EXCITEMENT is hotting up on a West Bexington farm and it’s nothing to do with the weather.

Chilli gurus Michael and Joy Michaud already have a world-wide reputation for their firecracker chilli the Dorset Naga that laid claim to be the world's hottest chilli back in 2006.

Now they think they might be on the verge of breaking the one million scoville heat barrier (a measure of chilli heat) with a possible two new plants – one completely unrelated to the hot Naga type.

The Dorset Naga was measured as 970,000 in 2006, and broke a million in 2009.

That just goes to prove no matter how clever a scientist you are – both Joy and Michael have PhDs – sometimes genetics is just an accident of fate.

One of the new ‘super hots’ came via a tortuous route through Ghana and Canada.

Mr Michaud said: “This Ghanaian immigrant Raj Kumar grows chillis on his allotment in London and contacted me out of the blue with some seeds his daughter picked up while visiting relatives in Canada.

“He said they were this and that, but they weren’t any of them. This was an unpromising start and we only grew three plants because the seeds didn't germinate too well.

“So far the fruits have tested only just slightly milder than the Dorset Naga and we have high hopes this is going to be another ‘super hot’.”

He added: “We’ve spent hours coming up with names and so far we’ve named it the Red Zinger but maybe we should have a ‘name the chilli’ contest.”

The second exciting new find seems to have come as somewhat of a surprise too and was sent to the Michauds from the Harper Adams agricultural college in Shropshire.

Mr Michaud said: “The woman there in charge of the greenhouses wanted to grow a lot of chillies and had some of our Dorset Nagas which she wanted to compare with some Indian Bhut Jolokia seeds bought from Suttons. She had an ‘off-type’ she gave to us and we managed to overwinter it – now it’s producing white fruits.

“We will have it tested and have high hopes for it.

“It’s working name is the Bengle Naga, after our son Ben.

“From now on we’re making up a whole new concept and we are going to call them the ‘super hots’ – anything over 500,000 scoville heat units.”

The Michauds are also teaming up with fellow chilli grower Mat Simpson to launch britainshottestchilli.co.uk “We will encourage people who grow hot chillis to have them tested in a lab. If the results are record breaking they can send us the results and we’ll put them on the website, so it’s a lot on people’s honour.

“It won’t be official, it’s not a competition, it’s just a bit of fun.”

It’s not a website they will use to market a third new discovery – another genetic aberration.

“We’ve got a Habanero type that's virtually heatless. I don't know what the point is but one of its characteristics is it has a really nice distinctive aroma.”

The Michauds are having a free open day at their holding in West Bexington on August 22, from 10:30am to 4pm.