Some like it hot. Some like it extra hot. Some just don't know what they're in for! The Carolina Reaper, the world's hottest chilli pepper, is now being exclusively stocked at Tesco with the chilli now being commercially grown in the UK for the first time ever. And it's on sale now!
Lovers of extreme hot food – you have been warned! If you thought Tesco's notorious Komodo Dragon chilli pepper, launched last year, was spicy then just wait until you try the Carolina Reaper. It's officially the hottest chilli pepper in the world according to the Guinness Book Of Records, measuring an average 1.5 million Scoville units*.
However another independent test is reported to have recorded the heat level of the Carolina Reaper – which is being commercially grown in Bedfordshire - at an incredible, mouth numbing 2.2 million Scovilles.
To give some idea of the phenomenal heat – it is scaled at being more than 400 times hotter than a jalapeno, the chilli pepper commonly used on spicy take away or supermarket made pizzas.
Tesco chilli pepper buyer Phoebe Burgess said: "The Carolina Reaper is absolute meltdown material – it's one for absolute hot food connoisseurs. Despite it being astonishingly hot it also has a wonderful fruity taste. Only a sliver is needed to add exciting flavour to your favourite curry.
“Last year the Komodo Dragon became our most popular chilli pepper ever and since then we've been inundated with requests from customers to see if we could go one better and thanks to the fantastic growing skills of our chilli producer we've done that."
The Carolina Reaper is being grown by the UK's largest producer of chilli peppers, Salvatore Genovese whose seven acre farm is based in Blunham, Bedfordshire. Chilli peppers have become so popular that Salvatore now grows about one million, or 15 tonnes, each week just to satisfy UK demand.
Tried one? Let us know on Twitter @thefoodpeople