Lord Of Spice Sets Fourth World Record For Snarfing Hot Peppers

Do you like to eat? Do you like pain? Do you like being in pain while you eat? If so, I'd like to introduce you to Mike Jack of London, Ontario, who recently ate three Carolina Reaper chili peppers in 9.72 seconds, thus setting the Guinness World Record for eating three of what Guinness has certified as the world's hottest pepper. (Yes, the specific record is for eating three of these bad boys.)

The Carolina Reaper delivers about 1.5 million Scoville Heat Units (SHU), a heat measurement developed by by American chemist Wilbur Scoville in 1912. (For context, the average jalapeño pepper scores between 2,500 to 8,000 SHU.) So the fact that this Canadian gentleman willingly ate three of these bad boys is pret-ty impressive.

This is actually Jack's fourth Guinness record for consuming hot peppers, a fact that makes us wonder if he's okay. CNN reports that Jack broke his first record in January 2019, when he ate three Bhut Jolokia, or ghost chili peppers, in record time. In March 2019, he set his second record for the most Bhut Jolokia chili peppers eaten in one minute (97 grams, if you're curious). Finally, he broke the record for most Bhut Jolokia chili peppers eaten in two minutes on February 29, 2020. What's so special about the Bhut Jolokia, you ask? Guinness reports that it's strong enough for the Indian military to use it as a hand grenade ingredient. The Carolina Reaper is said to be more than twice as hot as the Bhut Jolokia.

The video of Jack achieving spicy nirvana was posted on the Guinness Book of World Records Facebook page on Wednesday, but the official date of the record was November 21, 2020. Death-defying spice levels aside, he appears to be having a pretty good time in the video. As he tells the camera, "My eyes are crying, but I'm happy on the inside." Beautiful. Just beautiful.