Tag Archives: HP22B

2013’s New Hottest Pepper, The Carolina Reaper

pepper seedlings

Carloina Reaper Guinness Certificate

Sounds like Ed Currie finally got the heat validation he’s been looking for from Guinness for the Carolina Reaper. While as of this post the Guinness page is not yet updated Ed received an email that said in part:

“[w]e are delighted to confirm that you have successfully achieved a new GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS title for ’Hottest chili’. We would like to congratulate you on your record-breaking achievement. You are OFFICIALLY AMAZING. Your official GUINNESS WORLD RECORDS certificate confirming your world record is being created and will be sent to you within ten working days.”

With a Guinness-submitted 1,569,383 SHU (scoville heat units) average and recently measured peak levels of over 2,200,000 SHU, SMOKIN’ ED’S CAROLINA REAPER® has officially completed its long journey to the top of “super-hot” chili charts.

Congratulations to Ed and crew for the recognition. There’s been some controversy along the way so it’s nice to see everything playing out as Ed originally indicated that it would.

Discussion:

Carolina Reaper Confirmed World’s Hottest Pepper
NOVEMBER 2013 WE HAVE A NEW WORLDS HOTTEST PEPPER CAROLINA REAPER
Carolina Reaper!
Ed Currie’s Carolina Reaper Wins Guinness World Record as the Hottest Chile Pepper
The Carolina Reaper is the World’s Hottest Chile Pepper

Where to Buy Carolina Reaper Seeds

Until more people have grown the Carolina Reaper pepper there are only two reliable places to get Carolina Reaper pepper seeds as of this writing.

1. http://store.puckerbuttpeppercompany.com/smokin-eds-carolina-reaper/

2. www.pepperjoe.com (will update with actual link once Joe adds the reaper seeds to his site)

Seeds will officially go on sales on August 27, 2012 but I caught wind of a post that announced Ed’s letting some go early.

Save yourself a lot of aggravation and get seeds from one of these two sources. The Reaper seeds will show up on eBay and other places in no time…skip those sellers and get the real deal from Ed or Joe.

Interview with Ed Currie of Pucker Butt Pepper Company

The pepper community has been buzzing with news of the HP22B / Carolina Reaper. Ed Currie graciously shared his time with me and answered some questions about his background, growing operations and the soon to be very popular HP22B / Carolina Reaper pepper. Enjoy.

PepperSeed: How (and when) did you get started growing peppers?

Smokin’ Ed Currie: In the early eighties, 81-82, I started doing research on cancer and heart disease in college and discovered that the equatorial indigenous populations have extremely low indices of both. All around the world they have two things in common, rotting food due to the lack of electricity, heat, and humidity and peppers to mask the fact that the food is rotting. We know that the food borne bacterium will kill you, so I figured it must be the peppers. I went to a restaurant called the West/East and asked for the hottest viet dish they had and got hooked. I asked for seeds and they gave me a plant, told me it was a highland bird pepper. I still grow a new one every couple of years.

PepperSeed: Are you still involved in the research aspect of peppers / cancer / heart disease?

Smokin’ Ed Currie: Yes, very much so. I am working with researchers here in the Carolinas. We are supplying the higher scoville peppers and they are using emulsified product for testing. They are finding 4 major cancers are reacting favorably. I am living proof, since incorporating peppers into all of my meals, I am down almost 100 lbs and my doctor says I’ve never had better numbers or been healthier. No more cancers and the heart is great.

PepperSeed: 30 years of pepper growing, wow. In terms of growing peppers what would say are some of the most important things you have learned over that time and how has your growing operation changed?

Smokin’ Ed Currie: Really, what amazes me is that simplicity seems to produce the best product. I’ve gotten to the point in the past where I used thousands of dollars in equipment and supplies to sprout, heat, grow, protect, measure, feed, blah blah blah blah,, blah, blah, great huge greenhouses with fans and heat, tractors, workers, blah only to find out that the plants I did not attend to in the pots form last year did better every time. Ten years ago, I built simple greenhouses out of house renovation debris. I used them to breed peppers, with simple shop lights and a simple heater. quickly out to cold-frames, with trashcan radiant heaters, everything I use is either someone else’s trash, or discarded products from nurseries. I was able to raise enough seedlings to grow 1 acre, then 3, then 5, now 30 all out of a yard. We are planning for 100 acres next year, all recycled or used equipment will be used. The only new thing is going to be a well and pump.

