Hot commodity: ‘Superhot’ searches for world’s hottest pepper
From director Brian Skope (“Ranch to Table,” 2021), “Superhot: The Spicy World of Pepper People” premieres Monday, Jan. 22, on Hulu.
This limited, 10-episode docuseries brings the heat, narrated by funnyman Ben Schwartz (“Parks and Recreation”), who takes viewers on a quest for the spiciest of spices. “‘Superhot’ is a wild ride into the Spicy World of Pepper People — the self-proclaimed chili heads who have taken the chili pill and want to find out how deep the rabbit hole goes,” Hulu describes.
“This 10-part series goes deep into a subculture fueled by spice: from the elite growers who strive to create new superhots to the chili eaters who chase the endorphin rush of consuming them. Along the way, one legendary chili head sets out on a quest to answer the spiciest of questions.” The platform asks: “is there a pepper that can challenge the world’s hottest?”
“Pepperheads” will know that the Carolina Reaper held this spicy title for years, only to be recently dethroned by the tongue-burning chili Pepper X for 2023’s Guinness World Records. According to the records, the Reaper pepper clocked in at 1.64 million Scoville heat units — SHU, a measurement of the pungency or “spiciness” of a pepper’s heat — while this new, green, bell-shaped pepper boasted an impressively hot 2.69 million SHU.
Developed by American chemist Wilbur Scoville in 1912, this measurement — the Scoville scale — aims to classify the concentration of capsaicinoids, which are said to cause the heat that comes off peppers. While subjective, Scoville’s scale is derived from the average capsaicinoid sensitivity people experience while eating specific hot chilis. The average jalapeno pepper, for example, scores an average between 3,000 and 8,000 on the Scoville scale, meaning this new pepper is almost 900 times hotter than its more common cousin.
Both the Carolina Reaper and Pepper X were grown by Puckerbutt Pepper Company founder Ed Currie on his farm in South Carolina. According to an article published by CNN: “Ed cultivated Pepper X on his farm for over 10 years, cross-breeding it with some of his hottest peppers to increase its capsaicin content.”
Whether it remains the highest mark on Scoville’s scale — well, “Superhot” plans to find out.
From paprika to jalapeno poppers, to Currie’s Pepper X, explore a world of explosive flavor when all 10 episodes of “Superhot: The Spicy World of Pepper People” make their streaming debut Monday, Jan. 22, on Hulu.