The Arms Race To Grow World's Hottest Pepper Goes Nuclear

'Please don't try this at home -- we are fully trained idiots.'

So went the disclaimer back in October 2010 as British pepper aficionado Leo Scott and his friend Lok Chi uploaded a video of themselves eating a new variety, the Naga Viper, developed by fellow grower Gerald Fowler. The warning was warranted as the two very experienced chiliheads sweated, writhed in pain and briefly lost the ability to speak after each chewing and swallowing one of the bright-red capsicums.

A month later, the Guinness Book of World Records certified what Mr. Scott found out the hard way: The Naga Viper was the hottest pepper ever grown, measuring 1.382 million Scoville Heat Units, the standard measure of heat. That is 225 times as hot as a jalapeno can sometimes be.

Unfortunately for Mr. Fowler, his record wouldn't stand for long. Four months later, the Naga was dethroned by the Trinidad Scorpion Butch T, the current record holder, at 1.464 million Scovilles.

'I was shocked,' says Mr. Scott, who lives near Bristol, England. 'You've got this global community of chili growers who are competing ruthlessly with each other.'

The Naga itself had just surpassed the Infinity Chili, which held the official record for a mere eight months.

Alex de Wit, who co-owns the Chilli Factory in Morisset, Australia, with his brother Marcel, is one of the evil geniuses behind the Butch T. The trick, besides some nifty breeding by Australia's Hippy Seed Co., is specially enriched soil. He says 'worm poop' is one of his secret weapons. He plans to submit to Guinness another batch of Butch T peppers being grown in tropical Queensland. He estimates that the more favorable growing conditions could add 10% to their potency.

Such one-upmanship raises the question of how many people can actually appreciate the march toward new heights of heat. Though he consumes chilis regularly, Mr. de Wit just once managed to eat half of one of his latest creations.

'After 800,000 Scoville units, you've got to be careful,' he warns. 'You'll pay the consequences -- you'll be on the floor for hours. We've had people go to the hospital.'

Luckily there is no record of anyone dying from eating peppers, according to Paul Bosland, head of New Mexico State University's Chile Pepper Institute, in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Known as 'the chileman,' Mr. Bosland deserves a large part of the credit for the current craze. Until the early 1990s, only two peppers had reached the 350,000 Scoville mark -- the habanero and the Scotch bonnet. A hybrid variety called the Red Savina Habanero claimed the Guinness crown in 1994 with 570,000 Scovilles. That was believed to be about the upper limit of hotness for more than a decade.

Then Mr. Bosland was told of the Bhut Jolokia, or ghost pepper, a variety grown in remote Assam, India, that was being studied by the Indian army for use in grenades. Skeptical, Mr. Bosland got some seeds and was astonished to find that the peppers he grew averaged more than one million Scovilles, as measured by high performance liquid chromatography.

'Once we did that, it kind of opened the floodgates,' he says.

Mr. Bosland claims to have broken the two million Scoville mark in February 2012 with his Trinidad Moruga Scorpion. That is the same strength as police-grade pepper spray -- a substance no sensible person would let travel through his digestive tract. Mr. Bosland hasn't yet submitted paperwork to Guinness for the official record, and his claim really burns up Mr. de Wit, who insists his pepper is still the hottest. Only chemical chromatography that measures several samples for their average level of capsaicin, the chemical that gives peppers their bite, can establish a record claim. But Mr. Scott, one of the few people on Earth who has tasted both varieties, says the Moruga Scorpion is clearly hotter.

'It was amazing,' he says. 'The heat was absolutely insane.'

Mr. Bosland says that new records are mainly of interest as publicity for purveyors of sauces, which he isn't. But sauce producers haven't bothered to wait for Mother Nature to deliver hotter concoctions by adding potent extracts. Mr. Scott's friend, Nick Moore, proprietor of Dr. Burnorium's Hot Sauce Emporium in Bristol, is about to launch one called Psycho Serum weighing in at a scorching 6.4 million Scovilles. He compares its kick to 'licking the surface of the sun.'

The undisputed king of the hot sauce world though is Blair Lazar, a New Jersey entrepreneur who achieved a Guinness record of 16 million Scovilles -- the scientific maximum. He required customers to sign a waiver before buying his 'Blair's 16 Million Reserve.' It consists of individual crystals of pure capsaicin produced in a laboratory.

Mr. Lazar started his business in 1989 when he was a bartender trying to clear out late-night stragglers. If they could eat wings doused with his original Death Sauce, they could stay. None could. But he says appreciation for spicy foods has grown immensely.

'When I started, no one knew what a habanero was -- now it's a flavor of Doritos,' he says. 'No one knew what a chipotle was -- now it's a fast-food chain.'

