| Trinidad Scorpion Pepper "Butch T" | |||||||
| Species: | Capsicum chinense | ||||||
| Breeder: | Butch Taylor | ||||||
| Hybrid: | Trinidad scorpion | ||||||
| Origin: | Crosby, Mississippi | ||||||
| Module: |
| ||||||
The Trinidad Scorpion Butch T is a Capsicum chinense cultivar that is among the hottest peppers in the world.[1] It is a hybrid pepper and thus not indigenous to anywhere; however, its hybrid parentage is derived from the Trinidad Moruga scorpion indigenous to Trinidad and Tobago.[2] It was named by Neil Smith from The Hippy Seed Company,[3] after he got the seeds originally from Butch Taylor (the owner of Zydeco Farms in Woodville/Crosby, Mississippi, and a hot sauce company) who is responsible for propagating the pepper's seeds.[4] The "scorpion" peppers are referred to as such because the pointed end of the pepper is said to resemble a scorpion's stinger.
The Trinidad scorpion 'Butch T' pepper was, for three years, ranked the most pungent ("hot") pepper in the world according to Guinness World Records.[5] [6] A laboratory test conducted in March 2011 measured a specimen at 1,463,700 Scoville heat units, officially ranking it the hottest pepper in the world at the time. One possible secret to the chili's heat, according to a cultivator of the pepper, is fertilizing the soil with the liquid runoff of a worm farm.[7] In August 2017, Guinness World Records recognized the Carolina Reaper as the hottest pepper in the world, at 1,641,183 SHU.