Speaking of making hot, Andrew needs to get some of these going for his
pepper jelly. He could probably run his wagon on these things too.
http://www.thestate.com/news/business/article72846992.html
--BB
SC businessman hopes to turn chili pepper fame into fortune
Ed Currie’s Carolina Reaper holds world record for hottest chili pepper
Peppers grown in York County
Currie hopes this is the year his PuckerButt Pepper Co. becomes profitable.
By Don Worthington
The (Rock Hill) Herald
FORT MILL
All around Ed Currie are pepper plants, some a near microscopic leaf,
some more mature plants that are three or four inches tall.
Currie pulls one of the mature plants from a plastic flat, looking at
its roots, packed into a four-inch-tall pyramid.
“You can see the good fuzzies,” he says, pointing to the maze of roots
that will soon feed on the nutrients in the soil at the Springs Farm.
“This will be a healthy plant.”
There are hundreds of plants in each of three greenhouses. Each one can
trace its lineage to HP22B which Currie grew in his backyard in Rock Hill.
HP22B – which stands for High Power, pot number 22, plant B – was a
cross between a La Soufriere pepper from the Caribbean island of St.
Vincent and a Naga pepper from Pakistan . It looked nasty and gnarly –
and it was hot.
So hot that when Currie had it tested and then certified, he had the
hottest chili pepper in the world, according to the Guinness Book of
Records.
His Smokin’ Ed’s Carolina Reaper, on average, has a Scoville heat unit
rating of 1.5 million. Jalapeno peppers have a Scoville rating of 2,500
to 8,000. The world’s previous hottest chili pepper, the Trinidad
Scorpion “Butch T,” has a Scoville rating of 1 to 1.4 million.
In November 2013 Guinness
<http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2013/11/confirmed-smokin-eds-carolina-reaper-sets-new-record-for-hottest-chilli-53033/>told
him he held the world record.
Now two years-plus later, Currie says it’s time to turn fame into fortune.
“My 15 minutes of fame has lasted a lot longer than 15 minutes,” Currie
said last week. The fame includes more than 800 media stories,
interviews and TV appearances, including a recent one on Russian
television where the TV crew was as fascinated by his gun collection as
his pepper.
Now, with a strong wholesale market for the Carolina Reaper, demand for
other, less-hot raw peppers, and a line of hot sauces and other
products, Currie said this could be the year his PuckerButt Pepper Co.
becomes profitable.
It’s a far cry from when he started. In 2003 he was selling his “Smokin
Ed’s” hot sauce from a table at Trader Marc’s flea market. Shutterfly
now turns pictures into memories where Currie got his start.
He made his peach mango sauce to woo a woman he was interested in. They
married, and he and Linda now have two children, Katie, 4, and Eddie, 2.
Currie now has two store fronts on Main Street in Fort Mill. One is a
retail shop/kitchen. The other is a storage area, office and
distribution center from which he ships orders worldwide.
He has farms in Rock Hill and Chester but is concentrating his pepper
production at nearby fields owned by Springs Farms.
Ron Edwards, farm manager for Springs, said growing peppers isn’t much
different from the other vegetables they cultivate.
As with other vegetables, the pepper field requires fencing. Deer, at
least those in the Fort Mill area, eat the growing peppers.
“Deer will eat anything that is green except a John Deere tractor, and
they will lick that,” Edwards said.
The biggest difference comes when it’s time to pick peppers. Each picker
must wear gloves so as to avoid contact with the pepper’s capsaicin,
which makes it hot. Even the smallest amount of capsaicin in an open cut
can be extremely painful.
Currie predicts he will have as few as 12 and possibly as many as 25
acres of peppers of all types being grown. He estimated he will have 20
tons alone of the Carolina Reaper for processing into mash, powder or
packed in plastic buckets. The mash and the powder go into a wide
variety of food and commercial products.
They are even used in beer and vodka. Full Spectrum Brewing Co.
<http://www.heraldonline.com/news/local/community/fort-mill-times/article31680923.html>
of Fort Mill recently debuted its Reaper Roast Amber. TheCharleston
Distilling Co. <https://www.charlestondistilling.com/> makes Carolina
Reaper vodka.
Stephen Heilman, co-owner of the distillery, said Carolina Reaper vodka
is simple to make. Distill about 300 liters of vodka and then add 15
peppers and let it sit. In a few days, it is ready for bottling.
Carolina Reaper vodka works well in Bloody Marys and martinis, he said.
“It brings the heat but doesn’t affect the Bloody Mary mix,” Heilman said.
Currie’s plans include opening a processing facility in Fort Mill and
after that a bottling facility. He wants to have everything done locally.
But to reach his goals, Currie had to learn to surrender control – first
to God and then to others who shared his vision.
“God made me painfully aware that there were not enough hours, not
enough of me, to do it alone. I had to find other people to do the work.
“It’s hard to do. I have to pray each day.”
He asked Brett Rogers, a friend, to leave his construction business to
learn the pepper business.
“Rogers’ first reaction was “no way. ... we are friends.”
Their work partnership works “because we are both passionate guys,”
Rogers said. He uses the Charlie Brown comic strip to describe their
relationship. “I’m Charlie Brown and he is Lucy with the football. He
pulls away the football and snookers me.”
But they share the goal of doing what others say can’t be done.
“We want to show that it can be done and there is no one else doing
this. It’s American jobs and it’s being done locally. ... There is no
reason we couldn’t be like Tabasco.”
Rogers was one of the first people Currie asked to test the HP22 pepper.
Two years later, eating a Carolina Reaper is still a challenge for Rogers.
“He does it with ease; I do it with a struggle,” Rogers said.
The Carolina Reaper, though, is not the hottest pepper in Currie’s
arsenal. His latest hot pepper, HP63, has an average Scoville rating of
3 million. It’s called the Gator around the Puckerbutt Shop where there
already are bottles filled with product using its mash, waiting for
testing.
But Currie said there is no hurry to bring a hotter pepper to market.
Interest in the Carolina Reaper continues to rise “so there is no reason
to shoot myself in the foot.”
Another Guinness world record filing is possible, but this time the
motivation will be different.
“I won’t do this as an ego thing. If we do it, it will be a business
decision.”
Read more here:
http://www.thestate.com/news/business/article72846992.html#storylink=cpy
_______________________________________
http://www.okiebenz.com
To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/
To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to:
http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
