What To Know About The Spiciest Option At Dave's Hot Chicken

Dave's Hot Chicken has been a rising star in the fast food industry in recent years. It isn't just the delicious spicy chicken; even side dishes, including the mac and cheese, are good at Dave's Hot Chicken. The fact that Dave's Hot Chicken is celebrity-endorsed has also helped skyrocket the chain to popularity. Another aspect that really puts Dave's Hot Chicken on the map is its spiciest chicken option. Granted, the entire chain revolves around spicy chicken (as the name implies), but its spiciest option is so hot that it actually comes with a disclaimer and requires a signed waiver to order it.

This spice level is called "Reaper," named after the Carolina Reaper pepper that is used to make it. What makes the pepper so special is how hot it is. The Carolina Reaper measures at 1.6 million to 2 million on the Scoville scale; for those who don't know, that scale is how spice level is measured for peppers. The Carolina Reaper is a legendary pepper when it comes to heat, so by extension, the Reaper option at Dave's Hot Chicken has become a legend in its own right.

The purpose of the Scoville scale is to measure several aspects of spicy peppers, including, but not limited to, pungency, strength, and, most of all, heat. A pepper's capsaicin content is primarily what is measured. Capsaicin is what causes that spicy feeling, so the more capsaicin a pepper has, the spicier it is.

This scale covers the full gamut of peppers, from those with absolutely no spice, such as bell peppers, to some of the hottest peppers of all time. Peppers are ranked by Scoville heat units. The hotter a pepper, the more heat units it has. Currently, the Carolina Reaper is the second-hottest pepper in the world. It took the Guinness World Record in 2013 and held it for a decade. The current reigning hottest pepper in the world is Pepper X.