Chilli Of The Week

Although I’m partial to a curry I have never really the understood the attraction of an AB (arse burner). I have never been tempted in the slightest to test my ability to endure a hot chilli. But there are some who can’t resist the challenge and, indeed, enter competitions to demonstrate their bravado. If you are in the slightest bit tempted, here is a cautionary tale I came across this week.

It features the Bhut jolokia aka the ghost pepper which measures 1 million on the scale created by Wilbur Scoville in 1912 to measure the pungency of chillis. To put it into context it is 400 times hotter than Tabasco sauce. Anyway, some herbert, unnamed, in America (natch) smeared the chilli in powdered form on to a burger and proceeded to eat it. No sooner than he had taken the last mouthful, he started experiencing violent retching and severe abdominal and chest pains.

On arrival at the hospital it was discovered that the chilli had made a 2.5-centimetre tear in his oesophagus. The result – 23 days in hospital and a gastric tube fitted on discharge.

A warning to us all. Mind you, the Buht jolokia is nothing compared to the world’s hottest, the Carolina Reaper, which weighs in at 2.2 million Scovilles.

Filed under: Humour, News Tagged: Bhut jolokia chilli, Carolina Reaper chilli, man tears oesophagus after eating chilli, the Scoville scale, Wilbur Scoville