Interest in all things spicy has been further stoked by the recent string of records, says Mr. Moore. 'It all went a bit weird over the last 18 months or so,' he says.

Some of his customers -- mostly male -- visit his shop to buy sauces or dried chilis on a dare. But many regulars are hooked on the sensation they get after eating them. Because it activates pain receptors, capsaicin releases pleasure chemicals called endorphins. Messrs. Moore, Scott and Lazar all say they have hot sauce with every meal.

For a natural high, though, superhot chilis require unnatural care to process, because they are an irritant. 'Once you break them open, you have to be very, very careful,' says Mr. Bosland. 'We put on almost a hazmat suit -- full body coveralls, a breathing apparatus and a hat.'

And the arms race continues. With the rising interest, Mr. Scott expects to be sampling ever-hotter varieties in the future. 'At the moment, I don't see a limit,' he says.

1994年，一种名为“哈瓦那红色杀手辣椒”的杂交品种以57万史高维尔单位的辣度夺得了吉尼斯世界纪录的“辣椒王”桂冠。

特立尼达蝎子布奇T辣椒

辣椒界的王者之战

“请不要在家尝试──我们是经过专门训练的傻瓜。”

这是2010年10月两名英国的辣椒发烧友利奥•斯考特(Leo Scott)和洛克•奇(Lok Chi)上传的一段视频前面的警示声明。在视频中，两人吃一种名为“那伽毒蛇”(Naga Viper)的新品种辣椒，这种辣椒由他们的农夫朋友杰拉尔德•福勒(Gerald Fowler)培育而成。久经辣场的两人随后的表现充分证明了这一警告的真实性：在吃这些亮红色辣椒的时候，他们每嚼一口，每吞咽一次，都憋得大汗淋漓，身体因痛苦而扭曲，甚至一度失去说话的能力。

一个月后，吉尼斯世界纪录大全(Guinness Book of World Records)认证了斯考特本人用惨痛经历发现的真相：那伽毒蛇椒是当时全世界最辣的辣椒品种，其辣度达到了138.2万史高维尔单位(Scoville Heat Units，衡量辣度的标准单位)，是墨西哥胡椒(jalapeno)的225倍。

不幸的是，农夫福勒的纪录没能保持多久。四个月后，“特立尼达蝎子布奇T辣椒”(Trinidad Scorpion Butch T)就将英国那伽毒蛇椒拉下冠军宝座并保持至今，其辣度达到146.4万史高维尔单位。

住在英国布里斯托尔(Bristol)附近的斯考特说：“这个消息让我感到震惊。好像全世界的辣椒农夫们都在参与一场残酷无情的竞赛，争着培育出最辣的辣椒。”

英国那伽毒蛇椒的手下败将是英国“无限椒”(Infinity Chili)，后者保持最辣辣椒官方纪录的时间仅有八个月。

艾利克斯•德威特(Alex de Wit)与他弟弟马塞尔(Marcel)共同经营着澳大利亚莫里塞特(Morisset)的“辣椒工厂”(Chilli Factory)，他是促成特立尼达蝎子布奇T辣椒诞生的邪恶天才之一。这种辣椒的崛起，一方面离不开澳大利亚嬉皮士种子公司(Hippy Seed Co.)的精心培育，更重要的是一种“加料”的土壤。艾利克斯说，“蚯蚓粪便”是他的秘密武器之一；他还打算向吉尼斯再次提交一批生长在昆士兰州(Queensland)的特立尼达蝎子布奇T辣椒，并预测这种更适宜的热带气候能让其辣度再增加10%。

这种军备竞赛式的辣椒培育热潮不禁让人质疑，到底有多少人能够真正享受不断攀登辣度高峰的辣椒王。虽然艾利克斯也经常吃辣椒，但他只有一次勉强吃下了半只最新栽培的特立尼达蝎子布奇T。

艾利克斯警告说：“辣度超过80万史高维尔单位后，你就得很小心了。你会为此付出代价──比如在地上躺好几个小时，甚至有一些人被送进了医院。”

美国新墨西哥州立大学(New Mexico State University)辣椒研究院(Chile Pepper Institute)位于新墨西哥州的拉斯克鲁塞斯(Las Cruces)，被称为“辣椒人”的院长保罗•伯斯兰德(Paul Bosland)表示，幸好目前还没有人因吃辣椒而丧命。从很大程度上来说，伯斯兰德是如今这场辣椒竞赛的始作俑者之一。在20世纪90年代初之前，只有两种辣椒的辣度超过35万史高维尔单位，即“哈瓦那辣椒”(habanero)和“苏格兰斯科奇•伯纳特辣椒”(Scotch bonnet)。1994年，一种名为“哈瓦那红色杀手辣椒”(Red Savina Habanero)的杂交品种以57万史高维尔单位的辣度夺得了吉尼斯世界纪录的“辣椒王”桂冠。在此后十几年的时间里，这一辣度被视为难以逾越的巅峰。

