Mouth Scorcher! New Hottest Chili Champion

NEW CHILI PEPPER TAKES WORLD'S HOTTEST CROWN:

A new chili pepper from Australia named the Trinidad Scorpion Butch T. has taken the crown as the world's hottest, dethroning the Naga Viper, which had just recently claimed the title, according to the Yahoo! News blog The Lookout. The Butch T. scores 1.46 million units on the Scoville scale, which rates the presence of a heat-creating chemical compound in chilis, topping the 1.38 million of the Naga Viper. By way of comparison, an average jalapeno pepper has 5,000 units. Marcel de Wit, co-owner of the chili farm that produced the Butch T., told Australian Geographic that the pepper is so strong that he and his team have to wear protective gloves when handling it, and chemical masks and body suits when making salsa to protect against fumes given off in the cooking process.