Infinity chili
{{Short description|Chili pepper known for extreme heat}}
{{Infobox cultivar
| name = Infinity chili pepper
| breeder = Nick Woods
| origin = Grantham, Lincolnshire, England
| species = Capsicum chinense
| module = {{Infobox pepper
| embed = yes
| heat = Exceptionally hot
| scoville = 1,067,286
}}
| image =
}}
The Infinity Chili pepper is a chili pepper hybrid of the Capsicum chinense species created in England by chili breeder Nicholas Woods of Fire Foods, Grantham, Lincolnshire.{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12505344 |title='Record-breaking' chilli is hot news |publisher=BBC News |first=Neil |last=Henderson |date=February 19, 2011 |access-date=November 4, 2018}}
For two weeks in February 2011, the Infinity Chili held the Guinness World Record title for the world's hottest chili with a Scoville scale rating of 1,067,286 Scoville Heat Units (SHU). On March 1, 2011, it was displaced by the Trinidad Scorpion Butch T pepper, which registered 1,463,700 SHU.{{cite web |url=http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/Search/Details/Hottest-chili/49118.htm |title=Hottest chili |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120524204546/http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records-1/hottest-chili/ |archive-date=May 24, 2012 |access-date=November 4, 2018}}
Woods created the Infinity Chili five years after he started growing chili peppers for his hot sauces. He was not attempting to breed a new variety, but was growing his peppers in a greenhouse where crossbreeding between varieties happens readily. He described first trying his new pepper as: "When I tried it tasted nice at first, like an odd fruity taste, 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. I began to shake uncontrollably, I had to sit down, I felt physically sick. I really wouldn't recommend anybody eat it raw like that."{{cite news |last=Evans |first=Martin |title=World's hottest chilli grown in Grantham |date=February 17, 2011 |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/8331817/Worlds-hottest-chilli-grown-in-Grantham.html |website=The Telegraph |access-date=November 4, 2018}}
The Bindi restaurant in Grantham served a curry, called "The Widower", made with 20 Infinity chilies, claiming to be the world's hottest curry. More than three hundred people tried the curry before Dr. Ian Rothwell became the first person to finish a dish, taking just over an hour, including a 10 minute walk where he was said to have been hallucinating.{{Cite web |last=Hill |first=Sienna |date=29 March 2016 |title=A British Doctor is First Person to Successfully Finish a Plate of World's Hottest Curry |url=https://firstwefeast.com/eat/2016/03/doctor-eats-worlds-hottest-curry |url-status=dead |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20231006093726/https://firstwefeast.com/eat/2016/03/doctor-eats-worlds-hottest-curry |archive-date=6 October 2023 |website=First We Feast}}{{Cite web |last=Tepper |first=Rachel |date=2013-01-07 |title=Man Hallucinates While Taking Down World's Hottest Curry |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/worlds-hottest-curry-ian-rothwell_n_2425002 |access-date=2024-09-25 |website=HuffPost |language=en}} Rothwell attributed this to the endorphins from eating chilies.{{Cite web |last=Chacksfield |first=Marc |date=2013-01-04 |title=Man becomes first ever to eat world's hottest curry |url=https://www.shortlist.com/news/man-becomes-first-ever-to-eat-plate-of-worlds-hottest-curry |access-date=2024-09-25 |website=Shortlist |language=en}}
Testing
Testing of the chili's Scoville rating was carried out at the University of Warwick's Crop Centre during March, 2010.{{cite web |url=http://www.chilefoundry.co.uk/2011/02/15/infinity-chili-guinness-world-records/ |title=Infinity Chili – New Guinness World Record Holder |date=February 15, 2011 |publisher=The Chili Foundry |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120722135455/http://www.chilefoundry.co.uk/2011/02/15/infinity-chilli-guinness-world-records/ |archive-date=July 22, 2012 |access-date=December 30, 2012 }}
Both the tests for the Infinity Chili and the Naga Viper, also done at University of Warwick, were heavily criticized by respected pepper researchers; Dr. Dave DeWitt of The Chile Pepper Institute stated: "With one test, the most you can show is that a single pepper--or a part of a single pepper--had that heat rating. To establish that a variety of pepper is consistently the world's hottest, you need more than that." Even the researchers at the University of Warwick were surprised by both bestowals of world's hottest pepper as they had thought that another independent verification and proof of cultivar stability would be needed.{{cite web |last=Adams |first=Paul |title=FYI: What is the Hottest Pepper in the World? |url=https://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-06/fyi-what-hottest-pepper-world |date=July 7, 2011 |website=Popular Science |access-date=November 4, 2018}} As it is possible to vary the heat within a strain by stressing the plant through various techniques such as selectively withholding water and five years is not sufficient time to breed a new cultivar, and especially not to stabilize it, the researchers and growers rejected the claims of both the Infinity pepper and the Naga Viper in favor of the Trinidad Scorpion.
Since the controversy with the Infinity Chili and Naga Viper, both of which appear to have been stressed unstable hybrids measured at a peak, and with the increasing number of contenders for hottest chili pepper, Guinness World Records has required more verification of heat levels and of cultivar stabilization.{{cite web |last=Leckart |first=Steven |title=In Search of the World's Spiciest Pepper |date=October 29, 2013 |url=https://www.maxim.com/entertainment/search-worlds-spiciest-pepper |website=Maxim |access-date=November 4, 2018}}
See also
References
{{reflist|30em}}
{{Capsicum Cultivars}}
{{Authority control}}