Trinidad Scorpion Butch T

The Trinidad Scorpion Butch T held the Guinness World Record for the world's hottest chilli from March 2011 to November 2013, with a recorded heat of 1,463,700 SHU. The variety was named for Butch Taylor of Zydeco Farms in Mississippi, who propagated and stabilised seeds from the original Trinidad Scorpion stock acquired from Australian chilli enthusiast Marcel de Wit and his contact network. The Butch T's record reign represented a significant moment in superhot breeding. Where earlier record-holders (Red Savina, Bhut Jolokia) reflected genuine landrace or selectively-bred varieties with deep cultivation history, the Butch T was effectively a stabilised selection from Trinidad Scorpion stock, named after the breeder rather than after a place or traditional cultivar identity. This shift from landrace to named-cultivar reflected the growing professionalisation of superhot breeding in the early 2010s. The variety retains the defining Trinidad Scorpion characteristics: the small pointed tail at the pod's base, the characteristic bumpy wrinkled surface, the slow-build heat that can take 30-60 seconds to reach full intensity, and the underlying chinense fruit-and-floral character that distinguishes Caribbean superhots from the smokier Indian Naga family. Heat lands consistently in the 800,000-1.4 million SHU range, with peak pods occasionally exceeding the average. The Butch T's record was broken by the Carolina Reaper in November 2013, which held the title for ten years until being itself dethroned by Pepper X in 2023. Despite no longer holding the record, the Butch T remains one of the most widely cultivated superhots in chilli enthusiast collections - readily available as seed, productive in cultivation, and notable for genuine flavour beneath the extreme heat. The variety effectively defined the "Trinidad Scorpion Butch T" name as the standard reference point for what Trinidad Scorpion family superhots should taste and behave like.