Habanero a Day

I never expected that this would be something I'd do, but for the past couple weeks, I've consistently eaten a habanero pepper every day, and it's gotten to the point where a habanero is a comfortable spice level for me. It's been interesting seeing how my spice tolerance evolved as the challenge progressed, and I'm planning on moving up to a ghost pepper or some other superhot pepper at some point.

This ordeal started because I went with my roommate to a farmers market and we bought two habaneros on a whim. I ate all of mine, and it was incredibly spicy, but not to a degree where it was beyond my pain tolerance. My roommate ate half of theirs, and ended up giving me the other half. I mentioned how, even prior to this, habaneros were the kind of pepper that I think tasted the best, and I made a comment about how if you were to just eat a habanero every day, you would develop a high spice tolerance very quickly. I didn't plan to actually do this, but my other roommate heard that I liked habaneros, and he got a container of them for me the next time he went shopping. Once we had a container of habaneros, I wasn't gonna let them go to waste, so the challenge began.

At the beginning of this, I considered my spice tolerance pretty good, but not amazing. I would usually order hot options from Thai restaurants and enjoy it, but I wouldn't usually get the hottest, and if I did I wouldn't be able to eat all of it at once. That's partially just because Thai restaurants tend to give large portions, but also just because the spice level builds past where I want it. I also noticed that I was very prone to getting a runny nose when I ate spicy food even if it was within a comfortable spice tolerance for me.

The first couple days of the challenge were interesting because I found that my mental tolerance rose a lot quicker than my physical tolerance. That is it to say that I found the second day easier than the first and then the third easier than the second, but according to the people that watched me eat the peppers, my face was very red, almost more so than the first time. I don't know that I actually became more physically sensitive to it, but the sensation of spice definitely became less prevalent while the runny nose and red face remained constant.

For the first few days, I would usually have a drink or some other food with the habanero. I would eat it without a drink or food at first to get the full effect of it before I cut it with something else, and I wouldn't have milk with it, but I would eventually have something that helps lower the spice. After the first few days, however, it got much more tolerable, and I decided to stop having anything with it so I could experience the full extent of the spice. By the end of the first week/after a few days of eating the habanero with nothing else, it was well within my comfortable spice range. I would eat the pepper, and I would feel it in my mouth to a degree. It would still feel spicy, but it wouldn't be anything beyond what I would hope to get when eating a spicy dish. At that point, I gave up on the no eating or drinking restriction, but I had come to enjoy the peppers, so I kept up with the challenge. I stopped for a couple days when I ran out of habaneros, but I ended up getting more, and I still eat a habanero most days. One interesting bit is that, while I don't feel it as much in my mouth, I still get the spicy feeling in my stomach about the same as when I started, but maybe I'll end up getting past that in the future.

Honestly, I would recommend trying this. It's a fairly quick way to build spice tolerance if you care to do that, and it's also just a fun experience if you're a sensory-seeking person like me. Get some habaneros and try one. If it hurts but you can handle it, finish that container. That's really all you need to get a much higher level of spice tolerance.