The spookiest ingredient of them all—Tim Milhorn presents the ghost pepper.

The ghost & the reaper

Back when there was a certain wings and pizza joint in town, they offered a hot wing challenge, the After Dash, which weighed in at 150,000 Scoville Units. A Scoville Unit is a unit of heat measured on the Scoville Scale invented by Wilbur Scoville in 1912. It is based on the concentration of capsaicinoids, of which capsaicin is the predominant compound.

Remember that heat rating above? 150,000+ units. Well, that is barely a heat ripple on the peppers included below. The Carolina Reaper is rated at 1,500,000+ Scoville Units. That is what is in law-enforcement-grade pepper spray. The ghost pepper is rated at 750,000 to 1,500,000 units. Considering the most “popular” pepper consumed is the Jalapeno, at 2,500 to 10,000 units, why, that’s practically baby food!

As you may know, there was a popular challenge going around called The One Chip Challenge. It’s a Paqui brand chip coated in flavoring made from the Trinidad Scorpion Butch T (who knew!) pepper that comes in at 1,463,700 Scoville Units. I have seen the results of this challenge, and it is not pretty. Also, it can be dangerous and has sent people to the hospital, so don’t do it! If you want to get a laugh, watch some chip challenge results on YouTube. Bring some milk!

My son took the challenge about a year ago. It definitely was not pretty! He felt light-headed, his mouth was a burning pit from hell, and he tried to gag out the chip after 10 seconds. But he didn’t. And while he had plenty of milk on hand, the heat did not abate after he chugged a glass or two. Neither did the profanity he directed at his girlfriend who recorded the event and talked him into it. (I have to admit I ordered the chip.) Helpful tip: As bad as the chip is going down, it’s nearly as bad coming out!

Back to that After Dash wing challenge. I went to a party where I brought about five dozen wings. Included among them were six After Dash wings. I told the people at the party and asked who wanted to try one out. Four people agreed and one guy actually ate two! We were all very impressed. Now the funny part: Later, MB went to the bathroom to urinate. Sadly, he forgot to wash his hands before he went. Cue to five minutes later when he began to feel the burn down below! He thought he might have to jump in the swimming pool to put that fire out.