New Hottest Hot Pepper

There's a new record for the hottest chili pepper:

Researchers at New Mexico State University have discovered the world’s hottest chili pepper. It's called the Bhut Jolokia, a variety originating in Assam, India.

In tests that yield Scoville heat units (SHUs), the Bhut Jolokia reached 1 million SHUs, almost double the SHUs of former hotshot Red Savina (a type of habanero pepper), which measured a mere 577,000. The result was announced today by the American Society for Horticultural Science.

Let's put this in perspective. A jalapeno's Scoville rating is 2500-5000 depending upon the strain. The Bhut Jolokia is 200 times hotter than that. It's twice as hot as a Red Savina, and it's in the range of many extracts.

Military grade pepper spray is about 500,000 Scovilles. The civilian stuff is 100,00 Scovilles.

It's odd that this was grown in India since, while Indian food is hot, it's not hyper hot. The hottest food I've had in India was Thai food.

This reminds me of an old joke. The sun is 27M degrees F at it's core. If you bite into one of these peppers, you'll get an effect that is half as hot as that!

I wonder which vendor will be first to bottle a sauce based upon this pepper?