I have some Caroline Reaper chillis growing in my backyard.
I know they rate the hottest ones in the world according to the Scoville scale.
I grow them to use in lotions and topical cremes for their medical properties.
Today I broke a piece of chilli off the size of one of it's seeds and tried it.
Note that I am a seasoned chilli consumer,having hot chilli sauce on my bacon and egg breakfast every morning.
To the heat of most chillis , I am immune.
The tiny piece of Caroline Reaper had me downing half a litre of milk followed by a mouth full of soft butter in order to ease the fire. It did ease, though not eliminated the fire.
I advise all and sundry never to try these lava berries raw.
Friends claim they are great in cooking as long as only minute quantities are used and in meals with a bit of fat.
I urge extreme caution.
There are plenty of other chillis that are not as hot yet much better suited in the culinary arts
Heh, you knew how powerful they are yet went ahead and tried a bit anyway. I respect that, only because to some extent I share that particular variety of folly. :evilgrin:
After the pain, I felt a sense of euphoria for about 10 minutes.
I lived and learned from the experience, never to be repeated.
As a healer, I will use this experience wisely.
I used to eat Kung Pao dishes where the red chilis that most people pick out were ground up, so not really removable. My wife wouldn't eat at the same table with me because it made her eyes water so. Did some damage- I can't even eat tomatoes any more. I can't imagine trying a Carolina Reaper. :-X
habaneros are too hot for me. the last time cooked a big pot of curry with them i just threw it out.
i use cayenne and serranos and call it good
habaneros for me are mild.
I make my chili sauce out of them.
I find habaneros do not have the fruity flavour of the Thai Birds eye chilli but are hotter so I mix them half.half in my chilli sauce.
Caroline Reapers are hotter than pepper spray by far. I use them to make a deep heat muscle pain relief creme and lotions.
Where does one find Carolina Reapers? From one of the Carolinas or perhaps from the gates of hell?
My one aunt (father's sister) was called Caroline, but she wasn't hot.
Quote from: Icarus on May 15, 2025, 04:56:42 AMWhere does one find Carolina Reapers? From one of the Carolinas or perhaps from the gates of hell? ...
They are the only meals available in hell.Also available as hor dervs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carolina_Reaper gives you some useful information. I got original seeds from a seed merchant.
Wow! those things must be a lot hotter than anything I have, or will ever tried. Capsaicin is sometimes used as an analgesic for muscle strains and arthritis pain. I suspect that there may be some downsides to using such evil brew.
Many years ago my sainted mother was a gardener who sometimes grew peppers of one sort or another. She had been experimenting with hydroponic gardening and had developed a bumper crop of tiny little red peppers. They were viciously hot. The practical woman that she was, decided to preserve some of the peppers into pepper sauce as well as pepper jelly.
In the process of preparing the sauce and jelly mixtures she had to handle the peppers numerous times. Within 24 hours her hands had broken out with the most severely painful rash that she had ever experienced. She landed in the hospital for several days. She vowed never to touch another "infernal god damned pepper" even though she was not normally given over to profane expression.. We never learned what variety of pepper brought her so much pain.
The Carolina Reaper may be a tool of Satan so beware.