- I'm always working on new pepper breeds and have one even hotter than Pepper X.
- I'm not chasing records, though. I enjoy the challenge of making a hot pepper that tastes good.
- I closely guard my pepper creations. Some fields where I grow are kept at top-secret locations.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with pepper farmer and founder of PuckerButt Pepper Company, Ed Currie. Currie created the Carolina Reaper, which first broke the Guinness World Record for hottest pepper in 2013 and held that title until 2023, when another of Ed's creations, Pepper X, took the new title. It has been edited for length and clarity.
We grow peppers across many secret farms in South Carolina.
It takes eight to 10 years to create a new pepper, and there are always new pepper breeds I'm working on.
People think I'm chasing records. I'm not. I like the challenge of making a pepper hot that also tastes good.
Needless to say, we keep security tight around here. All of us are armed, including the pickers.
A while back, one guy claimed to have stolen some Pepper X, but he was standing in the middle of a jalapeño and habanero field. So we knew it wasn't Pepper X. He got in a lot of trouble, though.
Since then, we haven't had issues with thieves but there are other threats like coyotes and copperheads. We've got to be prepared. I don't know if you've ever seen a coyote, but they don't like humans too much.
To anyone who wants to steal my hottest peppers, I say, you'll never find them. Those fields are kept top secret.
How we grow the hottest peppers in the world
We're in a subtropical zone with ideal conditions: great soil, long growing seasons, and regular rain. I breed peppers with various techniques, one is crossbreeding with simple paintbrushes.
I take a flower from one plant, brush it with the paintbrush to collect its pollen, and then transfer that pollen to another flower on another plant. Then I remove all the other flowers I haven't cross-pollinated, so only the cross gets to fruit.
Maybe out of say 200 plants, you might get 20 that produce a fruit that is viable for you to go on with. And then what might reach maturity is maybe 10 of those.
We don't use synthetic chemicals, our pest control strategy is bugs. I buy ladybugs, green lacewings, and praying mantises every year and release them in the field. They do a better job than any chemical.
The real pests are deer who eat the pepper plants. One year, we lost over 30,000 plants in a weekend to a herd of deer. We now build fences around our crops, which helps keep them out.
Hurricanes can also be an issue. One field had eight feet of water over it after a hurricane. We lost the majority of our crop in that field, but still had a lot more plants to replenish it.
This isn't just a business for me
I was a drunk and a drug addict until 1999. So really, for over a decade, my life was just finding how to make more money to do more drinking and more drugging.
I'm in recovery from addiction, and I truly believe peppers helped save me and stay clean. Hot peppers can release endorphins and dopamine in the body, so it kind of takes the edge off that craving.
In fact, we're working with doctors to explore peppers in opiate detox. A tummy ache is better than a methadone dependency.
I start every day with pepper oil in my coffee. Then, I'll head to my pepper farms and taste peppers there all day. It's a regular part of my diet.
We already have a new pepper that has enough data to beat Pepper X, but I want three more years of data before releasing it. I don't want any controversy when it comes out. We also have one that's coming in hotter than that, and we just started the data on that one, so it's going to be five to seven more years before we release that one.
Going hotter isn't just about the heat, it's about economies of scale.
We only sell about 2% of our peppers whole; the rest we turn into mash, powder, or sauce that can be added to hot sauce recipes. So, if you're using 55 gallons of habanero mash to heat something up, I can do the same with five gallons of Carolina reaper, or one gallon of Pepper X. So I get more bang for my buck.
This story was adapted from Ed Currie's interview for Business Insider's series "Big Business." Learn more about Currie and the hot pepper businesses in the video below:
