I like spicy food. Two nights ago, I took a bite from a home-grown habanero pepper on a dare. My tolerance is pretty high, but this tiny bite set fire almost immediately after it entered my mouth. After the initial shock, my endorphins kicked in and the heat subsided to a consistent, throbbing pain, where it remained for the next twenty minutes.
“Most habaneros will rate between 200,000 and 300,000 Scoville units,” according to Wikipedia, while the standard jalapeno levels out at only 2,500-8,000. So if you can imagine the heat from a jalapeno — which is no walk in the park — multiply that times 100 and you’ve got the habanero. Now multiply THAT — the 200,000-300,000 from a habanero times three — and you’ve got the world’s hottest chili: India’s Naga Jolokia.
“It is so hot you can’t even imagine,” a farmer told the Denver Post. “When you eat it, it’s like dying.”
I don’t think I’ll be eating one of these on a dare.