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.
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.