What it’s Like to Eat a 1.3 Million Scoville Unit Armageddon Pepper

I decided to eat an Armageddon Pepper, one of the hottest on planet Earth. Let’s just say I’m not planning to eat another one anytime soon.

The Armageddon checks in at 1.3 million Scoville units, which is how capsaicin is measured in peppers — that’s just behind the Carolina Reaper pepper, which is recognized as the hottest in the world, which is measured at 1.5 million.

For comparison’s sake, the Jalapeno pepper averages about 5,000 Scoville units, usually landing between 2,000 and 8,000. The Armageddon is a hybrid that was created in the U.K. in the last two or three years and hasn’t yet been widely distributed in the U.S. It’s considered an F1 “super-hot pepper,” which means it’s a first-generation hybrid that comes from the Habanero family … although it’s a lot hotter than the Habanero.

In the video, you can almost see the transformation once the heat really takes hold. And it took a good 30 minutes for the heat to finally clear out of my lungs — that was the worst part of the experience, because it truly was similar to being pepper sprayed. Enjoy my misery!