Trinidad Scorpion Butch T pepper
 Pots of Butch T Scorpion Peppers
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| Heat |  Exceptionally hot |
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| Scoville scale | 500,000-1,463,700 |
Butch T Scorpion pepper is a chili pepper that was formerly the most piquant pepper. It has been since replaced by the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion as the world's hottest pepper, from Trinidad and Tobago.[1] The pepper is a Capsicum chinense cultivar, derived from the Trinidad Scorpion, which is indigenous to Trinidad and Tobago.[2] It is named after Butch Taylor, the owner of Zydeco farms in Woodville/Crosby Mississippi & hot sauce company who is responsible for propagating the pepper's seeds.[3] The "scorpion" peppers are referred to as such because the pointed end of the pepper is said to resemble a scorpion's stinger.
World record[edit]
The Trinidad Scorpion Butch T variety pepper was for a short amount of time ranked as the most pungent ("hot") pepper in the world, according to Guinness World Records in 2011.[4][5] A laboratory test conducted in March 2011 measured a specimen of Scorpions at 1,463,700 Scoville heat units, officially ranking it the hottest pepper in the world at that time.[6] The pungency of a species of chili pepper can vary by up to a factor of 10 depending on the conditions under which the specimen grew. The secret to the heat, according to the creators, is fertilizing the soil with liquid runoff of a worm farm. According to the New Mexico State University's Chile Pepper Institute (the only international, non-profit scientific organization devoted to education and research related to Capsicum or chile peppers), the distinction of world's most piquant pepper currently belongs to the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion.[7]
The Scorpions are so hot that, in order to cook with it, the pepper's cultivators have to wear chemical masks and body suits, and reported feelings of numbness in their hands for more than two days afterwards. [8]
References[edit]
- Jump up ^ "International Business Times" Retrieved February 19, 2013
- Jump up ^ "ABC News" Retrieved February 19, 2013
- Jump up ^ "New Record Broken Again!" Retrieved April 14, 2011
- Jump up ^ "Hottest chili" at Guinness World Records retrieved May 26, 2012,
- Jump up ^ "Guinness World Records" Retrieved February 19, 2013
- Jump up ^ "Aussies grow world's hottest chilli" Retrieved April 14, 2011
- Jump up ^ "Chile Pepper Institute" Retrieved February 19, 2013
- Jump up ^ "Hottest Peppers In The World" Retrieved May 16, 2013
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