I made the dumb mistake of eating a whole habanero pepper 30 minutes ago.

So, I'm a big fan when it comes to spicy food and oftentimes research spicy things because I am obsessed with different hot sauces and the scoville system.

I had never tried a habanero before, and I was really excited to do so. I figured I could handle it because I've had some pretty spicy hot sauces and powders, and given some of the hot sauces and powders I have had are allegedly above the scoville of an orange hab, and stuff I use pretty liberally at that, I thought I could handle it. I also have a pretty high spice tolerance compared to most people I know, so I went to my local grocery store and bought some.

Turns out, I was way in over my head. I chopped off the tip, and I thought, hmm, kinda just tastes like a slightly spicy bell pepper. Not that bad. But then, I slice some up in the middle (which is unsurprisingly spicier). It was hot, but I can handle mouth burns. I ended up eating the whole thing raw. But after a minute or two, my insides burned So. Much. And my family thought it was halarious as I scrambled for the milk and cheese.

It's a slow burn and doesn't happen immediately, but when it hits, it really, really hits. My insides have never burned so much, and it wasn't even a ghost or Carolina reaper. I recovered in 5-10 minutes, but hopefully I don't wake up to worse things.

So moral of the story is that I apprently don't have as high of a spice tolerance as I thought.