PepperSeed: Wow 100 acres of peppers! How many pounds of peppers do you estimate that much acreage will produce? With that kind of scale I imagine you have a specific purpose or purposes in mind for your pods, what happens to the peppers you grow?

Smokin’ Ed Currie: Well, we have a lot of plans as far as the peppers go. It’s very hard to estimate how many pounds the yield will be. Last year we had huge hail damage, so I had to replant in June and didn’t really start harvesting until Sept. This year, my goal is to get 78000 mature plants and harvest the majority if them from June until Dec. Dependent upon the variety of HP, we harvested 40-100 pods, 3 times, so I am hoping to double that yield. We are planning to dedicate 20 % for seed/pod sales, 20% for the medical research we’ve obligated ourselves to, 20 % towards our perishable products , and the remainder to pepper mash for others. Now, between my team, the local university, my customers, and the media, we might make a dent in those numbers, making videos and contests and such, but not much.

PepperSeed: How is this year’s pepper crop looking? Any surprises?

Smokin’ Ed Currie: We have been harvesting from 7 of the 9 fields I use and all of the greenhouses. The crop is looking great. We have been getting anywhere between 20-30 baskets of HP pods a week, as well as other varieties. Some of the new peppers and older strains are reproducing and our pest ( birds, bugs, staff, lol) problems are @ 10 %. We had issues with the government and electric company about getting the wells in on the other two fields, but those are finally planted and we have at least 60,000 plants in the ground between the two. We’re going to try something interesting and see if we can keep them alive and producing all winter. The biggest surprise this year is how tall they are getting. The plants I overwintered in a test field have been trimmed down from 8-12 ft to 4 ft twice already and are back up that high again. They’re falling over. What a blessing that is.

PepperSeed: I’ve noticed an uptick in people coming to ThePepperSeed looking for information about the hp22b. I’ve tried to put some decent info together but had to take bits and pieces from various places. I would love to hear more from you about this pepper; where did the parent seed/plant come from, how long have you been growing it, does it appear to be stable and how did you come up with the name?

Smokin’ Ed Currie: I would love to share where I got the parents from. A lot of well respected members of the chilehead community (all have been involved for 15 or more years) have reached out and advised me against sharing the info, citing others will try to do the same, steal, or argue. I will say that they are Asian/Sub-Asian descent and both are HOT. Not trying to be all mysterious, I understand all the naysayers out there, but we are having tests done to squash the 7 pot/pod rumor mill. I have been growing most of the strains for 5-8 years, but there are some newer ones. I’ve also applied the process to other know peppers and have had great results, those plants are 3-5 year. I grow the parents of each strain in separate greenhouses and we are able to get multiple generations per year. We are showing @ 80 % pod stability on almost all, so, by my standards they are stable. If you look at the blogs and facebook pages, there are literally hundreds of different looking peppers being called morugas, butch T’s, 7 pot/pod whatever’s. We are looking for stability and commonality in pods. One hot sauce maker told me he ordered 150,000 moruga seeds, knowing that only @ 5% would be “true”. That’s horrible. The coding is simple, I am a man of faith, I have a set of morals and values that I try to follow to the best of my ability, part of that is giving all the Honor and Glory to the God of my understanding. When I restarted this research @ 12 years ago, the pots were simply labeled P for pepper, T for tomatoes, B for broccoli , A for Anise, and G for garlic. These are the veggies I am studying. When, 8 years ago, we had two years of pod reproduction and the peppers was making everyone who tried it vomit or get high, I changed it to HP ( Higher Power) to acknowledge the gift from God. There were about 6 or 8 of us there when I named this one HP22B. The 22 is for the pot number, B was the variety denoting shape/size/color/ and what I’ve come to find out is called a stinger. It’s the first one we ever tested.

PepperSeed: I’ve read that you have been using what I consider some pretty solid testing methodology. How have you gone about having the hp22b peppers tested for heat?

