What is the world's hottest pepper? I'm growing some bhut jolokia peppers, and they are almost ready for harvesting.

However, I've since seen that the naga viper pepper has beaten the bhut jolokia as the hottest pepper.  I've also seen that a variety of Trinidad Scorpion pepper has beaten out the naga viper.

The store I bought my bhut jolokia from now is selling "the world's hottest pepper" called naga jolokia.

Is the naga jolokia the same as the naga viper?  Is it the same as the bhut jolokia?

I understand that the naga viper was an unstable hybrid.  Presumably this means that it cannot be reliably sold for home gardeners.  Is the Trinidad Scorpion variety stable?  If not, how do the stable varieties compare with the naga viper and bhut jolokia?

To summarize the questions:


What is a naga jolokia, and where does it stand in comparison to
the other "contender" peppers?
What is the world's hottest pepper?
What is the hottest pepper that the average home gardener can purchase, and then grow
at home (local climate permitting)?
What is the world's hottest pepper?


According to the Scovile Scale the hottest pepper is Bhut Jolokia. The one you are currently growing

Scovile Scale Visualized




  What is a naga jolokia, and where does it stand in comparison to the
  other "contender" peppers?


Bhut Jolokia or Naga Jologia

According to some sources, they indicate that Bhut and Naga are the same pepper. Naga means Ghost.

MSNBC has a great article covering this world record chili:


  The pepper is known by any number of names across India’s northeast.
  It’s the “poison chili” in some areas, the “king of the chilis” in
  others. Just to the south of Assam is Nagaland, it’s eaten in nearly
  every meal. As a result, it is often called the Naga mircha — the
  “Naga chili.”