Growing the World’s Spiciest Peppers: 9 Varieties to Plant This Year
If you love heat, these daredevil peppers might be for you. Ornamental in the edible landscape and on the plate, spicy peppers bring unmatched flavor and punch. While the profiles vary, there’s no missing the high Scoville units for the spiciest pepper varieties available. Gardening expert Katherine Rowe explores the hottest of the hot to add kick to the collection this summer.
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Peppers are an easy summertime reward, with each plant producing numerous fruits as temperatures warm. From sweet and mild to robust and fiery, the nightshades run the gamut of flavor and spice. The ornamental fruits are colorful on the stem and harvestable at any stage, even when green, to change up the taste.
The heat within peppers comes from the compound capsaicin, a well-adapted plant defense that’s an irritant to pests and anything that may graze the fruits. The heat index to measure peppers is the Scoville Scale, though climate, temperature, soil type, and growing location all have a bearing on individual heat. Scoville heat units (SHU) measure the capsaicin in a pepper. Invented by Wilbur Scoville in 1912, it’s a range measure of how hot a pepper tastes.
Whether enjoying them fresh, roasted, stir-fried, dried, or in homemade hot sauces, the spiciest pepper varieties bring the heat with the highest Scoville units on the chart. The pleasure-and-pain spice should come with a warning, though the varietal name often says it all.
Growing Hot Peppers
As a heat-and-sun-loving nightshade, Capsicum spp. grows best in sunny spots with regular moisture and well-drained soils. The adaptable, compact crops also grow well in containers and raised beds—a good solution if your soils lack nutrition or drainage.
Peppers rely on warm, full-sun garden locations with six to eight hours of daily sunlight. But, too much direct afternoon sun in hot climates can damage the fruits through sunscald. The crops handle light shade in the afternoon heat and during heat waves.
When it comes to water, peppers benefit from one to two inches per week and more during high heat. Aim for consistently moist soils, as drought or prolonged saturation can stress plants.
Pick your peppers at peak ripeness to experience all their hot glory. The ideal time to harvest is when they’re crisp and begin to cork, or show slight striations. The “stretch marks” indicate the fleshy interiors are expanding, meaning a burst of flavor awaits. Depending on the variety, fruits will show mature color, whether green, red, yellow, orange, or purple. Use shears or a knife to cut the fruits free, and leave a short stem. Clipping avoids snapping the brittle stems.
Handle your hot peppers with care at harvest and during prep to avoid skin and eye irritation. Make sure to label them in the garden so you know what you’re working with, and keep them out of young kids’ reach.
‘Carolina Reaper’
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botanical name Capsicum chinense ‘Carolina Reaper’ |
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sun requirements Full sun |
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height 4-5’ |
‘Carolina Reaper’ is the world’s second spiciest pepper variety according to Guinness World Records, which samples a single fruit. It’s only surpassed by ‘Pepper X’ from the same breeder and South Carolina farmer Ed Currie. ‘Pepper X’ measures over 2.5 million Scoville units, while ‘Carolina Reaper’ lands around 1.6 million. These are the hottest of the hot. ‘Pepper X’ is a patented variety and unavailable via seed, but ‘Carolina Reaper’ grows easily in the home garden.
For a Scoville comparative baseline, a jalapeno ranges between 2,000 and 10,000 SHU. So a ‘Carolina Reaper’ is up to 800 times hotter than a jalapeno, and at least 160 times more intense at its lowest heat level.
If you catch it, ‘Carolina Reaper’ has a sweet, fruity flavor before the fiery profile takes over. The gnarled red fruits have a pointed scythe formation at their base, hence “reaper.” A tiny piece will light up a dish, and they’re useful dried and ground into a powder for adding in minute doses.
‘Ghost’
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botanical name Capsicum chinense ‘Bhut Jolokia’ |
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sun requirements Full sun |
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height 16-48” |
At over 1,000,000 SHU, ‘Ghost’ (or ‘Bhut Jolokia’) is among the hottest naturally occurring peppers. It was the first to break one million Scoville units on the heat scale. The former world record holder remains a favorite among hot pepper enthusiasts.
‘Bhut Jolokia’ is from India and withstands intense heat (while offering the same in its fruits). The Indian military even used it to make tear-gas-like hand grenades with immobilizing capabilities.
The showy peppers are three inches long and ripen from bright green to bright orange-red to dark red. They mature at around 100 days from transplanting.
‘Moruga Trinidad Scorpion’
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botanical name Capsicum chinense ‘Moruga Trinidad Scorpion’ |
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sun requirements Full sun |
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height 3’ |
‘Moruga Trinidad Scorpion’ is arguably even hotter than ‘Carolina Reaper’ at over two million SHU in a trial out of New Mexico State University’s Chili Pepper Institute. The capsaicin was so potent that it transmitted through the researcher’s latex gloves multiple times during the study.
