“Pepper X,” a new variety of pepper that will cause more pain than bear spray, has toppled the Carolina Reaper to become the world’s hottest pepper, according to Guinness World Records.

The heat of a pepper is measured in Scoville Heat Units, which show how much of the chemical capsaicin a pepper contains. Capsaicin causes the burn that people feel when eating peppers. 

The Carolina Reaper has 1.64 million SHU on average; Pepper X surpasses it at nearly 2.7 million SHU on average, Guinness World Records said in a news release.

For comparison, pepper spray has 1.6 million SHU on average, and bear spray has 2.2 million SHU on average, according to The Associated Press.

Both Pepper X and the Carolina Reaper were bred by Ed Currie, founder of the PuckerButt Pepper Company, AP said. Mr. Currie of South Carolina spent 10 years cross-breeding peppers to create the new strain after previously breaking the heat record with the Carolina Reaper. 

“We covered the genetics, we covered the chemistry, we covered the botany,” Mr. Currie told AP. On Oct. 9, Guinness confirmed the new record for the hottest pepper.

The difference maker for Pepper X is the amount of ridges and curves, Guinness wrote, allowing for more space for the capsaicin-containing tissue inside the pepper.

In a Monday appearance on the YouTube show “Hot Ones,” Mr. Currie debuted the pepper and his record, and described how the burn feels.

“There’s an intense burn that happens immediately. Then your head kind of feels like ‘Oh, no. What’s going on?’ Then your body just starts reacting. You get it in your arms. You get it in your chest. It has no real throat burn like the Reaper but that comes on later when you are in pain,” Mr. Currie said in the video.

More super-hot peppers are in the pipeline, with the potential to beat Pepper X as it did the Carolina Reaper.

“Is this the pinnacle? No, it’s not the pinnacle,” Mr. Currie told the AP.

• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.