Russian roulette is the ultimate in high-stakes games of chance. A revolver with five empty chambers and one loaded, there is no more intense or insane way to spend a Saturday night. However, since none of our minds were warped from being a POW in the Vietnam War we haven’t had the pleasure of partaking in such a game.

But now, we might enjoy the culinary version with Tohato’s Russian Tyrant Habanero snack cups. The premise is that one out of every six corn chips in the cup is seasoned with enough habanero spice to take your face off. In the interests of science and comedy, we wrangled our weakest-tongued reporter to try some out and see if it truly is the rush its makers describe.

Our reporter nervously opened the paper cup of snacks, its label decorated with a chili-pepper wearing a menacing grin. This character was famous on snacks in Japan which had the ultimate in spicy flavor. Using the habanero pepper, which was at one time deemed the spiciest in the world, our reporter wasn’t sure what to expect.

She knew the odds. They were printed clearly on the cup: “About one-in-six chance of a super-spicy flavor.” She chose one at random, popped it in her mouth and… nothing. They were crunchy and delicious, a fine snack for lounging around, but she couldn’t even get a hint of a spice. Still, they were good enough that she could eat one after another.

And so she did. She got through about 10 of them and still hadn’t experienced the “ultra-spicy” sting of a habanero chip. She paused and thought, “Maybe there aren’t any in this one?” Just then, a painful sensation swelled up from the back of her mouth.

Beginning to get nervous she realized that she had in fact eaten one and was experiencing a delayed effect. She winced and waited for the full blast of spicy habanero to hit… But none came. “That’s it? What the heck?” she thought to herself.

Indeed, the Russian Tyrant Habanero snacks were, in our humble Japanese reporter’s opinion, not all that spicy. In addition they weren’t all that prevalent either. Counting 30 snacks that she ate, there were only two that she found spicy. That would mean her average was one in 15 rather than the one in six printed on the container – the scoundrels.

“Maybe, I’m more tolerant than I thought?” our taste tester wondered, feeling happy that she was finally safe, but ultimately bummed out by the whole experience. Which is, we figure, also how people feel after a real game of Russian roulette.

Source: Tyrant Habanero
Original article by Chie Nomura


[ Read in Japanese ]