The world's hottest chilli has been found in Britain.
Hailing from Lincolnshire in the east of England, the Infinity chilli is so spicy it comes with a health warning.
Measuring 1.17 million on the Scoville Scale - an official measure of spicy heat - it has beaten the previous Guinness Book of Records title holder, the Bhut Jolokia from India.
Nick Woods, 39, grew the chilli by accident and said it tasted "nice" at first but then he "felt physically sick" once the full heat of it hit him.
He said: "The effect is delayed. Then it hit me. All of a sudden I felt it burning in the back of my throat, so hot that I couldn't speak."
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The Bhut Jolokia (Assamese: ভূত জলকীয়া; Bangla: নাগা মরিচ; Transliteration: naga morich), as it is commonly known—also known variously by other names (see etymology section below) in its native region, sometimes Naga Jolokia—is a chili pepper recognized by Guinness World Records as the third hottest pepper in the world. The pepper is typically called the ghost chili or ghost pepper by U.S. media.
The Bhut Jolokia is an interspecific hybrid from the Assam region of northeastern India and parts of neighbouring Bangladesh. It grows in the Indian states of Assam, Nagaland and Manipur, and the Sylhet region of Bangladesh. It can also be found in rural Sri Lanka where it is known as Nai Mirris (cobra chili). There was initially some confusion and disagreement about whether the Bhut was a Capsicum frutescensor a Capsicum chinense pepper, but DNA tests showed it to be an interspecies hybrid, mostly C. chinense with some C. frutescens genes.
In 2007, Guinness World Records certified the Bhut Jolokia as the world's hottest chili pepper, 401.5 times hotter than Tabasco sauce. On December 3, 2010, the Bhut Jolokia was replaced as the hottest known chili pepper by the Naga Viper, which has an average peak Scoville rating more than 300,000 points higher than an average Bhut Jolokia - but still not higher than the hottest ever recorded Dorset Naga. In February 2011, Guinness World Records awarded the title of "World's Hottest Chilli" to the Infinity chilli grown in Grantham, England. This chilli rates at 1,067,286 units on the Scoville scale. Currently these figures are highly controversial among the pepper growing community and tests with more rigorous scientific standards are yet to be conducted on the many various peppers vying for "world's hottest" status.
Etymology
The pepper is called different names in different regions. An article in the Asian Age newspaper stated that experts in Assam are worried about a distortion of the colloquial nomenclature of "Bhot" to "bhut", saying that this word was misinterpreted by the (Western) media to mean "ghost". The article stated that people living north of the Brahmaputra River call the pepper "Bhot jolokia", "Bhot" meaning "of Bhotiya origin", or something that has come from the hills of adjoining Bhutan; on the southern bank of the river Brahmaputra, this chili becomes Naga jolokia, believed to have originated from the hills of Nagaland. An alternative source for Naga jolokia is that the name originates from the ferocious Naga warriors who once inhabited Nagaland. Further complicating matters, a 2009 paper, published in the Asian Agri-History journal, coined the English term "Naga king chili" and stated that the most common Indian (Assamese) usage is bhoot jolokia, which refers to the chili's large pod size, and gives the alternate common name as bih jolokia (bih means "poison" in Assamese, denoting the plant's heat). The assertion that bhut (bhoot) means "ghost" is claimed by researchers from the New Mexico State University, but as in the article from the Asian Age, denied by Indian researchers from Nagaland University. The Assamese word "jolokia" simply means the Capsicum pepper. The chili is also known as Naga morich in Bangladesh (morich meaning "pepper"). Other usages on the subcontinent are saga jolokia, Indian mystery chili, and Indian rough chili (after the chili's rough skin). It has also been called the Tezpur chili after the Assamese city of Tezpur. In Manipur, the chili is called umorok, or oo-morok (oo = "tree", morok = "chili").
The final Curious © phrase:
“If the waitress has dirty ankles, the chili should be good”
(Al McGuire)
