ it, it’s too hot for everyone else.
My current daily use hot sauce is a Ghost Pepper sauce, it’s delicious. I am looking for a good but not expensive C. Reaper sauce. Haven’t found a food one yet. there are lots of $100 sauces out there but geez man, sco vile has no inherent value, it’s just another pepper man!!!
The Scoville scale does have inherent value. There is a scientific process to measuring the score. The fact that each person’s taste/tolerance/sensitivity varies does not mean the SHU are insignificant.
I love this list of hot peppers I should try them all
What about Pepper X or Dragon’s Breath Chile?
Can you tell me about normal peppers hottest power ?
I had a bite of a red Savina habenero I was sweating… =) try it see my pain and i was…5 now i’m 11
I spent 2 years in Korea and built up my tolerance of spicy hot food. Had not found anything hot enough in the States, until one day I was in a Rusty Taco where they had a basket of peppers out with a “take one free” sign. I popped one in my mouth and immediately the pain seared my throat, and I was gasping for air. My wife thought I was having a heart attack. I tried bread, milk, water, and only Sprite worked to tame that Ghost Pepper. I finally found something hotter than the Korean food.
You forgot the almighty scotch bonnet! Scorch yer guts out mate! lol
I wonder which one will be the next hottest pepper
Did you ever eat it
I’m a pepperhead; can’t operate without them!
Trying to leave my email so I can be notified when Dragons breath seeds are again available but it just goes on and on
easy I could do that in my sleep.
cool man.
Hottest chillies I’ve ever tried are the infamous Ghost Peppers. That was bad enough. These top 5 although scary, sound like a challenge. Can you actually buy them in Australia?
I do eat pickled Jalapenos with food, eg: on pizzas, all even on their own (sliced up), having acquired the taste back when I was a kid in Malaysia many years back now. Otherwise it’s just the standard small birdseye chillies. (we don’t tend to call them”peppers” in Australia)
Where does “Guntur Chilli” a widely known as very hot chilli pepper in India fits in > Any idea what is the SHU of It?
Ghost peppers are so spicy I ended up in the hospital
I make scorpion tacos 1 1/2 scorpion pepper and 2 jalapenos per lb of meat and then taco seasoning n garlic they are amazing
Just harvested Carolina Reapers, Moriga Scorpions, and Devils Tounges. Military grade Peppers.
Please try get more information on Pepper X, I can’t hardly believe there’s anything more than 2,000.000 Shu, and if true, because I have exterminated rats and mice with just a couple nibbles off of the ghost pepper, but WOW what amazing pepper that would be if twice the Caralina Reaper .
I’m going to plant a pepper patch next year and I’m going to make pepper sauce to go home made chilly.
Need some seeds from all types.
A master gardener I know, says pepper plants can be kept alive over winter, if in pots and restart them in late spring. This shortens the growing time. Has anyone tried this? I’m growing 2 scropions in 5 gal buckets and will give this a shot.
i used to eat them till i carried some in my back pocket and they broke and a small itch started on my rear, i scratched abit not knowing it was the pepper,it accelerated itchy, awound bruish emerged, sweet sweet i cried,when it could not go away,i discored it was the pepper, i laugh to date till tears roll when i remember how nice that was.
Have you ever heard of a chili called diavolito, and if so, how scu units is it, thank you
What about the Dragon’s Breath pepper from the U.K.? Not sure its hotter than the Reaper but it still should be top 2
Even after washing hands after dealing with all these peppers – don’t rub your eyes!!!
This is very true! Be very careful handling fresh or even dried superhot peppers. The oils are very difficult to remove from your hands, even with multiple hand washings.
When de-seeding these peppers we use two layers of chemical resistant nitrile gloves. After 1 hr of handling, the oils will penetrate the top glove and needs to be replaced. These peppers are no joke. Regular latex gloves do not provide enough protection.
Keep in touch ,this past summer I grew a dozen different kinds of peppers already but I just received my box of peppers from Amazon, and I am going start growing year round hydroponic, I know that I received at least 9 out of 10 hottest peppers already and I will graft a couple different ones, to find out what it takes to make a new even hotter pepper, I don’t mind sending you some of my extra pepper seeds, but the best seed is a fully ripe fruit, might be closer to the end of 2019 before I share.
