I used to be a big pepper wimp, thinking Jalapenos were the right level of heat and that a Cayenne/Habanero extract of 250k scoville units (used for medicinal purposes) was absolute torture, even if all I was given was two drops.
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Then I heard about how hot peppers could get and, being an often all too curious guy, I decided to buy whatever hot peppers showed up in the produce market and try them. I ended up with a Bird's Eye Pepper, a Scotch Bonnet, and a Red Fatalii. The first two were really bad, but the last one just wrecked me. Involuntary tears were streaming, nose running, and hands shaking. I told myself to never eat one of those again, but then I came here...
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I read somewhere that if you eat a much hotter pepper than anything you've ever eaten, the past peppers will seem like snacks. And that's what I did, pepper after pepper after even hotter pepper, and - guess what - they were right! Straight Habaneros were now hardly something to consider, my nemesis the Red Fatalii didn't faze me, and even much hotter peppers than these were quite easy.Â
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Everything was going great until I discovered two new peppers: one was, I believe, a Naga Morich. The other was long, fat, quite wrinkly, and absolutely chock full of seeds and that blazin' hot white material (I call it the membrane, not sure what the proper term is) on the inside. The Naga nearly got me; I was on my knees, could hardly talk, and the burn seemed to last an eternity. With the worse pepper behind me (or so I thought) in a few days I decided to have a go at the mystery pepper.Â
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Long story short, I have no clue what that was but I severely underestimated it. It was so hot I literally could not speak; I would try and no coherent words would come out. At the end of 15 minutes my mouth was still on fire, but down to a bearable level. As soon as I had uttered the words, "I'm glad that's over," in came the cap cramps. And these were no ordinary cap cramps either, they were horrible. Soon enough, to my shame, I was writhing around on the ground uncontrollably - and unsuccessfully - trying to find a comfortable position for the next 20 minutes. To this day that was the worst pepper I've ever eaten and I will try to approach future mystery peppers with more respect and caution, for the sake of my poor stomach!