Trinidad Moruga Scorpion

Trinidad Moruga Scorpion is a super-hot pepper from the Moruga district of Trinidad, on the south coast of Trinidad and Tobago. It became internationally famous in 2012 when New Mexico State University’s Chile Pepper Institute identified it as the hottest measured chile at the time, with a mean heat above 1.2 million SHU and individual plants exceeding 2 million SHU.

The plant is a vigorous Capsicum chinense with a broad, branching habit, commonly growing to about 1.0 to 1.5 m tall and about 75 cm wide. The foliage is green, the flowers are white, and the plant is known for setting heavy crops when given enough warmth and season length.

Its pods are squat to slightly elongated, heavily wrinkled, and usually around 6.5 cm long. Many fruits show the rough, puckered surface and pointed tail that gave scorpion peppers their name, although tail length can vary and some pods are blunter. The pods begin green, often pass through orange tones, and finish bright to deep red at maturity.

The flavour is regularly described as sweet, fruity, and floral before the heat fully arrives. That combination made it important not just as a record-setting chilli but also as a pepper used in super-hot sauces, powders, and salsas where a small amount delivers both flavour and extreme pungency.

A major factual conflict exists around its core identity. Some sources, including the Chile Pepper Institute, treat Trinidad Moruga Scorpion as a landrace from Moruga, while other sources credit Trinidad grower Wahid Ogeer with developing or selecting the line. That conflict affects whether it is best treated as a traditional regional landrace or as a named selected cultivar from Trinidad.