The grim reaper

  

The grim reaper, also known as DEATH, has been around for a very long time. Starting in 1921, the grim reaper has appeared in at least 21 movies, and has also made an appearance in 20 TV shows and 8 books. Regardless of who you are, when the grim reaper comes knocking, you’d better be prepared to meet your maker.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_(personification)

I ran into the reaper not long ago, but I’m still here to tell about the experience, and it came about due to my experience as a substitute teacher (which can be a very scary experience in itself).

One of the students in a class that I monitored recently admitted to eating a Carolina reaper pepper sometime after the start of the school year. In case you’re not familiar with the pepper, it is now officially the hottest chili pepper in the world (according to the Guinness Book of World Records), and it registers 1,569399 Scoville heat units. However, that number is an average of the batch tested, and the hottest individual pepper in the batch measured 2.2 million SHU. Although it is unlikely that ANY hot pepper will cause you to die, hot peppers can definitely make you feel uncomfortable. The student in question threw up 5 times after eating the pepper, but somehow managed to survive. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolina_Reaper

The Carolina reaper pepper was created by “Smoking” Ed Currie, proprietor of the Puckerbutt Pepper Company in Fort Mill, South Carolina. If you take a look at the company’s website (see below), you’ll notice an astonishing variety of both peppers and seeds. The Carolina reaper took 10 years to develop, and it is actually a hybrid of the Bhut Jolokia (also known as the ghost pepper) and a red habanero.

https://puckerbuttpeppercompany.com/

Lately, there seem to be a race to create the hottest pepper. Prior to the Carolina Reaper, the hottest pepper was the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion, which was measured at just a touch over 2,000,000 SHU. In 2007, the Bhut Jolokia (ghost pepper) was rated as the hottest pepper (at 1,041,472) but it was quickly surpassed by the Napa Viper, the Trinidad Scorpion “Butch T”, the 7 Pot Primo, and the 7 Pot Douglah. If you actually need a reason NOT to eat the Carolina Reaper pepper, watch the video posted below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cozHUec4sPc

The Scoville measuring unit was developed in 1912 by an American pharmacist named Wilbur Lincoln Scoville. Although the exact procedure to measure heat has changed slightly since 1912, the Scoville scale is still used today.

There is an old saying that hell hath not fury like a woman scorned, but eating a Carolina reaper pepper has got to be a pretty close second.