Ed Currie
"Smokin" Ed Currie is an American chili pepper breeder, who is the founder and president of the Puckerbutt Pepper Company. He is best known for breeding the hottest chili pepper in the world, the Carolina Reaper, as recognized by Guinness World Records. Background. Currie was born in West Bloomfield Township, Michigan. He graduated from Central Michigan University and fought addiction for many years. In 2001, Currie moved to South Carolina, where he began growing his own peppers in the yard and experimenting with crossbreeds. He was featured in the episode "Chili Eating" in the 2020 Netflix documentary series , "We Are the Champions". Puckerbutt Pepper Company. Currie started The Puckerbutt Pepper Company in Fort Mill, South Carolina in 2003. The company has over 500,000 pepper plants and sells peppers considered to be extremely hot. He sells seeds, pepper mash, and hot sauce to more than 95 countries. PuckerButt has annual revenues close to $1 million, and it is the largest organic pepper farm in the United States. Currie's hot sauce "The Last Dab" became known when it was featured on the YouTube show "Hot Ones." Currie crossbreeds his pepper plants by taking the pollen of one plant  with a paintbrush and then delivering that pollen to a different plant. To create the Carolina Reaper, he took a pepper from Pakistan and combined it with one from Saint Vincent. In 2017, "Guinness World Records" gave the title of World's Hottest Chili to the Carolina Reaper.