BTR Scorpion Pepper Review

This is the last pepper review from the 2021 season and it’s a beast. The BTR Scorpion, also known as the Butch T Reaper Scorpion, is the evil offspring of a cross by – you guessed it – Butch Taylor, a grower from Mississippi. It’s a cross between the current world’s hottest pepper (Carolina Reaper) and the “Butch T” Trinidad Scorpion which, for three years back in the 2010’s, was also the hottest pepper on the globe. As you can imagine, this thing is incredibly hot.

My particular plant wasn’t the most productive and ripened late in the season, but those pods that I was able to harvest looked just like the samples in the photo below. Each had the general shape of a Moruga scorpion and the lightly blistered skin of the Carolina Reaper. Their appearance is scary outside and in.

Once cut open, the BTR Scorpion starts to ooze oil from the skin and placenta. A decent amount of seeds cling to the spongey material. Slicing into the pepper not only brings out the oils, it releases a pungent aroma that just smells nasty hot – it’s floral, lightly fruity and attacks the nose like an invading alien force.

The flavor is also quite floral as a solid amount of fruitiness fills the mouth along with a light bitterness. You don’t get to enjoy those flavors for too long, however, as they are quickly overtaken by the malevolent heat of the BTR Scorpion.

The heat to this pepper is more than just fire. It scorches the throat immediately upon swallowing, rapidly advancing forward with blazing speed to engulf the tongue in a raging inferno. The gums and roof of the mouth also take the brunt of this one as the fire builds excruitiatingly slowly to a stinging, intense peak. It feels as though this one just keeps climbing and climbing eventually sitting at that apex for a good long while – constantly shifting focus on various parts of the tongue and mouth. Eventually, the burn does subside, but not after having scarred you mentally and emotionally.

Much like the Chocolate Bhutlah, the BTR Scorpion is a pepper that I will not forget for some time to come. While the flavor does have a strong floral character, it doesn’t last long thankfully. I did enjoy the short time I spent with the fruitiness the pepper presented. It’s the burn, however, that is the center piece here. This pepper is just nasty mean and would serve well as the base to some insane sauces and powders.