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.
Tried a bite when a friend bought it a few years back. And… I can totally see it.
My eyes were watering, my nose immediately started leaking, and I think I inhaled a small amount of dust. All while coughing from the pain. Someone with preexisting conditions who was too dumb/peer pressured to wash it down with water/milk could totally die from that. And I would be very okay with an “18 or over” requirement on that.
As for the chip itself: I love spicy food. But shit like this and The Last Dab aren’t spicy. They are just “hot”. If all you want is the adrenaline rush of poisoning yourself with capsaicin, have fun. But I want my spice to enhance the flavor of what I am eating. Rather than just immediately overload my body. Spices are meant to flavor things.
You’re supposed to put a couple dabs of the last dab into a pot of chili. That’s when it adds the right amount of flavor and heat. Eating it straight is what gets you.
So dilute it and then mask it with as many other flavors as possible? Sounds about right…
I would need to check, but my general preference for a table sauce to “make food spicy” is in the hundred thousands range, but I’ve enjoyed a few Carolina Reaper (million-ish) sauces more as an accent to something else (fried foods really are amazing with hot sauces). Like, not gonna be dunking my chips in there on movie night but more than willing to use them to spice up a lazy wings or whatever night.
The Last Dab and similar “hottest sauces in the world” very rarely have a good flavor of their own. Partially because it is really hard to maximize you scoville count without being a REALLY thick (often “grainy”) sauce. And partially because you are more or less overloading your tastebuds immediately. So why waste time dialing in on the flavors that chili peppers enhance?
And this is a pretty common refrain with The Last Dab especially. I think even some of the Hot Ones staff have even talked about how it is actually a bad sauce and you should only eat it if you want the pain.
Are you sure you aren’t talking about Da Bomb? The Last Dab isn’t that bad.
Possible? I am not a fan of either, but “Da Bomb” is a lot hotter so that would probably line up.
You must be mistaking Last Dab for something else. It’s really hot but it also tastes great. It’s one of those sauces that I can’t eat much of because of the heat but I’m constantly coming back to because the flavor is excellent.
Yup. I’ve tried so many of the different high end hot sauces. I love them. I tried this back in I think 2020. On one hand, glad I did it. It’s a challenge. On the other hand, I don’t think I would do it again.
But the chip they use now is supposed to be even hotter. Like at some point it really does become a health concern. Especially for people who aren’t used to super hot foods. Even my brother, who can also keep up on the hot sauces, complained that it made his stomach hurt for a good hour.
Yeah. It definitely does not help that, even now, the average “white person” thinks salt and pepper is “spice”, taco bell gives them an upset stomach, and that you only break out the lowry’s on REALLY special occasions.
Like, a really good friend of mine for decades at this point is afraid of Cholula.
Just to make it clear. If people don’t like spicy food, that is fine. I do suspect what they don’t like is “hot” food, but, whatever.
But don’t go from “This bell pepper is a bit spicy” to a million on the Scoville scale with a “bit much” table sauce. Let alone whatever the hell these chips are at.
The Taco Bell stomach is more likely food poisoning than anything remotely spicy.
No, that is just casual racism.
Its because taco bell tends to have a modicum of seasoning and high fiber content. Fiber makes you poop and people decide that not being constipated constantly means they have diarrhea.
It is similar to “Chinese food is not filling and msg gives you a headache” in terms of dumbasses deciding the solution to their horrible diet is to be racist to everyone else.
Do you think Taco Bell is representative of actual Mexican food? Blaming Taco Bell isn’t racist, its blaming shit tier food
It is representative of texmex in the same way mcdonald’s is representative of a burger or a slim jim is representative of beef jerky. Although, funny enough, there is a much bigger focus on beans over meat (which is why taco bell is actually a decent fast food option if you are vegetarian but don’t mind trace amounts of animal products).
But in terms of marketing and racists talking about how it gives them the shits (which is also related to “ethnic” food), it is categorized as “mexican”.
Dude what the fuck are you smoking. You need to chill out 8 notches.
I do get hungry pretty fast after Chinese food, but I always felt it was because the food was so damn good I simply wanted more of it.
Wow. You are just full of terrible takes and mistakes in this thread…
I love seeing pictures that white people post of their food talking about how excited they are and it looks like there’s not a flake of seasoning on that. I don’t get how they live like that.
I had one of these chips too. It was really bad for like 10-15 minutes and then it was okay.
