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I can't believe this. I know, right? It's very inspiring.
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Every time I hang out, like I love seeing you, but I also don't like it. Did you do that?
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Did you invent that, Pepper? Yeah. Why?
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Hey, what's going on, everybody?
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For First We Feast, I'm Sean Evans, and it's a special day.
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We have a murderer's row of spicy food legends, and we're here to explore the sick, twisted, and wonderful world of Pepper X, now officially the hottest pepper in the entire world.
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And I'm joined by a few guys who need no introduction to OG Hot Ones fans.
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We have the founder of Heatonist, Noah Chaimberg, in the building, and Smokin' Ed Currie, the sick, twisted mind behind Pepper X, and of course, the owner of PuckerButt Pepper Company.
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Noah, Ed, welcome back to set. Thank you for having us.
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So, Ed, I want to start with you.
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Hot Ones fans, they've seen me on the show regaling guests with stories about your war chest.
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You know, the seeds that you have locked away, the peppers that you have locked away for a rainy day.
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Whenever someone decides to challenge your pepper supremacy, was Pepper X one of those peppers?
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Like, is it something that's been in the war chest for a decade plus?
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Well, you know, we stabilized it a while ago, and it's been in the war chest for about a decade now, and we've just been waiting to take it out, but no one's been able to take us out.
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So, I decided to bring it out to the world.
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Can you take me through the science of Pepper X?
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Like, when you create something like this, what's the culinary experience that you're trying to create?
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When I'm trying to create a new pepper, I start with the capsaicinoids that are in the peppers.
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Everybody knows the three major ones, but the minor ones are the ones that really bring it up.
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So, first thing I look for is peppers that have those minors.
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You can make something really, really hot, but if it tastes like crap, can't do anything with it.
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So, the second thing is looking for flavor.
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So, when we bred this pepper out, first thing we looked for is something to raise that heat level to what we thought was going to be the maximum.
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And the second thing was the flavor.
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No, I don't know if you've seen a couple episodes so far into season 22 trying this experience sauce on Wing 10.
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It really is a lot heavier.
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You know, I can get that kind of head high when something's hot enough.
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Why do you think the sauce is the perfect vehicle for the pepper?
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So you see on the front of the label on every bottle it says over 91% Pepper X is because it's just Pepper X in three forms.
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The pure pepper, the dried pepper, and the distillate of the pepper along with some vinegar.
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Really with that we didn't want to mask anything.
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We wanted the pepper to come through full steam ahead and it just travels up the back of your brain.
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It's all coming back to me.
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A lot of people have compared it to a come up. It's It is. Yeah.
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Yeah, it's a different experience than just eating something really hot. It's much more cerebral.
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And true to form today, you're flanked by lawyers.
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I saw someone with a suitcase handcuffed to their wrist.
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They've got Pepper X inside of the suitcase.
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Why is growing super hot peppers, why is it so high stakes?
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We literally people have been trying to steal it for the last 10 years.
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Uh, there's also some, you know, some high corporations who want to take what's not theirs and they're willing to pay other people to do it.
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So, you know, we have to protect ourselves cuz this is our pepper and we are going to just take the world out with it.
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I'm ready to have so much fun with this thing.
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I'm a little excited, man.
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All right, this is a question for both of you.
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How do you unpack the difference between, you know, Apollo, Carolina Reaper, Pepper X?
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What sort of culinary purpose does it serve, you think?
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The Apollo pepper, for me, I don't know how you guys react to the Apollo sauce.
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Well, I see how you react.
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But, uh, uh, you get that burn in the front and then you get that delayed reaction of, oh no, what's going on here?
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You know, what's it And it kind of pours people towards the flight response instead of the fight response.
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Uh and then they get really scared.
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And I like the way the people look when they they get really scared from eating my hot sauce, you know? It's just a lot of fun.
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For me, it's about the way that we experience them, right? It's the taste.
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So, with Carolina Reaper being super floral, it lends itself a lot more to fruity flavors versus Pepper X, which is a lot earthier and duskier almost.
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And then the other thing that I love is how dramatic the names are.
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Pepper X, Apollo, the Carolina Reaper.
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Can you talk me through what goes into naming a pepper?
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When we do it at home, we just get high as a kite eating peppers and start throwing out names.
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I mean, that's that's the god's honest truth. We sit around a table.
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I get the whole team together. I feed them stuff.
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I said, "Ed, what's the pepper called?
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We're going to make the label."
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And Ed said, "The lawyers aren't done with the trademarks and everything yet."
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I said, "Okay, we're just going to write down Pepper X as a placeholder for now." Mhm.
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And in the end, the lawyers didn't get their job done in time.
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So, we went to print with it saying Pepper X.
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And we had to And we had And we had to change all the registration for it.
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It cost me more money cuz lawyers cost a lot of money.
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From time to time in the show, I've tried my best to explain the Scoville scale.
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And I'm not so sure that I do it justice.
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Now that I have the experts in front of me, can you talk me through what goes into making a pepper or hot sauce, where it falls in terms of heat on the Scoville scale, and then what goes into defining record-breaking heat?
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When they made the Scoville scale, it's essentially how much water you dilute uh to not taste any pepper.
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And then it used to be subjective.
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Each one of us is going to be different if we put a jalapeño on here, how much water we have to dilute it in.
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Now, it's done with chemistry. We use an HPLC.
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Okay, when you get into the millions, you're talking roller skate to space shuttle.
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You you they're two totally different animals.
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When you're trying to get that into a sauce, it's more about the flavor and the experience, not the Scoville.
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Because there's a dilution factor that happens when you use anything else besides the pepper.
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And it's other people that are like, oh, I ate three Carolina Reapers.
