In 2007, this pepper was declared the hottest pepper in the world by the Guinness Book of Records. On the Scoville Scale, values were measured over 1 million SHU, meaning that this pepper is 900 times hotter than Tabasco and 125 hotter than the Jalapeno pepper. The pepper is cultivated in large in Northeastern India where it’s used daily by many people to spice up their dishes. You can imagine that a small piece of the pepper is enough to make a dish very spicy. This way, a whole family can get through the entire week with only one pepper. If you would like to try some recipes on your own, you can find some here: http://thecookingdish.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Bhut-Jolokia-Recipes.pdf

The peppers are 6-8 cm wide and colour to orange, red or brown. The plant is suitable as a houseplant and also performs well in a greenhouse. The hotter it is, the better it grows. It’s not a fast grower, and it takes the plant about 4 months before it starts growing peppers.

Sowing description: First soak the seeds in lukewarm water for 24 hours. Then sow them in sowing mix and let them germinate at 25-30 degC. Keep the soil constantly moist. Germination normally occurs after 2 to 5 weeks.

Family: Solanaceae
Scientific name: Capsicum chinense 'Bhut Jolokia'
Common name: Bhut Jolokia
Native to: Northeastern India

Sowing time: January - June
Difficulty: Intermediate
Minimum temperature: 10 degreesCelsius

Photo 1: Asit. K. Ghosh (CCA-3.0 Wikipedia)