Fort Worth Man Likes It Record Hot

A Fort Worth man grows the world's hottest chili pepper and he wants to grow what pepper aficionados believe will be the next record holder.

Ronnie Walley wraps hot peppers in bacon and adds chili powder to many of his dishes. It takes ice cream, water, or both to soothe the burn.

The retiree grows and sells peppers from his backyard garden under the company name, AlabamaJacks Exotic Superhots. The plants are going dormant with the cold weather, but the peppers are very much alive, especially the Bhut Jolokia -- the world's hottest pepper, also called "ghost pepper."

"It has a delayed burn," he said. "You may take a bite and wait a few seconds and take another bite, and then it's too late."

Walley also grows what he believes will be the next world record holder -- the Trinidad Scorpion. He says it has a sting.

"I don't want to burn anybody up. I like it hot and I have to be very careful when I cook," he said. "I could mix and match and make my own chili powder that would give you a burn from the front of the mouth all the way down the throat but a burn that wouldn't kill you."

Next up, Walley hopes to get the seeds for another pepper that could one day become the world's hottest -- a hybrid of three peppers grown by a man in Australia.

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