Washington, United States

The Guinness World Record on Monday (Oct 16) crowned a new pepper as the world's hottest, Pepper X. 

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Ed Currie, the pepper expert crossbred and grew the pepper on his farm that broke the record of Carolina Reaper to become the hottest pepper in the world. It is three times hotter than Carolina Reaper.

Pepper X rated at an average of 2,693,000 Scoville Heat Units (SHU), as per the tests conducted by Winthrop University in South Carolina, US.

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In a video posted on First We Feast video, Currie said that he developed Pepper X years ago but didn't release it right away but kept it in his pocket in case any other Carolina Reaper growers released something hotter than it. When no one released anything, he brought Pepper X. 

"This is the culmination of a lot of work by a lot of people. People said it couldn't be done, they called us liars, and we proved to them that Pepper X is actually the hottest pepper in the world, officially from Guinness."

How was Pepper X created?

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Currie started growing hot peppers as a hobby and eventually moved to cultivate them full-time. The expert raised some 800 hot pepper plants, according to his website Puckerbutt Pepper Company, "in every inch of his home and the homes of family, friends and neighbours."

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Currie told First We Feast, "When we bred this pepper out, the first thing we looked for is something to raise that heat level to what we thought was going to be the maximum, and the second thing is flavour."

However, he said that one part of the development process was to hide it and people have been trying to steal it for years. 

In a press release, it was stated that pods and seeds of Pepper X won't be sold as it is a proprietary pepper. The only way to get a taste of it will be through Pepper X hot sauces. 

Currie is now working on his next potential hottest-pepper. 

(With inputs from agencies)

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