The Carolina Reaper and the Naga Viper are two of the world’s hottest peppers. The former averages about 1.6 million Scoville units and the Naga Viper stands only a bit less at 1.3 million. (This metric is named after scientist Wilbur Scoville, who determined how to measure a pepper’s pungency and heat back in 1912.) When both are brushed onto the dust of a chip, they make a Paqui that burns so hot, the unit of the Hershey Company warns consumers, it’s a “truly twisted experience.” As part of its “One Chip Challenge,” the company dares eaters to see if they can endure it for $9.99—and it just saw its first known case of a death after ingestion, a 14-year-old in Massachusetts.
Paqui challenged eaters to take on the reaper and viper peppers via a website decorated with a red skull and a snake weaving through it. The company also used to challenge people to see how long they could hold off drinking or eating anything after consuming the chip, according to the New York Times, but it has removed that language from its side following the death of Harris Wolobah, a teenager from Worcester, as first reported by the Boston Globe. “How long can you last before you spiral out?” the official website read.
