The first time Ed Currie tasted the Carolina Reaper, a fire-engine red chilli pepper the size of a golf ball, “it knocked me to my knees,” he says. “I was very surprised.”
Currie, 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. 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. Currie had heard they might be useful in treating cancer or heart disease (any solid proof of this remains elusive, though Currie is optimistic).
But capsaicinoids are also what makes chilli peppers hot. Of those compounds, capsaicin is the most common.
By packing his Carolina Reaper with capsaicinoids, Currie inadvertently concocted a very, very hot pepper. “When you bite into it, the initial taste is sweet. You go, wow, that wasn’t so bad. And then immediately, that vast amount of capsaicin takes over, and it’s kind of like eating molten lava. That’s the best way to put it,” Currie says.
The heat is so bad, it feels good — Currie says Reaper consumers sometimes experience something like a runner’s high. And the cooldown can take a little while — expect about half an hour before the heat sensation dissipates. (Currie, by the way, recommends citric acid — like lemon juice — to help ice the fire.)
