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 The Hottest Chile of Them All
By Eric Vinje, Cosmic Chile
Some peppers pack more pungency punch than others.
The hottest chile pepper of them all, according to "The Guinness World Book of Records" is the Red Savina Habanero, a strain of Capaiscin Chinese. The Red Savina Habanero set that record in 1994 and it has yet to be broken.
The Red Savina is a fiery maiden - think "Taming of the Shrew." She is twice as hot as your average habanero and has been rated at anywhere from 350,000 to 577,000 on the Scoville scale.
Habaneros are considered the hottest breed of chile pepper with the traditional orange habanero clocking in at 210,000 Scoville Units and the "milder" carrying a rating of about 150,000 Scoville Units.
What makes the Red Savina hotter than its fellow habaneros is its source. It was developed from a mutant red pepper found in a field of orange habaneros in 1989. Fred Garcia, one of the three founders of GN5 Spices, the purveyor of this particular pepper, "owns" the rights to the Red Savina.
Pepper folklore has it that Frank was plowing under a large field of orange habaneros rather them sell them at a loss. In the process of plowing under his pepper crop, he espied a mutant red pepper. It stood out like a sore, red thumb. He plucked the pepper from his field and threw it into the back of his pick-up truck.
He forgot about it, but eventually found the plant and decided to harvest its seeds. Through selective breeding, the Red Savina was born. Its pepper and seeds are currently available at - you've guessed it - redsavina.com. The web site also carries an account of Frank's discovery, which was the source for our hotter-than-heck story.
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