Paqui One Chip Challenge

[tiewunon]

-Maybe in my younger days I would have given it a go. Today I would give it a HARD pass.
-With that said I do not see how it could be hotter than this small red pepper (looked like a maraschino cherry) that was sitting on the plate of a meal I ordered in Pattaya Beach Thailand in the early 80's. I plopped that little guy in my yap and it was a life altering event. Nothing I mean nothing put that fire out. Trust me I tried milk, and in those days I was still drinking and had copious quantities of Singha both green and brown bottle to no avail.
- I actually think you could have dropped one of those little red balls of sheer heat into a bucket of water and it would have started to boil the water.
- Four days later when we got underway Navy chow even tasted good, no longer needed hot sauce to chase the food down.

[troymeister]

Well...Maybe grind up as fine as possible and sprinkle a tiny bit on something for super hot seasoning. I think to eat it whole like that is disrespectful to the pepper. As we all know there are at least a few million Scoville units in one of those chips. To me it would be like doing the Tide Pod challenge.

[Old Glory]

I ski up at Sunday River. They used to have a Ghost Pepper Wing Challenge in the Foggy Goggle bar. 12 Ghost Pepper Wings in 30 minutes and you get a T-shirt and your picture on the wall. I never tried it but enjoyed watching other guys try. They'd eat one or two no big deal. Then the heat would kick in. You could see it happening. And it was bad. Eyes swelled shut, snot running out of people's noses, drooling, puking...good times. They would run outside and bury their faces in the snow or break off an icicle and chew it up.

Only saw one guy finish it. Big heavy guy way over 300. Merely broke a slight sweat. Finished his then ate the rest of his friend's. Was amazing.

[Andrrr]

"Eyes swelled shut, snot running out of people's noses, drooling, puking...good times."

That got me. Reminds me of other bad decisions I’ve had the pleasure of witnessing. 👍

[fzxdoc]

I like the idea of crushing the chip up and using it as a seasoning. Thing is, people in videos talk about how nasty the chip tastes. Those of us who like spicy foods like to taste the pepper itself before tasting the heat that comes on. Apparently there's no pepper flavor in the One Chip Challenge. One guy said it tasted like hot asphalt on a July day. Not very appealing.

Anyway, I've decided to pass on giving the Challenge a try. My son in law has one too and we were going to try a small bite of ours together, but now I'm thinking that not even that is worth it if the taste is so bad and the heat is so overwhelming.

Kathryn

[shify]

I would not recommend using it as a flavoring device.

If you are interested in a spicy but tasty chip, Paqui makes a Haunted Ghost Pepper chip that is sold in supermarkets and comes in normal size bag (like a bag of doritos). I think that chip is really good and pretty spicy, but in a more normal way. I could eat a handful of those chips but my wife freaked out at half of one.

[DiverDriver]

2 Guys at work here did it as a challenge.... I was prepared to hose them down. It is every bit as bad as the vids and then some. as earlier poster said it does not go away kindly either.

[fzxdoc]

This is so sad. A 14-year-old child died hours after eating a One Chip Challenge chip. Paqui has withdrawn it from stores. I read about it in the Washington Post this morning, but here's an article about it that is not behind a paywall:

https://www.npr.org/2023/09/08/1198369305/maker-one-chip-challenge-pulls-product-from-stores

Kathryn

[mrteddyprincess]

I thought the one chip challenge was a fun thing, but I'm sorry it ended in someone dying.

[Richard Chrz]

I had forgotten about this, and my wife just told me about the death’s from this. So sad!

[Bkhuna]

Hard pass. I like spicy food, and at one time went through a chili head phase. Ruined a fair number of meals trying to see how much heat I could put into a recipe.

I finally grew up and put away such silliness.

[fzxdoc]

Good call. When a chile knocks out the taste buds, the entire meal is ruined. I like the warm fruity heat of a chile in the back of my mouth after the bite is long gone. To me, that's the perfect amount of spice.

K.

[ecowper]

Stacy told me about this yesterday ..... a young man in Mass died on 9/1 due to the Paqui One Chip Challenge.

Vigil planned for Massachusetts teen who died after taking part in One Chip Challenge (msn.com)

[jfmorris]

Pretty sad about this kid. I am guessing he had an allergic reaction to the insane amount of capsaicin in the potato chip. I'm not allergic to any foods, but my own panic attack style reaction to a "death nut" a few years ago tells me that someone with any level of allergies or possibly something like asthma could easily be overwhelmed by the reaction to one of these crazy pepper challenges.

[fzxdoc]

Apparently part of the "challenge" on the packaging is to see how long you can go after eating the chip without drinking water or taking, say, a creamy antidote to the capsaicin. Capsaicin poisoning is so common that there's a warning to call the Poison Control Center when eating it causes an adverse reaction.

This is heartbreaking, a kid dying like this. Just the fact that he was giving it a try with his buddies shows his enthusiasm for life and for taking risks. It's fun to be a daredevil, until things go sideways. So very sad.

Kathryn

[JeffJ]

Even before I heard the story about this kid dying my response has always been a hard pass. It just seems like it would be really unpleasant if not extremely painful. I don't need that.