Pain, anguish, tears, snot. Eight contestants started, only one finished. The fifth annual Nampa Farmers Market Hot Pepper Challenge happened on Saturday, September 21.
This year, once again, all of the peppers were grown locally and provided by Pepper Pots and Dirty Sanchez Hot Sauce.
Contest organizers had 22 peppers ready to go with the hottest being the Dragon’s Breath (2,500,000 Scoville Units).
The eight contestants started out with the Jalapeno Pepper (2500 – 8000 Scoville Units) and progressed through hotter and hotter peppers.
One by one, the contestants dropped out as we entered the “superhot” level of peppers (300,000 Scoville Units and up) before finally reaching the 13th pepper in our list: the Ghost-Pepper-level-hot Chocolate Bhutla Pepper (800,000 to 1,200,000 Scovile Units).
At the end of the day, one man came up victorious: Brandon Wood of Meridian who won for the second year in a row. Michael Reagan came in second and Liam Evans came in third place.
Plans are already underway for the 2025 contest. Contest organizer Bob Wagner hinted that there may be a change or two in next year’s contest. “We may be looking at some fun ‘twists’ that might shake things up a bit.”
Wood vows to three-pete next year.
