Dried Carolina Reaper Pepper Whole Pods by Magic Plant (1/4 oz.)

This bag of peppers arrived, and looked somewhat unimpressive to be honest. I thought "that is all there is"? I could smell the peppers a bit through the sealed bag. First thought was how interesting they smelled, with a sweet but oily goodness that promised spicy delights. Second thought was that they must be pretty strong for the smell to be seeping through a sealed bag. The day came for a batch of my chili, loved and feared by all who know for its kick. Okay, only loved by a handful, and deeply feared by everyone else either brave or dumb enough to have tried it. Though the peppers were pretty much dried, they had a bit of almost greasy rubbery-ness to them. However, my little slap chop style dicer was able to dice them up with no problem. I dumped the entire contents of the bag along with about 2 pounds of meat in to the chili pot. Before running to the store to get a few more ingredients, I left the meat and Reapers stewing on super low heat. I decided to taste a small reaper remnant left on the cutting board. Mmm, tasty. Kind of sweet, but, well, greasy if that makes any sense. out the door to the store. Quick word of warning: Based on prior experience, I knew to put on disposable gloves, two pair, before handling these peppers. If you go to the bathroom once in your life after handling hot peppers without gloves, well, that will be the only time. You will be really really really sure to make sure that *never* happens again. On the way to the store, my mouth was getting the expected burn, but on a scale I wasn't prepared for. However, it was welcome, and strangely enjoyable. Walking in to the store my stomach had the sensation of what it must be like to swallow a hungry rat live and let it eat its way back out. This lasted maybe 10 minutes. Fast forward a couple hours, the chili is done! Poured a bowl and dove right in. The heat was immediate and quite gratifying. No sissy mode chili today! And very very tasty as well. What I didn't realize is that the Reapers are somewhat like Ghost Peppers in that they build up over time, maxing out a few minutes after eating. While slightly hallucinating and trying to compose a message/warning/cry for help on Facebook to my friends, I realized that I never knew before that one's eyelids can actually sweat. Its true, they can. They did. The chili was full on DEFCON ONE level hot. The second and third bowl were even more intense. I only gave this 5 stars because it wouldn't let me give me more. If you are a 'chili head', this stuff is legit! Its not just hot, but has a very interesting taste. Definitely different than Ghost Peppers. Its kind of, heavier, darker, oily. Incredibly good peppers! Update: Another bag, another batch of chili. Much hotter than the first. Caution recommended, remember you can always add more but can't take it back out once its in.

For those of you who don’t know and don’t bother to do the research, let me tell you how damn hot these peppers truly are; This story begins with my roommate and I constantly battling to eat the hottest of peppers and sauces we can find. We always challenge each other to destroy our mouths and our butts for the sake of bragging rights. On this particular occasion though, we met our match. After a short delivery of these deadly little devils we found a small package on our doorstep. I knew exactly what this package was and how excited we were for it to arrive. Despite our excitement there was indeed a lack of urgency to actually eat these little guys. We put it off for a week at least. Some excuses we told ourselves were that we needed a small audience to witness this astonishing feat of bravery. Sometime later we finally dug up the courage to put ourselves to the truest test of manhood. My roommate, our friend John and I decided to eat one pepper whole each and chew it for at least 45 seconds. We started the timer and the race began. About 3 seconds after I swallowed my pepper I started to realize why this was the world’s hottest pepper. It was as if someone poured fresh molten lava on the back of my throat. I attempted to walk across the room to gain some clarity and take my mind off this insufferable pain that was becoming my mouth and digestive tract. I lost track of my roommate as he ran to his room and start to thrash on his guitar to distract himself from his own torture. John completely disappeared out the front door and wasn’t seen again until later that evening. I did hear he was bright red as he fumbled with the knob on his way out stumbling into the yard. I started to cough and I knew at that point it was over. I started to see colorful sprites in my eyes and accepted my fate. My eyes watered and my nose began to run. This was it, this is how it would end. I would be found on the living room floor dead from eating a stupid pepper trying to prove a point. At this point I franticly began to fight the urge to vomit this fire from my belly. I remembered that we had new ice cream in the fridge and I devoured what was left of the rocky road before tearing into a tub of butter. Half a tub later, the pain still seemed to be building and I couldn’t seem to shake it. I drank half a gallon of milk before blowing chunks into the kitchen sink. Slowly but surely the throbbing and agonizing fire in my mouth started to subside with the help of some banana pudding I found. After surviving this experience I must say that I am not at all regretful. I’m actually quite pleased with what transpired. I have now evolved my taste buds into something new and dangerous. After trying this pepper I can now handle ANY hot sauce I come across and even defeat the ridiculously hot Buffalo Wild Wings challenge. For those of you brave enough to endure this venture I suggest chewing for at least 60 seconds before swallowing and be sure to have a buddy on standby in the event you pass out from pain or humiliation that this pepper will leave you in. hahaha Cheers!

