On today’s TribLive Taste Test, we decided to unnecessarily torture ourselves by trying a couple of hot peppers from staff writer Patrick Varine’s home garden.

Well, technically we tried one very tasty pepper — the Aji White Fantasy pepper — and then subjected ourselves to a small sliver of hell on earth, in the form of the certified world’s hottest pepper, the Carolina Reaper.

Averaging a face-scorching 1.64 million Scoville units, the Reaper is up to 200 times hotter than a jalapeño pepper. Why we thought this was a good idea, no one knows. It’s got an actual stinger-shaped end, for goodness’ sake!

The good news? The Aji White Fantasy is a nice pepper with a mild citrus hit and just enough heat to add a little spice to a chicken or fish dish.

As for the Reaper? Well, let’s just say Blue Öyster Cult don’t know what they’re talking about. They were certainly more impressive (and oppressive) than the “Carolina Reaper” cheese curls we tried earlier this year.

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