“I was feeling the heat for three-and-a-half hours. Then the cramps came,” said Currie, one of only five people so far to eat an entire Pepper X. “Those cramps are horrible. I was laid out flat on a marble wall for around an hour in the rain, groaning in pain.”

Heat in peppers is measured in Scoville heat units. It refers to how many times an amount of the pepper needs to be diluted to negate the feeling of heat. It is an average score. Zero units means no heat, and a jalapeño registers about 5,000 units. A habanero, the record-holder about 25 years ago, scores 100,000 to 300,000.

The Carolina Reaper hits 1.64 million on the Scoville scale. Pepper X has an average of 2.69 million units. Police pepper spray is around 2 million units.

Currie set the previous heat record in 2013 with the Carolina Reaper, a bright red knobby fruit with a scorpion tail. The goal was to offer an extremely hot pepper that was full of flavour.

Pepper X is greenish-yellow and has an earthy flavour. It’s a cross between a Carolina Reaper and what Currie calls a “pepper that a friend of mine sent me from Michigan that was brutally hot”.

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The burning sensation leads to the release of endorphins and dopamine. Currie, who started growing peppers after kicking drug and alcohol addictions, shares his peppers with medical researchers, to use them to treat diseases and help people who suffer chronic pain or discomfort.

It took 10 years to get Pepper X from the first crossbreed experiment to the record, including five years of testing to prove it was a different plant with a different fruit and documenting its average heat over different plants and generations.

“We covered the genetics, we covered the chemistry, we covered the botany,” Currie said.

Currie, who is building an empire of hot pepper sauces through his PuckerButt company, has learned plenty of business lessons during the past decade. While the Carolina Reaper drew much attention, much of it was not proper – nor profitable.

Currie allowed people to grow the peppers without protecting his ideas. His lawyers have counted more than 10,000 products that use the Carolina Reaper name, or its other intellectual property, without permission.

Currie is protecting Pepper X. He said no seeds will be released until he is sure his children, his workers and their families can fully earn the rewards of his work.

“Everybody else made their money off the Reaper. It’s time for us to reap the benefits of the hard work I do,” Currie said.

That work includes dozens of fields across York County, secret greenhouses where Currie works on peppers to prevent them from being stolen, and a PuckerButt store in Fort Mill, South Carolina, where Currie works on dozens of sauce ideas that range from mild to blazing hot. He also sells his peppers to companies worldwide.

Currie wants people to eat peppers and thinks they can benefit from the rush that comes after the burn. He calls most hot pepper challenges stupid and cautions pepper seekers against being too ambitious and reaching too quickly for a Carolina Reaper or Pepper X.

“You build up a tolerance,” Currie said, later hinting that more pepper heat may be bubbling up from the fields, labs and chillers that he won’t let fans, reporters or even the bankers helping his business expand see.

“Is this the pinnacle?” Currie said, a mischievous smile warming his face. “No, it’s not the pinnacle.”