The Red Savina pepper is a
cultivar
A cultivar is a type of cultivated plant that people have selected for desired traits and when propagated retain those traits. Methods used to propagate cultivars include: division, root and stem cuttings, offsets, grafting, tissue culture, ...
of the
habanero chili
The habanero (; ) is a hot variety of chili. Unripe habaneros are green, and they color as they mature. The most common color variants are orange and red, but the fruit may also be white, brown, yellow, green, or purple. Typically, a ripe haba ...
(''
Capsicum chinense
''Capsicum chinense'', commonly known as a "habanero-type pepper", is a species of chili pepper native to the Americas. ''C. chinense'' varieties are well known for their unique flavors and many have exceptional heat. The hottest peppers in the ...
'' Jacquin), which has been
selectively bred
Selective breeding (also called artificial selection) is the process by which humans use animal breeding and plant breeding to selectively develop particular phenotypic traits (characteristics) by choosing which typically animal or plant mal ...
to produce spicier, heavier, and larger fruit, ultimately more potent than its derivative.
Frank Garcia of GNS Spices, in
Walnut, California
Walnut is a city in the eastern part of Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California. At the 2010 census, the city had a population of 29,172, and in 2019 the population was estimated at 29,685.
The greater Walnut Valley is located betw ...
, is credited as the developer of the Red Savina, but the exact methodology that Garcia used to select the hottest breeding strains is not publicly known.
Description
The Red Savina typically measures 2 inches by 1.5 inches (5 x 3.5 cm),
and is described by cultivators as a "wrinkled" fruit with a "Chinese lantern" shape. Unlike a conventional orange habanero, the Red Savina is distinctively dark red, and may have been bred using spicy red mutations of habanero. Until 2011, it was protected by the U.S.
Plant Variety Protection Act
The Plant Variety Protection Act of 1970 (PVPA), 7 U.S.C. §§ 2321-2582, is an intellectual property statute in the United States. The PVPA gives breeders up to 25 years of exclusive control over new, distinct, uniform, and stable sexually reprod ...
(PVP #9200255).
Pungency
The Red Savina chili once held the record as the hottest chili in the world (according to the
Guinness World Records
''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
), but was displaced by the
bhut jolokia chili (commonly and incorrectly translated to "Ghost Pepper") in February 2007. The Red Savina held the record from 1994-2006.
Red Savina peppers were reported to allegedly score upwards of 577,000 on the
Scoville scale
The Scoville scale is a measurement of the pungency (spiciness or "heat") of chili peppers, as recorded in Scoville heat units (SHU), based on the concentration of capsaicinoids, among which capsaicin is the predominant component.
The scale i ...
, but this oft-quoted figure was never officially verified;
a group of researchers – including Regents Professor Paul W. Bosland at the Chile Pepper Institute at
New Mexico State University
New Mexico State University (NMSU or NM State) is a public land-grant research university based primarily in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Founded in 1888, it is the oldest public institution of higher education in New Mexico and one of the state's tw ...
– conducted a comparison experiment in 2005, which revealed that the Red Savina habanero averages a relative heat level of 248,556 SHUs. The CPI lists the spiciest Red Savina individuals recorded in their labs as approximately 500,000 SHUs.
As a point of reference, the average orange habanero scores approximately 200,000 SHUs in high performance liquid
chromatography
In chemical analysis, chromatography is a laboratory technique for the separation of a mixture into its components. The mixture is dissolved in a fluid solvent (gas or liquid) called the ''mobile phase'', which carries it through a system (a ...
tests (although some individuals have achieved on the order of 357,729 SHUs). The average bhut jolokia is 1,019,687 SHUs, and "blasted past" the Red Savina by a factor of 2 to emerge as the temporary title-holder. However, the current Guinness World Record title-holder (as of August 2017), the
Carolina Reaper
The Carolina Reaper is a cultivar of the ''Capsicum chinense'' plant. Developed by American breeder Ed Currie, the pepper is red and gnarled, with a bumpy texture and small pointed tail. In 2017, ''Guinness World Records'' declared it the hottes ...
, has scored a maximum value of 1,641,183 SHUs.
See also
*
Race to grow the hottest pepper
Especially among growers in the US, the UK, and Australia, there has been a competition since the 1990s to grow the hottest chili pepper. Chili pepper species and cultivars registering over 1,000,000 Scoville scale, Scoville Heat units (SHU) are ...
*
Scoville scale
The Scoville scale is a measurement of the pungency (spiciness or "heat") of chili peppers, as recorded in Scoville heat units (SHU), based on the concentration of capsaicinoids, among which capsaicin is the predominant component.
The scale i ...
*
Bhut jolokia
The ghost pepper, also known as ''bhut jolokia'' (which literally means 'Bhutan pepper' in Assamese), is an interspecific hybrid chili pepper cultivated in Northeast India. It is a hybrid of '' Capsicum chinense'' and ''Capsicum frutescens''.
...
, the Red Savina's successor for "World's Hottest Chile"
*
Carolina Reaper
The Carolina Reaper is a cultivar of the ''Capsicum chinense'' plant. Developed by American breeder Ed Currie, the pepper is red and gnarled, with a bumpy texture and small pointed tail. In 2017, ''Guinness World Records'' declared it the hottes ...
, the current title-holder for "World's Hottest Chile"
External links
The New Mexico State University Chile Pepper InstituteThe North Carolina State University Cucurbit Breeding ProjectThe Guinness World Records
References
{{Capsicum Cultivars
Food and drink introduced in 1992
Chili peppers
Capsicum cultivars