Can the Ghost Pepper Save Halloween?

Some hot peppers have deceptively genteel names, like the Scotch bonnet, while others are more explicit about their fiery nature, like the Carolina Reaper.

In the early 1990s, hot sauce production/chili pepper enthusiasm spiked, and suddenly a subculture of specialty shops and newsletters blossomed. Heat fanatics were soon bragging about their collections and even regular supermarkets began stocking an impressive assortment of these new products. Some of these concoctions were delicious, adding depth and excitement to even a plate of scrambled eggs, while others were designed just for maximum payload. Hotter became better, the chili pepper arms race had officially begun.

Anyone who has splashed Endorphin Rush across their breakfast and spent the next 20 minutes gasping for air and hiccupping (ahem, that’d be me) knows that this supposed pleasurable act is not always exactly pleasurable. But the heat seekers, undeterred, extracted oils and hybridized peppers, searching for a weaponized pinnacle that had nothing to do with culinary satisfaction, and everything to do with making that one person at the party cry.

Read more at The Daily Beast.