According to the Telegraph, this chilli is so hot, you'd have to drink 250,000 gallons of water just to put out the fire. It's called the "16 Million Reserve" and is 8,000 times stronger than Tabasco sauce. In fact, it's not really a sauce, it's a food additive made of pure capsaicin. Its creator, Blair Lazar, from Extreme Food, describes his experience when he tried it: "It was like having your tongue hit with a hammer. Man, it hurt. My tongue swelled up and it hurt like hell for days." Another "chilli head" -- as are named the lovers of these extra hot sauces -- put a single grain into a pan of tomato soup and reported his wife's words after she tried the soup: "She threatened divorce once she could speak again." If you're interested, there will be only 999 bottles for sale, with prices ranging between $159 and $199. Read more.
The article of the Telegraph is very entertaining, so I'll let you read it. Here are some short excerpts of the history of the product, named "16 Million Reserve"because it's made of pure capsaicin, which scores at 16 million units on the Scoville scale developed in 1912. (For more details about this scale, read this page at Wikipedia.)
It takes several tons of fresh peppers to produce 1lb of capsaicin for the 16 Million Reserve, and the work takes months. First, moisture is removed from the fresh peppers until a thick tar-like substance remains.
The means by which all further impurities are eliminated, leaving pure capsaicin powder, is a trade secret, but the work takes place in a laboratory where Mr Lazar and his team wear sealed suits with masks to avoid inhaling the dust.
Five years ago Mr Lazar created "2am Reserve" in honour of the hour at which he once closed his bar. It was hotter than any other chilli product on the market, measuring up to 900,000 Scoville units.
He then distilled even stronger chilli extracts, including the scorching "6am Reserve" at 10 million units. Most of the signed and numbered bottles of "16 Million Reserve" will be bought by aficionados known as chilli heads.
Thatcher: Now tell me honestly, my boy. Don’t you think it’s rather unwise to continue this philanthropic enterprise, this Inquirer that’s costing you a million dollars a year?
Charles Foster Kane: You’re right, Mr. Thatcher. I did lose a million dollars last year. I expect to lose a million dollars next year. You know, Mr. Thatcher, at the rate of a million dollars a year, I’ll have to close this place in sixty years.
—Orson Welles (1915–1985)
Here is a bottle of Blair's 16 Million Reserve (Credit: Extreme Food). If you're tempted, here are some places to buy one: Extreme Food (for $199.99), Sweat 'N Spice (for $159.95) or HotSauce.com (for $159.00).
But before buying one, read carefully the "Product disclaimer" on the HotSauce.com page mentioned above.
Purchaser of this product hereby acknowledges the intense heat factor of this product and the element of danger if misused. This product is over 100 time hotter than a jalapeno pepper and is a complex blend of fresh peppers and extracts. This product is not a sauce but a food additive and should be used as such only.
And the Telegraph adds the following warning.
Although capsaicin does not actually burn -- it fools your brain into thinking that you are in pain by stimulating nerve endings in your mouth -- some medical experts believe that it could kill an asthmatic or hospitalise a user who touched his eyes or other sensitive parts of the anatomy.
Well, I guess this is too hot for me. So, for not so hot sauces, you can read a previous entry, "Some Like It Hot, Some Like It Mild," which contains more explanations about the Scoville scale and a recipe of Habanero Pepper Sauce.
Frustrate a Frenchman, he will drink himself to death; an Irishman, he will die of angry hypertension; a Dane, he will shoot himself; an American, he will get drunk, shoot you, then establish a million dollar aid program for your relatives. Then he will die of an ulcer.
—Stanley Rudin. The New York Times (August 22, 1963)
Sources: James Langton, Telegraph.co.uk, May 8, 2005; and various websites
Related stories can be found in the following categories.
Chemistry
Food
Miscellaneous.