Tiberius Mauler

Fruity, floral, and lightly citrusy beneath intense, layered heat with a clean finish.

The Tiberius Mauler is a Capsicum chinense superhot known for deeply wrinkled, elongated pods 3–4 inches long with pronounced scorpion stinger tails. Pods begin green and ripen primarily to red (with peach, caramel, and chocolate phenotypes also selected). Plants are vigorous and heavily branching, often exceeding 5 feet tall under good conditions, and produce high yields of high-oil pods with a pleasant fruity-floral aroma. Heat is extreme and layered, typically estimated in the 500,000–1,500,000 SHU range.

In 2019 Brian Hamilton of Pomfret, Connecticut grew an unexpected hybrid from a seed packet labeled Jay’s Peach Ghost Scorpion × 7 Pot Primo obtained from Justin White of White Hot Peppers. The plants produced longer, more blistered, and hotter pods than the labeled parents; the cross is believed to have involved Leviathan Gnarly Scorpion pollen. Hamilton selected for a more defined scorpion shape over subsequent seasons and named the pepper Tiberius Mauler after a Guild Wars character as a tribute to a friend who died at age 42. He shared seeds openly, allowing red, peach, caramel, and chocolate phenotypes to spread among growers.