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I ate 5 million Scoville. No, you ate 1.
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6 million Scoville if you have an average size Reaper.
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It's the Scoville does not compound.
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Well, that's actually a rather poetic segue because I have a surprise for you today.
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We have a representative from Guinness World Records here today to present you with the plaque for creating the world's spiciest pepper.
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Please welcome to set esteemed Guinness World Records adjudicator Andy Glass. Hey Andy.
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Ed, we have independently verified the Scoville heat units of Pepper X and I'm pleased to report that we've confirmed an average rate of 2,693,000 Scoville heat units.
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It's a new Guinness World Records title for the hottest pepper. Thank you, Andy. Congratulations.
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You're officially amazing.
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Let's make some noise here. LOOK AT THIS.
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I CAN see you got goosebumps on your arm.
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This feels like such a a moment to share with you, Ed.
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What does it mean to add another banner to the rafters?
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You know, it took it took a team to get all This is a culmination of a lot of work by a lot of people.
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People said it couldn't be done.
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They called us liars and we proved to them that Pepper X is actually the hottest pepper in the world, officially from Guinness.
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All the time and effort that we put in at the farm to make sure this got stabilized and became the hottest pepper in the world is now validated.
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All the risks that you guys took in putting out the last dab and continuing to put out dabs is now validated.
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And I just I can't tell you how excited I am right now.
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I really just want to run laps around the building.
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Well, before you do that, we're all happy for you.
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We're all very proud of you.
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Andy, thank you Yes, thank you. Congratulations, Andy.
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to Andy obviously and all of us here.
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And thank you, Guinness World Records.
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We've taken the Pepper X deep dive today, but now it's time to do two things.
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Number one, we got to give the people what they want.
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Somebody has got to eat this thing.
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And number two, it ain't going to be me.
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But, we have flown in one of my favorite people in the entire world, my spice brother-in-arms.
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One of my favorite people whenever I see him, I just melt on the inside.
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He brings such happiness to my heart, and I know for OG Hot Ones fans, he does to you as well.
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Please welcome to set my Danish brother, Chili Klaus. Yeah. Good to see you, too. Good to see you, too. How are you doing, man? Wow, that's it. Thank you. Hey, brother.
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A great honor for me to be here celebrating the new world's hottest pepper measuring 2. 693 million.
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Klaus, we've eaten Reapers together on a few occasions, very memorable experiences.
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What's going through your head as you prepare to take on Pepper X?
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Are you nervous right now? Of course, I'm nervous.
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The Reaper officially was measured to 1. 642 million.
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So, this is a million more than But, that scale's logarithmic, so it's it's more like three times hotter than a Reaper. All right.
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Well, maybe in situations like this, the less that we know the better. Victoria.
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Can we bring on the peppers? Here they come. We got two here.
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I couldn't totally leave you hanging.
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I had them make me a sliver.
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This is the first time I've seen the pepper X. I just smelled it.
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It almost smells kind of fresh. Yeah.
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You know, and that's kind you know, it has a a freshness to it.
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It smells like like the skin of a a tangerine or something. Yeah, exactly.
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It's got a real citrus tone to it when you eat it.
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This is how we use them in the mash. Okay.
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So, it's not quite mature.
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I'm not going to hurt you, Claus. I love you Ed. All right. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers.
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This is Claus, you're the first person in the whole wide world to eat a whole pepper X besides me.
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Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You're ready? Yeah, I'm ready. Cheers. Cheers. All right.
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Right away, the um the freshness of that goes away almost immediately, Noah.
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And then um just that violent and ever-growing um thing that is somehow making my face tighter.
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Like the skin of my face feels tighter. To my head. Yeah.
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You look like you just came from the spa. I feel.
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My chest is the tight part. Ed, oh my god. I am flashing back now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
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I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm So, every time I hang out with you, it's this, you know?
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Every time I hang out like I love seeing you, but I also don't like it. It's very spicy. It is. It's very spicy.
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What do you think of the flavor Claus? I love the flavor.
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I think there's some oak in it. And pencil. Yeah, pencil. Yeah, yeah. Pencil around here. Holy.
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Even though I don't look it, I'm feeling just like Claus is feeling. Oh.
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These guys are right now feeling there's an intense burn that happens immediately.
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Uh and then your head kind of feels like, "Oh, no. What's going on?" I'm sorry.
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And then your body just starts reacting. You get it in your arms.
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You get it in your chest.
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It has no real throat burn like the reaper, but that comes on later when you're in pain.
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I'm getting throat burn, actually.
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I'm in I got a little bit of a tear in my eye. I'm in heat. Having? I'm in heat. Oh, no. Claus is breeding. In heat. In heat what?
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I'm on the edge of my seat.
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I'm on the edge of my seat, Chili. Oh, I'm I'm done. Oh, man. Thank you very much. YEAH, YEAH, YEAH. WELL, YOU KNOW WHAT?
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AFTER WATCHING THIS, if you would still like to test yourself against Pepper X, I got good news for you.
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The Last Dab experience is available at heatonist. com. That's heatonist. com. That's heatonist.
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com to get your hands on the world Guinness World Record holding Pepper X used in the Last Dab experience.
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Be careful around your eyes, Chili.
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Let's snap it into the credits, baby. Read my arms. See you. I'm out. It continues. Yes, it does. About 2 hours. tagline.
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But what you are saying is his eyes.
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He looks like he's tripping balls. I love you, Ed. I love you, too, Klaus. I love you, Ed. Did you do that?
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Did you invent that, Pepper? Yeah. Why?
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I'd like to thank the Academy.
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Do I look just like Taylor Swift? A young Taylor Swift. Yeah. Shake, shake it off. I'm in heat.