Maanghang ba?

(This may be old, but I only found out about it now.)

The degree of "hotness" that a hot sauce is measured by is called a scoville unit, it measures the amount of capsaicin, the chemical that makes something "hot".

Personal taste and preference will always be a factor when it comes to spicy food, I personally like some spice, but not to the point where it becomes unbearable and what was supposed to be a culinary delight turns into a burning sear (I don't think that's right grammar) I still find it amazing how some people can find extremely hot foods "tasty" when I'm pretty sure they can't taste whatever it was in the first place.

Anyway, back to the point, I really haven't had that much experience with hot sauce, outside of Tabasco, the Asian chili sauce from Pho, and the small chili peppers that Ate Ne grows in our backyard. However, a discussion on a forum that I frequent brought up the topic of the higher tier hotsauces. One of the links posted was that to a webpage charting the different hotsauces and how they rate in terms of hotness.

So, the highest measure of hotness, 16,000,000 Scoville units, is pretty much pure capsaicin. If you've ever watched Fear Factor, I believe they had the episode where they had the contestants eat a Habanero pepper, the hottest pepper in the world with fermented squid intestines (I think). Well, the Habanero pepper, the hottest pepper in the world (they say), clocks in at 100,000 to 300,00 Scoville units. What the fuck! Of a potential of 16 MILLION units, the hottest pepper in the world only manages a measly 300,000 (max).


So, we turn to man made sauces. The hottest sauce, well, doesn't really count as a sauce, because its PURE FUCKING CAPSAICIN. That's right, 16 FREAKIN MILLION Scoville units. The aptly named, Blair's 16 Million Reserve.





And hey, if that may be a little too much for you, how about going one step down, to Blair's 6 am, which ranges from 10.3 million - 16 million units. :| Right, come on, really, at that point, I don't think my mouth is going to notice the difference between 10.3 million and 16 million Scoville units, all that would be registering would be PAIN. And lots of it.

And poised above each bottle, is a wax molding of a skull. Which I am assuming is what you will look like after consuming these monstrosities.

And where does Tabasco fit into all this madness? 2,140. That's right, two fucking thousand. So for those that find Tabasco a painful experience, imagine eating something that is 7476.6355 (round to 4 decimal places) times more hotter than that.

The full list can be found here.

The lesson in all this? I have to try it. Think of it as a roller coaster. Without the height. And more pain. They actually say it's healthy. Right. I will probably open the bottle, take a whiff, and crumple on the floor as if hit by tear gas. It's an excuse to eat chicken wings.

Anyway, for all your higher tier hotsauce needs, www.firegirl.com is your friend. Or any other store will work too I guess.