Today I'm in Fort Mill, South Carolina, with
this masochist, Smokin Ed Currie, creator of the world's hottest chili Pepper, the
Carolina Reaper. So to review, these are the Carolina Reapers
that you invented and that is currently considered about the hottest pepper there
is. It is. You want to bake? I do not know. I do not. A big part of pucker butts revenue
are seeds. In order to extract the seeds we blend the
peppers with water to separate the seeds from the flesh. We then add this mixture to a
bucket of water and let gravity do the work. Seeds sink to the bottom because they're
heavier. It's science, you see. And then pour it in. The kids call it poop soup. Because it'll make you poop. Mostly because when you eat Carolina Reapers,
you get the cramps and the runs. Usually I just. Don't feel like you're really selling it. In a sauce. It's good. Sliced up into little teeny pieces with a
whole plate of food. It's good. I get it consumed in a reasonable quantity. It is. Delicious. It's delicious. Yes. So it's just really all about. Just the tip. Just the tip. You know, I can see why being outside is
better because the fumes of this stuff inside would be. Yeah, it doesn't bother me. No, but again, you're not entirely human, are
you? No, I'm not. You see how the seeds are
bouncing around in there? You got to wait for them to settle, then
pour it into the mesh. Oh, my God. Doesn't bother you? Not really. Excuse me. Oh. Here's the seeds. Normally in a day I do 20 to 30 of these
buckets. Uh huh. We sell Carolina Reaper seeds for $7
for ten. Ten seeds. Ten seeds. Seems like a bargain. This is approximately 25,000 seeds. And you sell them for how much? For what? $7 for ten. 12. I think he's got thousands of dollars in
that strainer. That's a leading supplier of pepper mash, a
key ingredient in many hot sauces and food products guaranteed to make your butt
pucker. What am I looking at? So this machine here gets them on a conveyor
belt. They get washed, and then Tom's over there
making sure they make it into the fence mill. That grinds them into what, Essentially
Mash. Okay, great. These are cayenne peppers. Nowhere near as hot as Carolina Reapers, but
still pretty hot. All right, now we got to get all those
peppers out of there that are all stuck. Got it. You want me to hop in there? Sure. Come on in. Careful. It gets a little slick on that rail. Yeah, I bet. Can I step on the peppers? I don't normally know. Like people are going to eat these, Mike. Brandon has just one request. Don't step on the peppers. Seems reasonable, but this is just your
basic standard issue. Metal or. Yeah, we use it mainly for sauce. You mix the kettles with it, right. But I've repurposed it for this. You mean you just took it from the sauce
thing and brought it over here? Exactly. How long have you been working
here? About a year and a half. Yeah. Yeah. What kind of boss is it? It's great. Treat you like family. Something happens. He's taking care of you. That could be really good. Or really bad. This is good. I would agree with you. Normally, because my family's a little on
the rough side, but this is a different type of family. Capsaicin is also the active ingredient in
pepper spray. One more reason why I remain somewhat
dubious about eating food enhanced with the same ingredient that police use to disperse
angry mobs. Oops. Have you gotten jacked up? You know, getting in your eyes. Getting in? Oh, yeah, absolutely. I go blind at least once a day. Seriously? Yeah. Not with this stuff. This I can take in the
eye. No problem. These are big, man. Yeah. You wanna try one? No, I don't. With the peppers loaded onto the conveyor
belt, they'll move on to the next station. Gosh, I can't wait to get to the next
station. The nice. You know, I've never seen anybody cough so
much on guy hands in my life. All right. Thank you. What is it with you and the hot sauce? You trying to save my life? I was a drug addict before, and. Yeah, hot sauce and peppers. Kind of like gave me a calling afterwards. Something to do with my life. That's kind of amazing, man. Yeah, it's not a coincidence. More than a few of the folks here at
Puckerbutt have followed Ed's lead. They've replaced a dangerous addiction with
a passion for peppers. Bless you. Thank you. I'm afraid to touch my face. Yeah, It's not a good idea. Oh, boy. Here we go. Here we go. We got a big dump. Work blog. Yeah. Work blog, man. Baby Patrick Blog. Cut that one off, Bill. All right. Time is money. Let's go. And now we're going to go ahead
and pull this out. Was about £600 of pepper mash. We go this way with it. Yeah. And I'm going to introduce you to Brett, who
has been Ed's right arm forever. How are you? I love. It. All right. What are we doing? What we got. Here? Well, this is about 500. £600 of pepper mash. It's going into a kettle. They're dumping
the kettle now. Shoes down, pulls goes into the holding
tank. We got five kettles here, 600l apiece. So basically, we're cooking. You know, you're cooking a lot of pepper. A lot of pepper? Yes, sir. The pepper mash is cooked with vinegar. That'll extend the product shelf life. This guy is in the holding tank here, right? This is a valve right here. And you're going to go down to your right
with it when it gets to about the fill line. And I'll say about right now. Perfect. You take this guy, you hammer it,
you go, you're done. I got it. You pull it off. Due to the rim job and then you whack it,
right. These five gallon buckets will be shipped to
food manufacturers all over the country and used to spice up all sorts of different
foods, some of which will probably make your butt pucker. As far as scenes go, as far as. Scenes go, we're good. You want a duel? Are we going to duel? You want a duel? Technically, this episode is over, but, you
know, there's no way we can leave without bearing witness to a duel. Zach has agreed to go toe to toe with Ed. It's ill advised. Obviously. Obviously, Zach has not learned
his lesson. The duel kicks things up. A few million Scoville units with Ed's top
secret Pepper X, which is even hotter than the insanely stupidly, unrelentingly hot
Carolina Reaper. For context, Pepper X is over a thousand
times hotter than Tabasco sauce. No sensible person would put this in their
mouth. Zach Hall is not a sensible person, so. It's the face off that'll melt your face off. The two chips in it. Wait, so how do you win? Well, you get to last the longest without
drinking. Inside two ferocious pepper x chips treated
with pepper X. Zach is agreed to eat one. I challenge you to a duel. Oh. Touche. Good, sir. All right, let's see it. Just go chew it up. I'm not going to do this thing. All right? No! Stop. Yeah. Pepper X. So what you're feeling is. Hey, this tastes good, and it's a slow
build. Everybody says, Oh, it's not that hot. And then they're like, Oh. Yeah, yeah. How are you. Feeling, brother? The usually unflappable Zach is beginning to
look flappable. So you're not feeling it? Well, you know, I'm feeling it. See, I can
get it to your mind. Yeah. Like I said before, there's nothing to
stop the physiological stuff. Yeah, I put it on my lip. Oh. Oh, God. It was a grown man cry. I want to cry. You can cry. That's okay. So hot. It's okay to cry. It's all right to cry. It's all about
fingers. Crying less the hurt out of you. I think it's good, though. I think it's
going to go away. No, it does this. It's worked its way under my tongue. I'm going to pass out. I will pass out. No, don't pass out. Are you ready? Now take it out. Oh, gosh. Oh, my gosh. It's Pepper X. It's 3 million of those scoville things. Man. That one was. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I'm dizzy. And look at him. Nothing.