‘Moruga Trinidad Scorpion’ is originally from Trinidad and Tobago and produces two-inch-long, deep red fruits with a glossy, bumpy texture. About the size of golf balls, the rich rounds indicate their bellying intensity.
‘Moruga Trinidad Scorpion’ reportedly has a sugary, fruity aroma with notes of cinnamon underlying the intense spice.
‘Dragon’s Breath’
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botanical name Capsicum chinense ‘Dragon’s Breath’ |
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sun requirements Full sun |
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height 2-3’ |
You’ll be breathing fire after this chile. ‘Dragon’s Breath’ is another of the spiciest pepper varieties with a possible SHU at 2.4 million. Developed in the U.K., it gets its name from the official symbol of Wales, the dragon.
The scarlet fruits have medium-thick walls and pucker at peak harvest. Their pointed tips are similar to ‘Carolina Reaper,’ indicating their sting. They were bred for their ornament, heat, and potential as a skin-numbing anesthetic alternative.
‘Scotch Bonnet’
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botanical name Capsicum chinense ‘Scotch Bonnet’ |
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sun requirements Full sun |
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height 2-3’ |
Taking it down a notch in the “extremely hot” category are the slightly more approachable, but still one of the spiciest pepper varieties, the ‘Scotch Bonnet.’ These small peppers, shaped like Scottish caps, dangle from stems in bright red.
‘Scotch Bonnet’ has a Scoville index of 1000,000-325,000. The light, puckered fruits measure one and a half inches. Their smoky, fruity flavor has sweet citrusy notes and is most noticeable in the mature red fruits.
‘Habanero’
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botanical name Capsicum chinense ‘Habanero’ |
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sun requirements Full sun |
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height 2’ |
Habanero chiles are among the hottest peppers in the world with a fiery, fruity bite. With a lower SHU rating (100,000 to 350,000 – still extremely hot), you may be able to capture the flavor in addition to the heat.
Habaneros are estimated at about 100 times hotter than jalapenos. The citrus flair makes a thin slice tasty in fresh salsas, cocktails, and anything on the grill. Habaneros shine like little ornaments in green, yellow, and orange-red when ripe.
‘Fish’
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botanical name Capsicum annuum ‘Fish’ |
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sun requirements Full sun |
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height 2’ |
‘Fish’ hot peppers may not hang with the million-plus Scoville heat units club, but they’re plenty hot for many of us. Plus, they’re heirlooms and highly ornamental. The showy variety features tricolor-striped peppers and variegated foliage. The beauties are African-American heirlooms from the late 1800s. Used in Chesapeake Bay oyster and crab house cooking, fish peppers have a significant foodways heritage.
The fish pepper boasts a heat level similar to cayenne (40,000-75,000 SHU) for enjoying fresh and for cooking, roasting, and drying.
The crops tolerate high heat and have a compact, bushy form well suited to beds and containers. Grow them as a piece of culinary heritage, for their ornamental value, and their spice.
‘Thai Hot’
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botanical name Capsicum annuum ‘Thai Hot’ |
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sun requirements Full sun |
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height 8-10” |
‘Thai Hot’ chiles are a very hot, if not as daring as, the spiciest pepper varieties on our list. ‘Thai Hot’ has a Scoville level of 50,000-100,000. The favorite heirloom adds traditional kick to Asian dishes like curries and stir fries, and brings exceptional heat while being more versatile than the hottest in the world.
The ornamental variety is compact, ideal for containers and small spaces, with slender, upright, little candles. The peppers mature in phases, with both green and red fruits showing simultaneously. Each measures one and a half to three inches long.
‘Lemon Drop’
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botanical name Capsicum baccatum ‘Lemon Drop’ |
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sun requirements Full sun |
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height 20-24” |
We end the list on a lighter note with ‘Aji Limón,’ lemony yellow chiles with a flavor to match. Ornamental in the edible landscape and spicy on the plate, these Peruvian heirlooms have the heat level of cayenne with citrusy notes and aroma. They have a hot SHU level at 30,000-50,000.
Enjoy ‘Lemon Drop’ fresh or dried with two to three-inch, bright yellow fruits. Each pepper holds a few seeds (only 10-15) for easy use in the kitchen. Plants produce large amounts of peppers, though they are slow to mature, at around 100 days.
‘Lemon Drop’ is bushy and compact and a fit for beds and containers. Like ‘Fish’ peppers, they feature a bit of culinary history in their bite.
