Carolina Reaper Wing Challenge For The Prince's Trust

At Rock A Doodle Do - Belfast Hot Sauce, we love to come up with new ideas for our sauces. Along with our other sauces, we love to experiment and create something new from time to time.

This week, we were approached by a company in Belfast with a request to create a sauce for a charity day, where competitors were being challenged to a wing eating competition. It was hard to say no to such a great cause, so we got working on an extreme version of our Banshee hot sauce, that was specifically designed for chicken wings.

Similar to our Reaper's Skull limited edition sauce, we packed as many Carolina Reapers into the small batch as possible (Approximately 50!) and combined them with fresh local produce and mango to sweeten the deal.

I tasted a sample earlier this afternoon and my lips were still numb an hour later. This challenge should be interesting to say the least!

Why Can Some People Handle The Heat?

There's been a craze going about recently, and Youtube is slowing filling with reaction videos from it. People are intentionally suffering for likes, up votes and in some cases fame. I'm talking about the challenge to eat the Carolina Reaper Chilli on camera.

For the past few years, the Carolina Reaper has been the undisputed king of the Chilli world (our own 'Fear the Reaper' and 'Reaper's Skull' hot sauce use the chilli) and chilli-heads the world over have fallen in love with its heat level and the fruity, yet smoky flavour

The Guinness Book of World Records currently rates the Carolina Reaper as the hottest chilli in the world, with an average rating, ranging from1.5 Million SHU (Scoville Heat Units) to 2.2 Million, and was created by Ed Currie from the Puckerbutt Pepper Company, based in South Carolina.

But I've always wondered why some people can tolerate, and actively seek out the pain/pleasure of eating a food that can cause so much pain in others?

As a chilli-head myself, one of the joys of creating and selling hot sauce is the reactions that I get. It ranges from fellow chilli lovers appreciating the heat and flavour of Rock A Doodle Do's sauces (That's why we do it after all), to others that insist on trying the hot sauce we sell, then proceed to flap their arms, drink as much milk as possible, before glaring at me with a humbling hatred in their eyes. I mean, their friend/partner was able to eat it without a fuss, so why did it hurt them so much?

Well, it turns out that there could be a few factors:

One of the most obvious is the fact that some people are born with less Capsaicin receptors in their mouth and throat (Did you know that birds don't have any?), which would make them less sensitive to the pepper.Others have been brought up with a spicy diet. It has been know in India that new mothers dab chilli oil on the infant's lips to enable them to become comfortable with the spice. In my own case, my mother had cravings for hot curries, and I have been drawn to them my entire life. Other social issues may play a part, where eating hotter and hotter chillies becomes a competition among friends, and others may enjoy the endorphin rush that the ingestion of hot chillies provide.

Endorphins comprise a group of approximately chemicals that are released by the brain and produce the feeling of happiness while reducing pain and helping combat the effects of stress, and can be produced from eating chocolate, chillies and exercising.

So whatever your reason for eating chillies, whether its for the love of the spice, or the reaction you'll make from torturing your tongue, I would advise you to try each and every variety out there and find which ones work for you.

The Pooka (Or Púca), in Celtic mythology was a creature that was thought to either bring good or bad fortune to communities across Ireland. As a shapeshifter, the Pooka could take on the likeness of hares, rabbits, goats, and black horses with majestic, golden eyes.

According to legend "old people used to say that the Pookas were very numerous...long ago..., were wicked-minded, black-looking, bad things...that would come in the form of wild colts, with chains hanging about them", and that did much to harm unwary travellers." However, they also had a friendly side to them, helping those who went out of their way to help the Pooka!

Keightley 1880 - Fairy Mythology, p.371

With that in mind, we're created one of the tastiest hot sauces in the market that combines the heat of the Bhut Jolokia 'Ghost Chilli' and the delicious fruity flavour of the Dorset Naga chilli, with a genuine Irish Golden Pale Ale, peach and maple syrup that has become our go to sauce for burritos and pizzas!

Pooka Hot Sauce is Available Here

Tags: Hot Sauce, Ghost Chilli, Bhut Jolokia, Extra Hot, Pooka, Púca, Ghost Horse, Rock A Doodle Do, RockADoodleDo, Belfast Hot Sauce, Irish Mythology

At Rock A Doodle Do, we do love to experiment with ingredients! At times it feels like we're in a lab of sorts, blending and mixing concoctions in an attempt to create a sauce that brings your meals to life!

From time to time, we will be releasing limited edition sauces that reflect the monstrous heat levels and flavour that our chilli loving customers want, which is why in December, we released one of our hottest and tastiest sauces yet. By combining the flavour of our Pooka sauce (With Real Pale Ale & Peaches), with the extra kick of the Carolina Reaper we created our Amber Skull Premium Hot Sauce.

So far, the reviews have gone above and beyond our expectations, with customers praising both the heat level and the depth of flavour of the sauce, and the quality of the skull packaging, with multiple comments stating that it is the best hot sauce they've ever tasted.

Amber Skull is currently available on eBay here: Amber Skull Hot Sauce

 Tags: Chilli, Chili, Chillies, Carolina Reaper, Ghost Chilli, Bhut Jolokia,Hot Sauce, Extra Hot Sauce, Extra Hot, Amber Skull, Rock A Doodle Do, Belfast Hot Sauce