The more of a capsaicinoid there is, the more light that gets absorbed, and the greater the signal from the detector.īased on the strength of those signals, chemists can determine the concentration of each capsaicinoid, and from there, calculate the pepper’s Scoville value-that is, its heat level. The HPLC is also equipped with a detector that measures the amount of UV light absorbed by each capsaicinoid. They used a high-performance liquid chromatography system, or HPLC, a chemical process that can separate the capsaicinoid compounds from other substances in the pepper. Then he worked with Calloway and his students at Winthrop to test and analyze the pepper’s heat value.
(Currie, by the way, recommends citric acid-e.g., lemon juice-to help ice the fire.)Ĭurrie first cultivated the Carolina Reaper in 2004, crossing a Naga pepper from Pakistan with an habanero pepper from the island of St. And the cooldown can take a little while-expect about half an hour before the heat sensation dissipates. The heat is so bad, it feels good-Currie says Reaper consumers sometimes experience something like a runner’s high.
That’s the best way to put it,” Currie says. And then immediately, that vast amount of capsaicin takes over, and it’s kind of like eating molten lava. “When you bite into it, the initial taste is sweet. “So even though it’s not really a chemical burn, like getting burned by a match or a flame or anything like that, your nerve cells get the signal from the capsaicin ‘key’ to make them think that they’re getting burned,” says Calloway.īy packing his Carolina Reaper with capsaicinoids, Currie inadvertently concocted a very, very hot pepper. “It kind of fits into these little nerve cells in your tongue,” he explains, and when that happens, you perceive the sensation of heat. Of those compounds, capsaicin is the most common.Ĭliff Calloway, a chemistry professor at Winthrop University in South Carolina, says the capsaicin molecule looks like a key, with a round end and a tail coming out of it, and acts like one, too. His initial aim was to produce a pepper packed with capsaicinoids, a family of compounds that has been used in pharmaceuticals such as arthritis creams, and that Currie had heard might be useful in treating cancer or heart disease (any solid proof of this remains elusive, though Currie is optimistic).īut capsaicinoids are also what make chili peppers hot. “I was very surprised.”Ĭurrie, who’s the founder of the PuckerButt Pepper Company and cultivator of the Carolina Reaper, says he wasn’t trying to create the hottest pepper in the world.
The first time Ed Currie tasted the Carolina Reaper, a fire-engine red chili pepper the size of a golf ball, “it knocked me to my knees,” he says. Ed Currie named these peppers “Carolina Reapers” for the sickle-like tails that stick out the ends.
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