Smokin’ Ed Currie: We are using HPLC for testing Scoville and a huge magnet thing a ma bob
(if you wait till I get to the college, I’ll get you the real name). I think what makes our testing different from others, is that we do the following: first we freeze dry a random sampling of peppers ( @ 5-10 lbs). We use whole peppers ( the stem, the cap, and the fruit) as opposed to most of the prior research, that only uses the fruit. My/our reasoning is that in other food testing’s we have found, the standard in ACOA is the WHOLE, not just the part that will give the best results. It seemed like bad science to us to take out the part of the pepper that had little or no capsaicinoids. After crushing/grinding the dried pods, a random sample of that is taken and run thru the HPLC. We repeat this sample a number of times and get a statistical average, that is the info we use. The testing is in its 5th year now and we’ve tested each generation or have freeze dried pods ready for testing ( the last two years worth). Fall of 2010 we achieved an average of 1,474,000 and we have not released the official data on 2011 and 2012 that we have yet. I would like to get everything done for each year before doing so. Let me say, there are mentors I trust in the chile community, have been advising me to release the data on the high readings and some individual peppers we did, we have reference samples available for retesting also, but I am in prayer as to if we should do this or not. I really do not want to get into a prideful battle with a few egos ( notice please I did not say egomaniacs, my ego can swell a great as anyone’s) over who’s is bigger. We’ll let science be science and hopefully we achieve the goal of the project.

PepperSeed: That’s awesome Ed. I really enjoyed learning more about your background, growing operations and the HP22B / Carolina Reaper. Thank you for taking the time to share with myself and my readers. Is there anything you would like to add in closing?

Smokin’ Ed Currie: Please also know that I have brought a team together, to do the things I am too busy to do. My wife and I would like to get the money we’ve got into it back, and we would like to fund endowments and community projects if possible, but that is all a result of God’s plan, not mine. I could have never imagined the things that have happened, the people who I have met and partnered with, or the friendships that have developed in my wildest dreams. I take no credit for any of this, it is a GIFT, pure and simple.

Thanks again Ed for your time and dedication to all things pepper. Anyone wishing to reach Ed should visit http://puckerbuttpeppercompany.com.

The Carolina Reaper aka HP22B Pepper

According to recent comments by Pepper Joe the Carolina Reaper, also known as the HP22B, will be announced via press releases on Labor Day 2012. The Carolina Reaper was grown / created by Ed Currie.

Carolina Reaper seeds
will go on sale that day and according to Joe Puckerbutt Pepper Company and Pepper Joe’s will be the exclusive seed vendors.

Since news of the Carolina Reaper (named via a contest) first broke there have been some interesting discussions, skepticism and disagreements. Everything from testing methods to lineage has been questioned and the scrutiny was heightened given the timing of some of the discussions was right on the heels on the moruga scorpion claiming to have set new heat records.

Since I last posted about the Carolina Reaper / HP22B a few other people have given them a try.

http://youtu.be/Wp2s7k56dfc

Lastly, here are links to other articles and discussions about the Carolina Reaper / HP22B pepper. Enjoy!

HP22B Information
Is the HP22B the new hottest pepper in the world?
HP22B and Primo
Michigan Chris eats HP22B
Smokin’ Ed Talks Peppers With Chili Heads
hp22b!
HP22B AKA the Carolina Reaper Pepper New rolls out
Interview With Ed Currie of Pucker Butt Pepper Company
Where to Buy Carolina Reaper Seeds
Is locally grown “Carolina Reaper” the world’s hottest pepper?
Carolina Reaper
HP22B alias Carolina Reaper next World Hottest Chili?
World’s Hottest Chile Pepper? – HP22B Edition
Pepper Joe Claims a New Hottest Pepper is Coming
The World’s HOTTEST Pepper: Smokin’ Ed’s Carolina Reaper
Press Release : The PuckerButt Pepper Company Announces the World’s Hottest Pepper
Review of the HP22B Chile Pepper AKA Carolina Reaper, a Contender for the Hottest Chile Pepper in the World
Carolina Reaper (HP22B) Community Grow
New Hottest Chile…Carolina Reaper?

HP22B, The World’s Next Hottest Pepper?

