Top 5 Hottest Chillies in the World

“Variety’s the spice of life, That gives it all its flavor”, the poet William Cowper once said, obviously never having had his tongue completely burnt off by the relentless fire of a Ghost Pepper. Sure, a little spice here and there makes all the difference, but today we’re going to take it up a notch or two. Or 3 million. You might like some Jalepenos on your Hot and Spicy Pizza, but have you ever tried one of the hottest chillies in the world? Let’s investigate, Delivery Hero style…

Rocking the Scoville

At some point humans decided that we needed a more scientific scale for measuring spicy heat than “Yeah it’s kind of burning my tongue” and “Pass me the f******n milk!!!”. Thankfully, an American pharmacist named Wilbur Scoville devised a method that managed to measure the level of capsaicin in parts per million, known as Scoville Heat Units. You can think of capsaicin as a unit of heat that produces a burning sensation in any tissue it comes into contact with. A mild Jalepeno has a Scoville rating of 1,000 – 1,500 units. Chipotle comes in at around 5,000 – 8,000, and the hottest Tabasco peppers rank at around 30,000 to 50,000. The Ghost Pepper has a Scoville Heat Unit rating of 800,000 to 1,000,000, and that’s not even the hottest. Oh yeah, capsaicin is also the active ingredient in pepper spray. *Here’s a helpful hint – don’t use it as a condiment on your Chicken Wings like this guy:

The World’s Hottest Chillies

So – here we go, a countdown of the world’s top 5 hottest chillies, along with video of some poor wretched soul awesome guy trying each one:) Please keep in mind: DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME unless you are going to film it and put it on Youtube for our amusement.

Number Five Hottest Chilli – Dorset Naga – Scoville Heat Units (SHU): 660,000 to 1,032,000

Dorset Naga is a subspecies of the original Naga species from Bangladesh. It tastes like pain mixed with burny hurt, as you can probably tell from this video;)

Choice Video Quote: “It’s heatin’ up, ay”

Number Four Hottest Chilli – Naga Jolokia (Ghost Pepper) – SHU: 800,000 – 1,041,000

Although it has since been surpassed by other chillies, the Ghost Pepper is perhaps the most well-known chilli in the world after Tabasco and Jalepenos. This thing is not playing around, and watching ‘Chuck from the Bronx’ ingest raw flames adds to the fun.

Choice Video Quote: “It’s like Purgatory in my mouth”

Number Three Hottest Chilli – Infinity – SHU: 800,000 – 1,067,000

The Infinity pepper has been made into a whole range of sauces that are sure to make dinner really fun, but for the real deal you’ve got to watch this guy give it the full analysis.

Choice Video Quote “It feels like I swallowed molten lead”

Number Two Hottest Chilli – Naga Viper – SHU: 800,000 – 1,382,000

The Naga Viper is the Grim Reaper in chilli form. The previous chillies were child’s play compared to them. As proof, here we have a professional chilli taster basically explode on camera, with tragic hilarious results.

Choice Video Quote “Oh! It’s in my eyes“

Number One Hottest Chilli in the World – Trinidad Scorpion – SHU: 900,000 – 1,463,000

Congratulations to New South Wale’s own ‘The Chilli Factory’ for creating the hottest chilli in the world – the Trinidad Scorpion Butch T! This chilli is apparently so hot that the creators wear protective gear to handle it, but of course that doesn’t mean that someone didn’t have a go at handling it with his mouth. Enter “Ted, the Fire-Breathing Idiot”…

Choice Video Quote “I can’t swallow the saliva, it burns so bad!”

So there you go guys, next time it seems as though your Thai Red Chicken Curry is a little spicy, think of Chuck from the Bronx eating a Ghost Pepper:)

What’s the hottest thing you’ve ever eaten? Have you tried any of the chillies on this list? How much would someone have to pay you to eat a Trinidad Scorpion? Let us know in the comments!