Beyond me WHY would you even WANT to eat these hot peppers?? You only get burning heat with really no flavour cause you can’t get past the burning.
I mainly don’t eat peppers constantly but just in my chili and breakfast burritos, I have found that I have went from 260 lbs to nearly 200 lbs and I am disabled and don’t get much exercise, trust me it works ( but mainly hobby garden)
Some guy on a Facebook group claims he discovered the hottest new pepper called Pepper X at 3.18 million Scoville units. Verification?
I am an American living in s.Italy. They love hot peppers here. But I grow reapers and 7 pot chocolate. They will not touch them. Big babies. HaHa.
I don’t want a TShirt it’d be nice for 1-2 Carolina reapers and a Ghost pepper or 2 to make some killer chili I love that stuff.
My 11 year old ate som ghost pepper aioli from stonewall kitchen and was sweating for a half hour
I’m currently growing ghost peppers in my back yard; the biggest one just turned red, and it’s actually kind of beautiful. I’m too scared right now to eat it, or even touch it. Sure looks nice, though.
Pepper X?
My uncle tried the dregons breath pepper he couldn’t even take one bite the second the pepper touched his mouth he through the pepper across the room it was that spicy
i have ate a dragons breath pepper but i couldnt even feel the heat…. i wish i could for added flavor and i am 12 years old
Somewhere there is a vid of me eating a Butch T whole. Burned the hell outta me! Also had a sandwich challenge at a bbq joint…I’m in east Tennessee …with ghosts, habaneros, scorpions and another I cant remember. All the peppers has been soaked in some of Popcorn Sutton’s moonshine! Delicious and heartburn to the max! Allen Howell if Dixie BBQ gets the credit.
I have eaten from reaper, moruga scorpion, Douglah. The heat is massive but the trick is cut off small fragments of these chillies and eat it with a good portion of food ( great on hotdogs, burgers, melted cheese etc) this way you get to enjoy the flavor that is hidden beneath the burn. You will have to visit the toilet several times afterwards lol.
Love this site, hotter the better!
I bought 6 Bhut jlookia plants. One transformed into a different pepper plant. I suspect it is one of the plants that was bread into the Bhut jolokia, I am trying to identify it.
Love the top 10
I have the reaper, the Trinidad moruga scorpion, and the bhut jolokia ghost growing outdoors in an upside down planter and I can’t wait to feed them to my friends at the beginning of the school year. I did it last year with just the ghost and it was a lot of fun. We also made death wings with a pepper paste using the ghost peppers.
I make a Madras but swap out some of the more mild pepper for cayenne and the Carolina Reaper, traditional flavour ( recipe book is old and well regarded ) but with a modern mega punch! Seriously good curry. Better flavour than vindaloo or phal with heat that puts them both to shame. Of course you could just buy a jar of Madras and chuck in some reaper but I like being making from scratch, across several makes, the seperate spices work out much cheaper per meal
Do all Molokai peppers have seeds
I would like to see some of the known hotter peppers get tested. Chocolate bhutla DM, elysium oxide scotch bonnet, white hot peppers Leviathan Gnarly Scorpion to name a few.
What super hot pepper would you recommend growing in a short season area? I live in western New York.
We planted Carolina reaper, Trinidad Sporpion, Ghost, and habanero peppers, all in big pots. At the end of the season last year ( oct.. NY) we had tons of flowers but cold weather was closing in. We brought all the pepper pots in doors, w/o cutting back.. and to our surprise we had peppers ripening all winter! We took our plants outside in May and they are now 9 ft high and continue to produce beautiful peppers that we never stop pickling! Do we have an angel on our backs? Or is this normal? Trying to send pics
No one knows about the original taste of Naga vipers it’s superb hot and eating spicy is good for breathing.
I just received an excellent education on hot peppers! I have been making habanero & (recently) ghost pepper dill pickles & have grown to really, really enjoy them. I have also had a nibble of a ghost pepper. So I have experienced the super heat. I doubt that I could eat a whole ghost pepper straight up. However, I think I would like to try the hotter peppers, perhaps, in my home made dill pickle concoction. Thank you for the valuable & most interesting info…
I have tried the ghost pepper cheese and it is amazing. The cheese makes the pepper taste come out more to make it more spicier. It is so good I would recommend the ghost pepper.