Also cholula slaps
Habanero tastes pretty great, but the heat is far too much for me. Like most people, I have to have it dialed down to enjoy the flavor.
Someone let me try their “Dumbass Hot Sauce” and it was very spicy, with a gross bitter taste to it. It’s made for people to show off in front of others. It’s not an enjoyable taste.
This seems like the latter kind of food. It’s not spicy as a result of trying to make something that tastes great, it sounds like it was made to be spicy as a marketing gimmick. It sounds like that coffee with “death” in the name that I hear taste nasty. It has added caffeine. It’s meant to have the highest amount of caffeine as a gimmick, not to taste good.
Some of us genuinely like that level of heat. My go to is Dave’s Gourmet “insanity sauce” since it’s incredibly hot, but also has a nice flavor.
Amen.
I actually quite like the flavor of the last dab, but it’s not a sauce you can be generous with. Anything with extract in it I avoid.
I’ve honestly thrown away whole bottles because I forgot to check for extracts. Tastes terrible. If I’m gonna be eating something super hot, it better taste at least decent. Or just no taste because the heat overrides it.
Anything using extract also feels much hotter than the scoville level would suggest, and it always goes straight to the back of my throat. It’s not even hot, it just hurts and tastes like shit. Extract is the worst, don’t put OC spray in my hot sauce!
Same. I think the Last Dab has great flavor. All the Hot Ones sauces are actually really delicious, imo.
I’ve not had one from them that I dislike, and they tend to use good ingredients. As for the last dab, I already really like the flavor of the Carolina reaper, and the Apollo is just great for that. They do a generally good job with balancing their heat/flavor for their sauces, too.
My first guess was that he died of pneumonia from aspirating chip dust. The actual case sounds like something that seriously needs a warning. Young healthy people don’t think of stomach ache as potentially lethal and the package should make clear that it is dangerous.
Yes. Proper labeling, not illegalization ffs.
I just had some Last Dab in my Mac n Cheese last night. It’s fine, just very hot, but it tastes good. Sauces from that show that are actually just stupid hot are like, Da Bomb Beyond Insanity, Classic Pepper X Edition, and Taco Vibes Only. Those are made specifically to be too hot.
That last paragraph is why I don’t like Tobasco. It’s not flavorful. It’s just heat and vinegar. Better as an assault deterrent than as food. Dave’s has some good sauces, but the Insanity Sauce is not one of them, for the same reason.
As a sauce, I think tobasco is crap. MUCH better table sauces that you can leave out without worrying about your nephew crying because he drank a scotch bonnet.
But as an ingredient to fix something? Tobasco is awesome. It is basically just liquefied red pepper flakes. So if a meat sauce or something else that you can’t really taste until it is “done” needs a bit of spice, you can adjust a lot more easily without having chunks of peppers or grainy chili powder and so forth. Obviously doesn’t replace “doing it right” but… not everyone has the luxury of being able to make the same dish twelve times before starting recording for a video.
Seriously. Tobasco is an awesome tool to fix a meal. But to whoever actually loves that stuff, check out some other sauces on your supermarket shelf. They don’t have to be super spicy to be good. I made fun of Cholula in this thread but I also love that on a breakfast sandwich. Not much spicier but a LOT more flavorful and with a consistency that sticks to food rather than just runs off.
*Tabasco
I don’t like Tobasco either, but I feel like for the opposite reason. The flavor is the problem, while I love a similarly vinegary hot sauce like Louisiana which I’d say has less other flavor
Same, I don’t like the taste of Tobasco. I like Valentina hot sauce. It’s very mild, but I love the flavor. I usually use it to slather burritos or put in tacos. It also makes an ok hot wing sauce when mixed with butter.
Tabasco sauce tastes super sweet to me. Like pure sugar.
It’s not good.
I don’t understand how people see this as showing off, putting stuff in your mouth that you and your body don’t want to be there. Like, why not eat a piece of shit and some stink bugs? Oh right because it’s fucking stupid.
It’s the same reason people do things like skydiving. Just cause you’re not into it, doesn’t mean it’s stupid.
But doing it for internet points sure as fuck is
I can understand the thrill of skydiving, even though I’ve never done it and probably never will. And I can understand enjoying good hot food, because I do. But making something hot just for the sake of being hot, and daring people to eat it just to say they can seems pretty pointless.
Stupid me. That’s right because skydiving causes nothing but pain.
yes, eating hot sauce is the same thing as eating shit and bugs. I “agree” with you.
Thank you because I definitely said they’re the same.