After seeing many reviews on this pepper and countless videos of people trying it I accepted my fate and tried the fabled carolina reaper. After it entered my mouth the first few chews were not bad, and it actually had a sweet taste but after I swallowed to pepper I realized what i had just done. It tasted as if i had just swallowed lava that had been set on fire and been shot into the sun. After about 2 minutes of agonizing pain I decided that I could relieve my mouth of the pain and i drank a glass of milk, with a few precious seconds of relief I had a moment to realize how my body was reacting. I was drenched in sweat and there was a copious amount of mucus dripping from my nose. I then swallowed the milk and the burning continued. After about 10 minutes of me trying to cool down my mouth with different dairy products I let the pepper win, and I puked. That was a terrible decision. Due to pepper being in the vomit the horrid burning feeling was now in my throat as well as my nose, and there was no way to cool that burn. The feeling of hot pepper burn in your nose is one that cannot be described, only experienced. The feeling is similar to that of grinding up a pile of hot ashes and snorting them for 30 minutes straight. After about 40 minutes the burn in my mouth and nose was gone, but pain in my chest was still uncomfortable. If felt as if a man was using hair dryer to set the inside of my chest on fire. And after a few hours that pain had subsided. It was not until that night that I realized the game was not over yet. I awoke at 3 in the morning with terrible pain in my stomach, the pepper was not done. I sprinted to the bathroom and every bodily function that can happen did happen, at the same time. It felt as if i was spewing lighter fluid from every part of my body, and the devil himself was setting it ablaze. This pain continued on and off for the next 24 hours. In conclusion the pepper has a nice sweet taste, but a bit of a kick. 10/10

First of all, I can't compare these to fresh Carolina Reapers. Some claim they're more hot dried (which would make sense if it concentrates the capsaicin), some say while fresh (which would make sense as drying wrong and prolonged dried exposure to oxygen breaks down chemicals). One thing I can compare them to is my often used Serrano peppers. They average 10,000-25,000 SHU. Carolina Reapers record is 1,500,000 but .. that's not the average, simply the record. Who knows what these actually were at, how they were dried, how long they've been sitting on the shelf, so on. I can easily eat a whole serrano. Ya, my nose and eyes water & all that jazz but my guts don't turn inside-out. Due to reviews on here of vomiting after eating a whole one of these as well as ... other bathroom issues ... lasting the whole night, I had nothing to prove. I broke a small piece off of a pepper. Maybe 1/2 CM (roughly 1/5 IN) by 1 CM (almost 2/3 inch). I'm not sure how to compare it to the serrano. Chewing a big piece of a serrano well, it kind of coats your whole mouth and you get a bit of a burn going. Mind you a Serrano is about 2-5 times hotter than a Jalepeno if you're more familiar with those. If I were to chew a similar size piece of dried serrano I wouldn't expect much. After a little bit of chewing and swallowing it had a delayed burn inside my mouth where I chewed the pepper and slowly coated my whole mouth from the saliva. A little eye watering, a little nose running. Comparable to eating a larger pepper of another sort. I ripped off all the stems while using a glove. Doing just that was enough to burn my nose and eyes. I crumpled them up into some serrano sauce I made a few days ago to give it more of a kick. The 1/4 OZ of Reapers to about 1 Liter of the Serrano sauce (!LB Serrano, 5 Tomatoes, 1 Onion, 3 Cloves Garlic, 2 Cups vinegar - all simmered down). A tsp of the former sauce would give my mouth a burn. I could however use it on a whole meal without really "crying". I just tested 1/2 the amount I'd normally use on a bite (with the Reapers simmered in) and it definitely has a more pronounced burn that sticks around the mouth/throat longer. The swallow is where you can really tell. They add a bit in the way of flavor. These are definitely hotter than serranos but for a pepper that would be 60-150 times stronger than a serrano based on it's record anyway, I'm a bit underwhelmed. I'll buy again to grind up and use for sprinkling and maybe grow some myself to see if they turn out better but when I think of 150 times stronger than serrano, even only 60 times I expected a bit more. Compared to what I can find locally however, I don't regret the purchase. I'd still be careful handling these. They smell almost as strong as mace. I could only imagine the discomfort in the eyes.

These peppers bring the heat in such a great way (flavor + intensity)! We use 2 of them to cook a meal for 2-3 people, and use gloves to handle them when prepping and cooking them. This dish is eaten slowly -- this is a necessity, as the body needs a small break in between each bite. About 10 minutes into dinner, we all start to laugh at the craziness of the heat. And then we continue eating / punishing ourselves until it's finished. Pro tip: keep lots of something "plain" nearby to counter the heat between bites (milk, rice, bread, etc). It's been a fun ingredient to cook with!

