Ouch! The world’s hottest chilli pepper is to go on sale at Tesco

The eye-watering Carolina Reaper is so hot, it can’t be eaten raw
The Caroline Reaper chilli pepper
Tesco
Liz Connor19 July 2016

Shoppers looking to spice up their meals might want to head to Tesco this week, as a new chilli pepper will go on sale tomorrow, which the supermarket claims is the hottest in the world.

The Carolina Reaper pepper measures up to a blistering 1.5 million Scovilles in the Guinness Book of Records - the official scale used to asses chillies’ heat - while a recent independent test has seen that number rise to an unbelievable 2.2 million Scovilles.

In comparison, the very hot Scotch Bonnet is rated as up to a 350,000 Scovilles, while a regular Jalapeno is just 3500.

It’s so hot in fact, that Tesco is advising its customers that it mustn’t be eaten raw, and that only a tiny sliver is needed when cooking.

The side effects of overindulging on a Carolina Reaper include severe heartburn, stomach cramps and a nasty case of diarrhoea.

But don’t let that put you off, last year Tesco began selling the Komodo Dragon chilli pepper, which has a heat level of 1.4 million Scovilles and quickly became the supermarket’s best selling chilli.

It is now hoping that the Carolina Reaper will overtake it in popularity.

Heat scale: the Carolina Reaper is 'excrutiating' on the scale (Picture: Tesco)

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."

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The chilli is being grown in Blunham, Bedfordshire by the UK’s largest producer of chillies, Salvatore Genovese. Genovese grows around one million peppers each week for UK supermarkets.

Fancy giving it a go? The eye-watering chilli peppers will go on sale tomorrow at selected Tesco branches.

However, you might want to stock up on a few pints of milk before you step up to the challenge.

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