Paqui, the maker of extremely spicy tortilla chips marketed as the “One Chip Challenge,” is voluntarily pulling the product from shelves after a woman said her teenage son died of complications from consuming a single chip.
The chips were sold individually, and their seasoning included two of the hottest peppers in the world: the Carolina Reaper and the Naga Viper.
Each chip was packaged in a coffin-shaped container with a skull on the front.
Lois Wolobah told NBC Boston that her 14-year-old son, Harris Wolobah, ate the chip Friday, then went to the school nurse with a stomachache. Wolobah said Harris — a sophomore at Doherty Memorial High School in Worcester, Massachusetts — passed out at home that afternoon. He was pronounced dead at the hospital later that day, she said.
Until sales of the product were suspended, Paqui’s marketing dared people to participate in the challenge by eating a chip, posting pictures of their tongues on social media after the chip turned it blue and then waiting as long as possible to relieve the burn with water or other food.
The challenge has existed in some form since 2016.
Even as someone who loves really spicy foods, I think the ever-escalating spicy trend is getting ridiculous. After a certain point you don’t taste anything and its just a dumb one-upsmanship contest.
People would litterly send men to the moon just to one up each other.
Same. Also some people just don’t seem to be able to identify any flavor beneath the heat.
My limit is this one Asian food place in Houston. I got some chicken that I didn’t realize was hot. Me and my coworkers go back to the office (a very large room). I open that to go box and everyone in the room choked from the heat of just the smell. It was strong even from the other side of this room that’s probably 80x80ft room with 40ft ceilings.
I was crying, sweating, turning red, nose running everything. Everybode else was getting a little bit of bloodshot eyes.
Of course then everyone tried convincing me to eat the pepper itself. Ain’t no way.
When I was finished we wraped it in like 3 plastic bags and took it outside and down the sidewalk and put it in a trashcan there.
But that was some damn good chicken. 5 stars, would suffer again.
Sounds like you all had a great time.
You don’t eat this chip because it’s good, you eat it because it’s one of the spiciest things you can get (and it’s fun).
This is an extreme example. Plenty of other things out there are just a dumb pissing contest to see who can make the hottest sauce, wings, chip, ribs, etc.
I looove hot and spicy foods and refuse to take part in any of that nonsense.
People look at me like I’m crazy and I have to explain that, yes, I like hot and spicy flavors but that doesn’t mean I’d eat a spoonful of godamn lava.
I enjoy watching people do it though and always offer to buy drinks for someone who does it, lol.
As a lover of spicy foods, and more importantly, a late 30s fella, I agree completely. If you don’t enjoy it, what’s the point?
I’m tired of restaurants basically wafting a Carolina Reaper over their salsas or sauces and advertising their barely-jalapeno-grade garbage as being particularly spicy. One drop of extract in a bulk batch of sauce for a restaurant does not make it spicy, but it certainly lets vanilla consumers with no real tolerance feel like they’re able to take actual heat from real peppers.
I love spicy food and I’ve done the One Chip Challenge just for the thrill, but it’s not really done as a “food” any more than skydiving is done for transportation. It arguably shouldn’t be sold to minors, but it’s actually hot, not just marketing, and arguably is more responsible for creating the trend in the first place than jumping on the bandwagon later. The Challenge has been sold for a long time.
I think Popeyes or Wendy’s was advertising some ghost pepper sandwich recently and it was decent and had a little bit of a kick, but it was far from being hot. Same thing with various “hot” chips.
If it is a mass market brand I have very low expectations when it comes to spice level. If it had the slightest vit of a kick, I’m surprised.
It was Wendy’s and it really wasn’t that hot. They also had “Ghost Pepper Ranch” for the nuggets and it’s really mild.
It’s not really sold as a food. It’s sold as a game. That’s why it’s called the “one chip challenge”. You’re supposed to eat it and then hold out as long as possible without driving something to sedate the burn.
It’s also not that spicy. Last time I had it, I was mostly coughing from the stale chip and dry, powdery seasoning. The heat itself didn’t bother me. Their regular sized bags of chips were way spicier to me.