Komodo Dragon
1.400,000 to 2.200,000 shu
Tried a Carolina reaper once, not nearly as hot as I thought it would be but still burned. Forgot to wash my hands then touched my nose, I could feel each and every pore on my face burn with the wrath of 10 suns
Great peppers
I got mine growing I’m not going to eat them but I got people that want to buy some so I told them I’ll grow them
I always look at the top 10 hottest peppers in the world. I’m planning on planting at least a couple plants of each of the top 10 this year as soon as I get my green house up.
Yo I love peppers but the hottest I tried is a habanero I look forward to trying the carolina reaper….Hopefully its really hot
I was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. My taste buds began craving spicey foods. I began eating 4 ghost peppers per day and to my doctors surprise the cancer is completely gone. Seven years now cancer free and I continue to eat 2 ghost peppers every morning and night.
Guys chill out!!! I personally can’t eat something with too much TONY’S
Great article! I picked up carolina reaper seeds this year since we had so many in between hot peppers and decided we’d just go all out burn your esophagus this year. I also picked up a curious pack of “apocalypse scorpions”, does anyone have any experience with these?
I’ve been growing Habaneros in N Texas since 1993 when 3-400,000 Scovilles was considered insane, and once had 60 plants. Getting older, I’ve cut back but I bought 2 Bhut Jolokias at Lowe’s[!] and have a few Carolina Reapers started from seed.
I’ve been canning them as a “mash” for about 15 years. De-stemmed pods, vinegar, and salt; then using a stick blender before canning. This decade I’ve gone to “mash”ing jalapenos as my friends’ aging guts get wimpier, canning up to 60 pints a year, but I still have 13 pounds of de-stemmed Habs in the freezer, in reserve.
One flavor trick that has my friends begging for those pints is smoking with mesquite. I de-stem the pods [with Jalapenos, cut in half lengthwise to expose more surface], and put them in dispo aluminum pans with holes cut in the bottom to allow more smoke to penetrate, and smoke them for up to a couple of hours with low heat, until the pods show signs of wrinkling and/or a glaze from the smoke; slower and glazed is better.
Mesquite smoking works for both jalapenos and hot pods alike to add wonderful flavor, far beyond that of the pods alone.
I have a plan to make the most delicious thing for a person with a hellava challenge. A mixture of the hottest peppers and whatever in the world. I’ll call it PROJECT:HELLFIRE or THE DEVIL’S WEAKNESS. It might so hot it would have me on watch by the FBI because it’s so life threatening.
I wish you sold fresh peppers, as I’m too impatient to wait for them to grow. Guess I’ll have to make due with flakes or powder, although a variety/ sampler pack with all the different flavors would be awesome. I’m looking forward to trying the red savina, and douglah
I too am not one with the hotness of the carolina reaper. Eating a quarter of it was enough for me to start crying it was so hot i wasnt litteraly crying my eyes starting watering if you can give me tips on how to fully consume that pepper
I’m 17 and I’d like to try a tiny bit of all of the peppers mentioned but I can’t eat a lot of extremely spices things so do you know what would “tone it down” a bit?
Hi so a Carolina reaper is really really really really really really hot and can burn your mouth.
I was wondering if a 12 year old could handle this.
i can i have eaten almost all of these peppers and cant feel heat
!!!
I am a wimp, I can’t even handle jalepeños.
My favorite is the orange habanero. It has a fruity flavor. I chop it up in small bits. Add it in different amounts to different foods.
I love spicy food. But what would be the most flavorful pepper?
I have had ghost pepper sauce and I am only 8 years old!
If you are going to put yourself through all that pain at least learn what neutralizes the pepper first. These peppers can cause life threatening conditions. Capisum is an oil, the natural neutralizer for this oil is betacarrotene. So you would have better luck using Carrot juice than milk, bread, cheese, butter or any other mythical remedy. Also if you can’t handle a habanero pepper what makes you think you are going to live through something ten times hotter.
I wish I can at least taste one of these peppers, my life will be complete lol
If u want one I’ll sell u one when mine come in
i can’t believe that pepper x is twice as hot as the Carolina reaper pepper so the pepper x heat unit is 4,400,000 SHU
Most people yell at me when I say this, but banana peppers are too sweet… and not spicy enough
🙂