I normally like very hot sauces like Scorpion pepper sauce on my food. So being that I wanted more heat I decided to buy these. I picked at them and could feel the heat instantly. I messed up by challenging my oldest son (20) to eat half of one with me. I took one and sliced it right down the middle. He was afraid at first, but I chewed mine up and swallowed. The burn on my throat was very bad but I could handle it. My son turned red and was tearing up and then locked himself in the bathroom. My mistake was that I had not eat anything for over 18 hours and I had an empty stomach. Not a good idea. I did however eat my dinner 10 minutes later when the burning settled down. Now for the messed up Big Time part. I could not sleep all nigh as my stomach began to feel as though a hot knife was twisting a hole just above my belly button. I could only get relief if I sat up straight. I felt as if I had to puke multiple times with no luck. I slept sitting up for most of the night. Around 8 am I went to lay down on the bed (8 hours have passed since eating this), I could only get comfortable by laying in a fetal position. About 1 hour later I awoke with the watery mouth like I was going to vomit. I ran to the bathroom and nothing except that my body got very hot like I was in a sauna. I started sweating very bad and I felt like I was going to black out. This lasted about 10 minutes as well, but the pain in my stomach was so bad that I was moaning like a ghost and my dog was licking my hand to comfort me. I put the ceiling fan on high and prayed to god that this would end and I promised never to do something this stupid again. (at least for a little while) My son vomited a few times and was in the bathroom all night. He survived as well and said he also will never do this again. I am going to put one in my hot cauliflower to spice it up, but I won't be eating these peppers whole or half ever again!

ok i aint going to try and make a funny review like other people do, everything i say is serious and the truth. i purchased a bag of these for me and my brother to challenge ourselfes on since we LOVE hot stuff and cant seem to find anything thats "too hot" so when these came in a friend of mine also says he loves hot stuff and was willing to try it but he was busy the next day and me and my brother didnt want to wait on him, so i rehydrated all the peppers in some boiling water then we ate 1 each... the intensity is not felt at all for about 20 seconds, about long enough for you to be done chewing and swallow to feel what feels like lava going down your throat... luckily i had bought us a gallon of chocolate milk incase we needed it cause we did need it big time, but after about 3-4min of the intensity getting worse and worse we both threw it up, now i can say i have never ate anything so hot it caused me to vomit, but we were happy to feel after about 10-12m after initially eating the peppers the heat starts dieing down... now onto my friend who ate one the next day... he ate one about 10am and was in pain the whole 10-12min that the heat is intense but then the heat died down, though he didnt vomit the pepper up but said he felt he should have though... and he was right cause roughly 2 hours later i went to his house to find him in the fetal position saying he was going to call 911 for an ambulance, he was in so much pain from his body digesting the pepper he ate that he literally thought he was in danger of dieing, i convinced him to just drink some milk to help counteract the capsaicin his body was digesting, and that pretty much helped him get threw the digestion phase. so to all that are thinking of trying this for a challange i say go for it, but be prepared to be in some pain, and i recommend having some milk or ice cream to help if its too much and dont eat these without having ate something already so your body doesnt just digest the capsaicin in the pepper.

Not grown in America, and they old. Took more than two days to get here even with Prime, but it doesn't matter Amazon is so great. I love this company! Packed well, however the fine print on the labeling reads..."Product of China." And they appeared to be pretty old. There wasn't any expiration dates on the packaging, however I know old dried peppers when I see them. My Italian grandmother grows dozens of red pepper plants every year, and she hangs them dry in her basement every year. Needless to say, some of them stay hung for years, lol. She's 93, now and they haven't been eating them by the hundreds over the years, so many plants need to be chucked at some point. You know what I mean? Lol anyway, these pods have the color, texture, and almost the smell characteristics of really old peppers. I chewed a grape sized pepper for about a minute, and spit it out. Don't get me wrong, these are hot. However, the pain wore off after about 7 minutes. I really thought it would be worse. (Just now, literally, I bit about an eighth of one of the lighter colored medium size peppers thinking I was tough, and it is kicking the crap out the back of my throat and stomach). Nonetheless, I was expecting a genuine Carolina Pepper, and would appreciate to know when they expire that's all. (Yeah, there's no way these are fresh, a regular red pepper, (you know the kind you buy crushed to sprinkle over pasta), would have lasted longer than this, my throat isn't burning anymore. If I get them again, I'm making sure they come from America.)

Buen sabor, muy picante