Gerald Fowler's Naga Viper has turned his greenhouse into a chili lover's dream. He's grown a chili pepper with a world record-setting Scoville rating of 1,359,000 units.
Gerald Fowler's Naga Viper is part of his job. He runs the Chilli Pepper Company out of Cumbria, England. If you think an Englishman growing world record chili peppers is strange, you don't know England's taste for Indian cuisine.
To put the Naga Viper that's placed Gerald Fowler into the record books into perspective, that 1,359,000 Scoville unit rating is 270 times hotter than a jalapeno. It also tops the old record-holding chili pepper, the Ghost Pepper, according to the Daily Mail.
The Scoville rating on peppers like Gerald Fowler's Naga Viper rates the amount of capsaicin in the plant. Bell peppers have virtually none. Wikipedia says the can of pepper spray carried by a police officer has a Scoville rating of 5 million. So you can imagine the burn on Fowler's chili pepper.
Gerald Fowler developed the Naga Viper by cross-breeding three other very hot chili peppers. He used the Ghost Pepper (Bhut Joloika), Naga Morichi, and Trinidad Scorpion varieties to top the capsaicin charts.
Fowler had his Naga Viper peppers tested by nearby Warwick University experts. One hopes they wore gloves the entire time and washed the equipment really well afterward!
The Guinness Book of World Records approached Fowler to get his Naga Viper into their 2012 edition. And you can bet Gerald Fowler's eaten his own creation.
The Daily Mail also quoted Fowler as saying, "[The Naga Viper]'s hot enough to strip paint. It numbs your tongue, then burns all the way down... but it's a marvelous endorphin rush." Wonder if he's got that thrill-seeking gene?
Gerald Fowler grew to love peppers like the Naga Viper after his father brought home a pepper plant to grow. It became his full-time career five years ago. Now he has a world record to add to his achievements.
And would you eat Gerald Fowler's Naga Viper, either straight or in food? How do you think it'd taste?
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