后来，伯斯兰德得知印度阿萨姆省(Assam)的偏远地区有一种“鬼椒”(Bhut Jolokia)，印度军队正在研究这种辣椒用于研制手雷。将信将疑的伯斯兰德弄到了一些种子，他震惊地发现，根据高效液相色谱法的测量，他栽培出来的辣椒平均辣度超过100万史高维尔单位。

伯斯兰德说：“从这以后，辣椒王的激烈争夺就算拉开了帷幕。”

2012年2月，伯斯兰德宣布其培育出的“特立尼莫鲁加蝎子辣椒”(Trinidad Moruga Scorpion)突破200万史高维尔单位的辣度上限，达到警用辣椒喷雾的强度──稍有理智的人都不敢让这种物质通过自己的消化道。伯斯兰德还没来得及向吉尼斯提交申请官方纪录的书面文件，其声明就已让艾利克斯暴跳如雷，后者坚持认为他的“特立尼达蝎子布奇T辣椒”才是辣椒王。虽然只有通过化学色谱法测量辣椒样本中的辣椒素（一种让人感受到辣椒辣度的化学物质）平均含量才能确定谁是辣椒中的王者，但作为全世界寥寥几个同时尝过这两种辣椒的人，斯考特做出一个判断：“特立尼莫鲁加蝎子辣椒”明显更辣。

斯考特说：“特立尼莫鲁加蝎子辣椒太惊人了。其辣度绝对会让人发狂。”

伯斯兰德表示，新的辣度纪录主要受到辣酱供应商的关注，而他本人并非辣酱供应商。不过，制造商们并没有坐等大自然母亲的馈赠，而是通过添加高辣度的提取物来生产更辣的辣椒酱。斯考特的朋友尼克•摩尔(Nick Moore)是布里斯托尔市Dr. Burnorium's Hot Sauce Emporium公司的老板，他即将推出一款名为“Psycho Serum”的辣酱，其辣度达到了令人难以置信的640万史高维尔单位。摩尔形容吃这种辣酱就像是在“舔食太阳的表面”。

不过，无可争议的辣酱调制之王当属美国新泽西州的创业家布莱尔•拉扎尔(Blair Lazar)，他调制的辣酱创下了1600万史高维尔单位的吉尼斯世界纪录──堪称当前科技所能达到的顶峰。他要求顾客在购买其“布莱尔1600万精选”(Blair's 16 Million Reserve)辣酱前签署一份免责协议。这种辣酱中含有由实验室生产出来的纯辣椒素单晶体。

1989年，拉扎尔在做酒吧招待时发明了“死亡辣酱”(Death Sauce)，没想到大受欢迎，于是改行创办了一家辣酱公司。当时他的本意是想把三更半夜还呆在酒吧的客人撵走，于是就让他们吃蘸过这种辣酱的鸡翼，如果吃得下去就能继续呆着，结果无人可以。拉扎尔说，这些年来，人们对于辛辣食物的喜爱一发不可收拾。

拉扎尔说：“公司刚创建那会儿，没人听说过哈瓦那人辣椒，现在百事立体脆(Doritos)的一种口味就是这个名称。当时也没人知道烟味辣椒(chipotle)是什么，现在它已成了一家墨西哥连锁快餐店的名字。”

摩尔说，最近一连串辣椒王纪录的更迭进一步引发了人们对于辣味食物的兴趣。“这一热潮已持续了18个月以上，实在令人惊奇。”

摩尔的顾客大多是男性，往往是在与朋友打赌的情况下来买辣酱或干辣椒。不过，在品尝之后，许多人就此迷上这种味道，成了店里的常客。辣椒素会激发人体的痛觉受体，产生一种名为“内啡口”的能使人愉悦的化学物质。摩尔、斯考特和拉扎尔都表示，他们每顿饭都是无辣酱不欢。

天然的超辣辣椒在人工栽培时需要极其小心，因为它们都是极强的刺激物。伯斯兰德说：“一旦把辣椒掰开，你就得打起十二分的精神。我们穿上堪比防化服的套装──把全身都罩起来，还要戴上呼吸面罩和帽子。”

争当辣椒王的军备竞赛仍在继续，而斯考特对于品尝最辣辣椒品种的兴趣也有增无减。他说：说：“到目前为止，我还看不到止境。”