We're not sure where this will all end, but we fear it won't end for some time.
We're speaking of the quest for bragging rights to the world's hottest pepper...and it appears the Aussies are currently taking the heat.
The spice level in a pepper is established using the Scoville heat unit (SHU), which measures the amount of capsaicin therein. The hottest strain of chili, the Trinidad Scorpion Butch T (left), is being cultivated on a farm in New South Wales and the Scoville results are now in.
To put this in perspective, a banana pepper contains an average of 250 Scoville units; a jalapeno averages 5000; the Scotch Bonnet, 100,000-300,000; the trending Bhut Jolokia (aka ghost chili) packs about 1,000,000 units. The current chart-topper had been the Naga Viper chile, at 1.38 million units, but the Aussies' Butch T just clocked in at 1.46 million.
Is it possible to even describe such heat? Neil Smith of the Hippy Seed Company (the folks who brought that chili to Australia) equates it "to applying a soldering iron to his tongue and throat." John Figueroa, owner of Figuero's in St. Charles (the area's premier source for the hottest in hot sauces) says this type of pepper "causes your mouth to go completely numb. Someone could drive a nail through your tongue and you'd never feel the pain." Colorful guys, these pepperheads.
A sauce containing 58% Butch T, called the Scorpion Strike, will be introduced in Australia next week at the 2011 Sydney Royal Easter Show. But Figueroa says it may be awhile before we see any of that here: "We've received nothing yet containing the Viper, and it took almost a year to get anything that contained ghost peppers." Interestingly, Figueroa makes customers sign a disclaimer before handing over any of his 19 hottest pepper sauces. "They have to be 21 as well," he adds. "Young kids want these sauces to play tricks on people...they don't realize how serious this stuff is."
While waiting for that Butch T sauce to come in, the brave, foolish, and curious can warm up at the Pearl Cafe, a NoCo Thai restaurant whose Spicy Level 25 Plus Club, a hot foods competition of sorts, is starting to generate some major steam. "You cannot even get started in the club until you have consumed a dish that ranks on Pearl's spice level five," says SLM Food & Drink contributor but don't-you-dare-call-him-a-foodie Bill Burge, who also notes that "a level five is like a sauce picante to me but is hot as hell to others, like my wife, who can hardly handle a two."
From there, potential club members ratchet their way up the spice levels, working toward a 25 (at which point they are officially "in the club"), then usually advance in increments of 25, to a level 50 (where ghost peppers make their appearance), then 75, and eventually to 100. You must proceed in order--skipping a level is not allowed. Apparently there are only six members in the level 100 club, and another six that have failed.
Burge has successfully negotiated level 50 and plans to attempt the 75 "but only on a Friday." Umm, alrighty then. Moving on, the reward for all that misery is seeing one's perspiration-soaked face posted on Pearl's Facebook page.
Now if we were in Thailand, we'd be kicking off the three-day New Year's celebration known as Songkran that begins today. But since we're not, Relish may just head up to Pearl Cafe and start it off with a bang...level 5, please.