Ed Currie claims or perhaps claimed the the HP22B Pepper (HP22B stands for higher power, pot number 22, plant B) is the worlds hottest pepper. At the time of this article Ed claimed that he had numerous samples of the HP22PB tested and they are were coming in between 1.375 to 1.474 million scoville units. It appears that Cliff Calloway, a chemistry professor at Winthrop University was involved in the testing.

While this is “old” news it was recently resurfaced when Pepper Joe claimed to know people who were going to announce a new worlds hottest pepper. This caught a lot of people in the hobby/industry off guard as most have assumed that the moruga scorpion would be the next pepper to wear the Guinness crown for world’s hottest pepper.

Jim Duffy, recent spokesman for the moruga scorpion, takes issue with all of this. In a recent post on the THP he says:

“After following this thread and now hearing about the origin of this pepper I will chime in with my thoughts and some facts. First to clarify some things for Macksack331. Initial application was filed by NMSU for Moruga but will not be fully submitted until after peer review by Hort Science magazine and publishing by Hort Science magazine. This can take weeks or months as I have been told because these are scientists and don’t just rush things along. I want to say that there are some very knowledgeable people on this forum. Some of you do have a science background and some of you do know your Botany. So lets look at the facts that surround this new pepper. First of all is it truly a new variety??? The answer is no. Now before you debate me on this let me define scientifically or Horticulturally what a new variety is. A new variety is stable and you can save seeds from it and grow it out year after year and get the same variety. It takes at least 7 generations or seasons to do this. Does not matter if it is Squash or Peppers. Primo who created the 7 Pot Primo now has a stable strain. The Habalokia which has been around a little while is stable. These guys say they have been working on this for 5 years. My guess is the first few years is playing around with crossing and then testing for heat. Then once you find out what you have you breed that for 7 generations. So the time period tells me there is no new strain. So why would anyone want seeds of something not yet true??

My second observation is this. Environment cannot make a new pepper. Maybe over thousands of years environment can affect genetics but not in a few years. The people involved in this project say they used certain techniques to stress the peppers. This will only afftect that particular season and will have no bearing on future seasons grown from future seeds. So why would anyone want seeds?? The Chile Pepper Institute grew their test plots with normal farming just like green chiles. True a New Mexico summer will be hotter than a Northeast summer so there will be higher ratings for peppers grown there. But at least there was no deliberate stress from a nutrient regimen. And if this hybrid pepper chemically stressed does got so hot just imagine using these guys stressing techniques on a Douglah? Moruga? or Butch T? How hot would they turn out?? Of course it behooves everyone involved in this South Carolina study to create a new pepper. Just like Frank Garcia you become exclusive and patent and Trademark and make as much as you can. I am not against making money but do these guys have a Primo and are they calling it something new so it can be their exclusive rights pepper?? I leave that up to all of you to think about. These guys say they have a higher mean average over 3 years. They say they are using stressing techniques. So all that is proven is that their stressing techniques gave them higher tests. Wake up everyone! It does not mean they have a hotter pepper. It just means they can make a pepper test rate hotter! Again stressing is not going to create a hotter pepper for future growing! But Joe and his friends know this and are hoping you dont look at these facts and spend your money. One more time folks stressing and environment will not genetically make a hotter pepper variety!!! Thats why the Institute does not do this. They grew in a clay field with limited nutrients. The Chile Pepper Institute is non profit. A graduate student ran this last study for his Thesis. Whether Guinness rubber stamps it I do not care. But at least the Moruga is a real variety and not a made up one. And at least it was grown like any other pepper. What I see is a well laid out plan by some businessman to make a lot of money off the unsuspecting General Public who wont know squat about Botany 101 or Scoville testing.”

Jim also goes on to say:

“I just find this hard to swallow. If they assembled a team 5 yrs ago then they cannot have a new variety. Because they would at least spend a few seasons crossing to get their potential hottest. Then upon finding that out go about making it stable. Unless of course there never was any crossing at all and they took an existing variety and used feeding techniques to stress it which does not create a new pepper at all. This sounds so much like the Naga Viper. Bosland’s group submits all their stuff to other scientists for peer review. So I wonder if these guys would too. Then again if they did call this a new variety that would be false and it would not be submittable on that basis alone.

