There’s a new hottest chili pepper in town: Pepper X. Eating this wrinkly fruit is “like swallowing a flaming charcoal briquette,” says Ed Currie, the South Carolinian grower who created it. Chili peppers, used all over the world to give dishes a spicy kick, get their heat from a chemical called capsaicin, which tricks your brain into thinking you’re eating something scalding hot. Last fall, Pepper X earned the title of world’s hottest pepper from Guinness World Records. It’s so spicy, in fact, that Currie himself became violently sick for hours after eating a whole one. Why do some people like food that makes them feel ill? When you eat something spicy, your brain releases a flood of feel-good chemicals like dopamine and endorphins, similar to the rush people get when riding a roller coaster, explains Currie. “The first time I tried hot peppers, it knocked me to my knees,” he says. “I was sweating, I was snotting, I was drinking as much water as I could . . . but it made me feel good.”