World's Hottest Pepper: Just How Hot is the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion? [VIDEO]

The Trinidad Moruga Scorpion reigns as the hottest pepper on the planet, according to research from New Mexico State University's Chile Pepper Institute.

The golf-ball sized fiery-red pepper is the latest variety that researchers have bred to tame the burliest of men into a crying, sweating, red-faced mess.

You take a bite. It doesn't seem so bad, and then it builds and it builds and it builds. So it is quite nasty, Paul Bosland, renowned pepper expert and director of the chile institute, told The Associated Press.

The Scorpion contains up to 2 million units on the Scoville heat scale, within the range of pepper spray and 2,000 times hotter than some jalapenos.

None of the pepper breeders dared to pop an entire Trinidad Moruga Scorpion pepper in their mouth, but Firehead Thomas

Right away...immediately... that florally bouquet... that pepper tastes pretty good actually, he says in the video.

Man, my tongue is on fire, he says midway through his video.

For years, researchers breed different pepper varieties with the goal to increase the heat, a feat genetically complex and time-consuming.

The question was, could the Chile Pepper Institute establish the benchmark for chile heat? Bosland said. Chile heat is a complex thing, and the industry doesn't like to base it on just a single fruit that's a record holder. It's too variable.

The Trinidad Moruga Scorpion bumps off the previous world's record holder for heat, the Bhut Jolokia.

Scott Roberts, blogger and chilehead, interviewed Jim Duffy, who helped provide the chile seeds for the researchers. Read it here.