♪ The history of Puckerbutt Pepper Company actually goes back to a girl.

She would not talk to me, but I heard she liked salsa, and I was growing some hot peppers and tomatoes in the yard, and I made up some salsa, and she asked at a party, "Who made the salsa?"

and that was my in.

And we were making all this hot sauce and salsa, giving it away to friends, and she said, after a year, "We're spending a whole lot of money.

You need to charge for this stuff," and we went up to the local farmers market that weekend, and people bought it.

And that was the beginning of the Puckerbutt Pepper Company.

We were breeding peppers in the backyard, and I got a pepper that was so hot, it knocked me to my knees, and I went to Winthrop University and met a man named Dr. Calloway, and we decided to experiment to see how hot were these peppers.

And the very first test they did was 1.275 million Scoville heat units, which at the time was the hottest thing ever recorded.

I started my journey with Guinness then.

Finally in 2013, we were at a show up in Charlotte.

A text came through and said, "You now have the Guinness World Record for the hottest thing in the world."

From that point on, it was just snowballed.

We got so many orders after the AP story came out, that I had to refund half of them, because we couldn't make the product fast enough.

I just decided this is the place to be, and I talked to the man who owned this building, and he said, "You're a Fort Mill story.

You belong in the city of Fort Mill."

And I said, "I don't think I can afford that," and he made me a deal I couldn't resist, ok?

So we moved into downtown Fort Mill, but when I got that Guinness World Record, we got a lot of press, and I didn't talk about myself.

I didn't talk about my business.

I talked about this area, okay, because it's not about me, it's about the we, and the city supports everything we do, but it's not just the city, it's like Springs Farm.

I was sitting over across the street at a hundred year old barber shop, and the guy next to me goes, "Hey, you're a Fort Mill story.

"Why aren't you growing your peppers in Fort Mill?

"Why are you growing them down at Chester?"

I say, "Well, 'cause I can't afford land in Fort Mill."

He said "Well, I happen to have a lot of farmland in Fort Mill.

Why don't we move you up here?"

And I, "Okay, let's give it a shot."

And we've worked together, and a very large business here gave me a chance.

And now, we're one of the largest pepper farms in the world.

We have to keep on investing in the local community, investing in employees, investing in the business to keep up with the growth in the hot sauce industry.

One of the things that we do that other people don't do: Our farm is pretty big, but we don't use herbicides or pesticides or things like that.

We try to keep things all natural.

I buy ladybugs, and I buy praying mantis, and there are natural alternatives to the things that are out there on other farms.

Also, we do everything ourselves.

We're not an industrial farm.

So, the products, the peppers that we make, are really, really good, and South Carolina is the best place in the whole world to grow peppers.

Our soil is the best.

We start from seed.

We start all our own peppers.

We put them out in the field ourselves.

We take care of them ourselves.

We harvest them by hand, okay.

We make sure that only the best fruit goes into the products.

Peppers are a fruit, if you didn't know.

Love goes into this product.

Pride goes into this product.

The common mistake that happens all the time when people come in here is they know about the Carolina Reaper and they come in and they say they "want to try the Carolina Reaper.

I try jalapenos all the time," and I try to explain to him, that is a totally different thing.

What's best to do is start mild, okay?

Most hot sauce you see in the grocery store is 1 to 8% pepper.

Our mildest stuff is 55% pepper.

So, you start with the mild stuff and you build your way up.

I'm Smokin' Ed Currie.

I'm the president, owner, mad scientist, and chef at the Puckerbutt Pepper Company.

I'm going crazy.

I just love to do that.

[chuckles]