One other thing I find funny. These guys plan to release hot sauces with this new pepper to make lots of money. I find that hilarious. Why? Because I know most of the sucessful sauce makers and sucess in the sauce business is limited. Most everyone I know has a day job except Dave, Blair and CaJohn. So just because you have a gimmick ie Hottest Pepper you will not be catapulted to sucess. Sucess in the sauce business is many, many years of hard work. Lots of wholesale customers (CaJohn’s business is 85% wholesale), and a product line that has great tasting products to get repeat sales. When the Bhut Jolokia got fame it did not make any individual sauce maker have great sucess. So any new pepper won’t either. And calling your Company PuckerButt won’t get you on mainsteam grocery shelves either. Having the Hottest pepper sauce does not do it all. Blair and Dave started with extract sauces in the beginning when people were looking for hotter than habanero. Now Blair makes so much money selling spicy snacks to the Asian market and Dave makes Gourmet cooking sauces and that is where they turned the corner. John has spent over 15 yrs to get where he is. And talking to him the other day He said if he knew going in it would be this hard he would not do it over again. I really don’t see PuckerButt or Joe making even a small fortune with this so called hottest pepper. Just sayin……”

Edit: March 28
I have yet to see Ed respond directly anywhere outside of his Facebook page but wanted to pull some of his clarifying comments into this post.

Feb 10 (Facebook comment from Ed in response to the moruga scorpion news)

“Sorry we’ve been gone for awhile, getting the seedlings going and planning out the farms. Looks like were expanding 5 x at least, WOW. The good doctor and I sent Guinness the final report with the stats on the lab equiptment. There are lots of claims out there, what makes us different is we are using a weighted average over four years now. The low range is 1.275 mil the highs are secret now ( just incase we have to play the who’s hotter game). Well over 200 lbs of hp22bs have been tested, awesome statistic, proper scientific process, and superior analysis. If they don’t give it to us, we’re publishing here in the US. Thanks for all the support and God Bless.”

Feb 17 (Facebook comment from Ed in response to the moruga scorpion news)

“K, the title has not been awarded. If you read the actual report, they’re saying one of the peppers was that hot, but the sample was average of 1.2 MILLION. Also, no back up data of retest is avaliable. We have a three year average of @1.5 MILLION. The data to back it up, and we will only show the averages. We gave hotter, yes
Is it good science to go with only that, no.”

March 22 (Facebook comment in response to claims about the cost to apply ($30,000) to Guinness World’s Records)

“The total they sent me was almost that, after the FX rate. When I figured out 19000 was the adjudicators fee, I decided we didn’t need it. the good Dr sent testing methods and lab calibrations to them last week to finish what they requested. The record would be cool, but I just like what I’m doing. Thanks again. Hope all is well”

March 21 (Facebook response to questions about averages vs highs being used for hottest pepper records)

“My understanding from reading the press releases, was that one pepper rated that scoville and the average of the test ( 10 peppers if I remember correctly) was 1.200,000. That would mean 9 of 10 were under a million. I congradulate CPI and the Morouga, Wishing them the best of luck on the future years of testing, but I’m following a different AAOC scientific method. We only publish averages for pounds of peppers over multiple years. If we are going to start publishing one off ratings instead of averages, I guess it;s time to start pulling out the high numbers. I did ask the Proffessor to get the highs and lows on this years testing ( @ 50 lbs of peppers submitted), so we’ll see. But I honestly don’t know if I’m will to start that game.”

I’ve also read a lot of speculation that the HP22B is just a 7 pot Primo being given a different name.

The article I linked to earlier indicates that Ed may hold a contest for the naming rights to this pepper. While unconfirmed Pepper Joe appears to be working with Ed and has started a contest for naming the HP22B pepper. According to info Joe posted he threw a few names for the pepper at the guys and they liked them so Joe has contest going collecting more names and I believe is giving away some free seeds. See for yourself.

In closing here’s a video of a guy trying the HP22B, the “next hottest pepper in the world”…

http://youtu.be/yw984sDocaU

My $$$ is still on the 7 pot douglah being recognized by Guinness as the world’s next hottest pepper.