The Trinidad Moruga Scorpion is a chili pepper originating from the village of Moruga in Trinidad and Tobago. It is the fifth hottest pepper in the world and had previously held the title of world’s hottest pepper as verified in 2012 by New Mexico State University’s Chile Pepper Institute, with a Scoville Heat Unit score ranging from 1.2 million to 2 million Scoville heat units. In 2017 the record was broken by the Carolina Reaper with a max SHU of 2.2 million, as confirmed by Guinness World Records.

Development
The Trinidad Moruga Scorpion was created by Wahid Ogeer of Trinidad. Paul Bosland, a chili pepper expert and director of the Chile Pepper Institute, said, “You take a bite. It doesn’t seem so bad, and then it builds and it builds and it builds. So it is quite nasty.“

Aside from it’s intense heat, the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion has a tender fruit-like flavour, which gives it a mix of hot and sweet The pepper can be grown from seeds in most parts of the world. In North America, the growing season varies regionally from the last spring hard frost to the first fall hard frost. Freezing weather ends the growing season and kills the plant, but otherwise they are perennials which grow all year, slowing in colder weather.