It’s a single red drop on a plastic spoon that lights a wildfire across my tongue. It rages and builds until it sears down my throat like magma through concrete. Tears paint my face, I shake to pieces, I feel like I’m going to pass out.
“Give it two and a half minutes and you’ll feel the full effects,” the clerk told me as my face turned bell pepper red. What had I gotten myself into?
I consider myself something of a spice connoisseur, but there was no preparation for “The End: Flatline Edition” from the Pepper Palace, a hot sauce store that opened in the Fayette Mall in late October. With a Scoville heat rating of six million (equivalent to the heat of six ghost peppers), Flatline Edition is the fifth hottest hot sauce on the planet.
“That’s the heat of five gallons of chili,” the clerk said.
“Oh, joy,” I croaked.
For the Pepper Palace, it wasn’t enough just to post that on the label – they want you to take that as a challenge. I visited their store so I could undergo the “Wall of Flame Challenge.” You might imagine that involves a gauntlet of hot sauces that you taste your way through, with Flatline Edition as the final boss. Not so. Flatline Edition is a game in and of itself.
The challenge is simple: taste the sauce, take a selfie as it tears your insides apart, and post it on social media with #WallofFlame.
As I neared the end of my brush with Flatline, my mouth and throat had gone supernova. The staff at the Pepper Palace tended to my wounds with a delicious sweet bourbon glaze (they say sugar is better for the burn than water.) Generally, they were very supportive during my self-imposed suffering.
If you think you can handle The End: Flatline Edition, you can find the Pepper Palace next door to H&M. Walk in, ask about the Wall of Flame, and do your best to survive.
