If you keep your bog roll in the fridge, then this is for you

**harrybarracuda** · 17-02-2012, 08:53 PM

Red hot chilli pepper Scorpion is so potent it burns through testers’ gloves

Officially the hottest chilli in the world, its name alone is scary enough – and that’s before you see what the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion chilli can do to a pair of gloves.

The effects a chilli has...
It stunned testers by burning through their protective latex gloves.
‘That has never happened to me before,’ admitted researcher Danise Coon, who measured capsaicinoids –chemicals which give chillies their heat – for New Mexico State University Chile Pepper Institute.

The golf ball-sized pepper Scorpion was measured at a sweat-inducing, tear-generating, mouth-on-fire 1.2million Scoville units – a scale developed to measure chilli heat by pharmacist Wilbur Scoville in 1912.

‘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,’ said the institute’s director, Paul Bosland, who was brave enough to take a bite.

The Scorpion’s new notoriety is making waves in the industry and among those who love their food very, very hot.

‘As with all the previous record holders, there will be a run on seeds and plants,’ said Jim Duffy, a grower in San Diego, who supplied the university with seeds for four of the super-hot varieties. He admitted he wouldn’t dare pop an entire Trinidad Moruga Scorpion in his mouth but claimed plenty of people had filmed themselves doing so – and posted the videos on the internet.

‘People actually get a crack-like rush. I know the people who will eat the hottest stuff to get this rush but they’ve got to go through the pain,’ he added.

The title of world’s hottest chilli is a fiercely disputed one and the institute was asked by the US government, hot sauce makers, seed growers and others in the spicy foods industry to pin down the record.

‘The question was, could the Chilli Pepper Institute establish the benchmark for chilli heat?’ said Mr Bosland.

‘Chilli 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.’

Read more: Red hot chilli pepper Scorpion is so potent it burns through testers’ gloves | Metro.co.uk

**Cujo** · 17-02-2012, 09:12 PM

What some people call a bell pepper, I call a capsicum apparently.
Personally I like a few scovill units.

**buriramboy** · 17-02-2012, 09:15 PM

**Gerbil** · 17-02-2012, 09:56 PM

Pah!

I snort pepper spray as a hangover cure.

**Cujo** · 17-02-2012, 10:38 PM

Ever see that bit where that guy snorted wasabi? (forget the show/movie, but I'll remember as soon as I hit submit but I'm not coming back to edit.)

**Rural Surin** · 17-02-2012, 11:19 PM

Originally Posted by Koojo

What some people call a bell pepper, I call a capsicum apparently.
Personally I like a few scovill units.

I've always been a bit suspicious of this Scovil measurement and the fabricated standards.

**Cujo** · 17-02-2012, 11:21 PM

Originally Posted by Rural Surin

Originally Posted by Koojo

What some people call a bell pepper, I call a capsicum apparently.
Personally I like a few scovill units.

I've always been a bit suspicious of this Scovil measurement and the fabricated standards.

Why?
What do you mean by 'fabricated standards'
Evidence of 'fabricated standards'

**sabang** · 17-02-2012, 11:44 PM

My wife cottoned on to some ornamental chilli's when we were living in Adelaide ('don't eat them', we were warned). Apart from growing like wildfire, they were a perfectly decent substitute for the ubiquitous Thai mouseshit chilli, although hotter.

Chilli is good, but this new age obsession about the most scoville units is arrant bullshit- there is a lot more to chilli than that. Next thing you know Monsanto will muscle in on the act, and all the varieties of chilli we have now will be reduced to two or three GM varieties, with their scoville rating printed on the polythene wrapper.

**Rural Surin** · 18-02-2012, 12:13 AM

Originally Posted by Koojo

Originally Posted by Rural Surin

Originally Posted by Koojo

What some people call a bell pepper, I call a capsicum apparently.
Personally I like a few scovill units.

I've always been a bit suspicious of this Scovil measurement and the fabricated standards.

Why?
What do you mean by 'fabricated standards'
Evidence of 'fabricated standards'

As there are no firm absolutes.
How can one use such a non-scientific model as a universal standard?

What might be hot for one [or some], might not be so for the next. Reactions are different in every situation.

So...how does one [rate numerically] derive to any such conclusions?

Doesn't anyone question the obvious anymore. Or do most just accept what is thrown at them through officialdom.

**hazz** · 18-02-2012, 01:36 AM

Given that the Scoville scale in a measure of the concentration of capsaicin in a chilli, then I guess you must regard most measurement scales as manufactured, like temperature, mass, BMI, meters..... and therefore suspect.

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