The ghost pepper is the chilli that started the whole superhot era. In 2007 Guinness certified it as the hottest on earth, the first pepper scientifically verified above a million Scoville units, and it held the record until 2011. Hotter things have been bred since, but this is the one that changed what people thought a chilli could do.

It comes from the hills of Assam, Nagaland and Manipur. Bhut means ghost in Assamese, said to describe the way the heat arrives: slow, almost gentle, behind a fruity and faintly smoky flavour, then climbing steadily into a sustained burn that catches out experienced chilli eaters.