Does the phrase Paqui Carolina Reaper Madness mean anything to you? (Easy, Coloradans — that was reaper madness.) We'll break the phrase down for those fortunate enough to be out of the loop on this one. Paqui is a gourmet tortilla chip company. The Carolina Reaper is a pepper. As a matter of fact, not only is it a type of pepper, it's the Guinness Book of World Records holder in the world's hottest pepper category. While the Dragon's Breath Chili may be the unofficial hottest pepper ever, it hasn't yet been confirmed by Guinness.
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Madness is, well, madness. Together, the Paqui Carolina Reaper Madness forms what may prove to be the spiciest tortilla chip ever. There's even a food challenge built around it called the One Chip Challenge. The Carolina Reaper Chip, mind you. Of course, some news anchors tried the Paqui One Chip Challenge and failed gloriously in pain.
Each Paqui Carolina Reaper Madness chip comes in its own coffin-shaped box. The box warns you to wash your hands after touching the single chip, and it also lets you know to keep it away from children. As you should when dealing with the hottest chip ever.
These Pacqui haunted ghost pepper chips are the definition of spicy foods. If you've already watched the video above, you understand why.
https://www.instagram.com/p/Ba6059pluHq/?taken-by=paquichips
For whatever reason, people like the Denver-based news anchors above flock to the One Chip Challenge. This year, the individual chip offering sold out before November. News anchor Natalie stands as testament that the Challenge is not enjoyable. For goodness sake, she puked! That's how strong the heat level is here, even for extreme heat seekers.
Paqui capitalizes on the One Chip Challenge by encouraging people to post their own reactions on social media. Naturally, the hashtag #OneChipChallenge is a gold mine for all kinds of horrible videos fueled by singular chip mouth ruination. Further, it shows you just how many people are willing to inflict self-harm to bolster their social media clout.
That's How I Beat Shaq
The challenge even took Shaquille O'Neal down. (Yes, we're also singing Aaron Carter's "That's How I Beat Shaq" in our heads right now.) Between Shaq and the news anchors featured above, we're wondering how many public figures need to try the Challenge before average citizens realize it's probably not a great idea.
Carolina Reaper peppers have been cultivated with heat being the key factor all along. By the same token, a batch grown last year came in at 1.5 million Scovilles. The batch behind this year's One Chip Challenge chip reached 1.9 million. Just for comparison's sake, Cholula comes in at 3,600 Scoville heat units.
