Photo by Jacob Dukes
Mouths burning and eyes tearing, students of physics teacher Mrs. Sharronda Smith’s class experimented with drops of Blair’s 3 a.m. Reserve, an extremely spicy hot sauce, Nov. 13. The activity served as an incentive for completing an assignment.
“It was very hot,” junior James Delarosa said. “I’m shaking.”
Blair’s measures at 1.5-2 million Scoville units, based off of the Scoville Scale that measures peppers and other spicy foods. To the average eye this may seem useless, but, to put the units in perspective, a jalapeno ranks between 2,500-9,000 Scoville units.
At first, students showed no signs of heat or any type of reaction, but after about 30 seconds some began to turn red and tear up.
The reserve not affect everyone in the same way. Senior Kody Turner felt “fine” because he eats “spicy food all the time.”
“You don’t feel it at first, but when it hits it’s sort of a spicy hot,” Turner said. “It’s like eating a jalapeno, just a little worse.”
People go under different reactions to the reserve based off of their genetics and genetic disposition to spicy substances. It’s not necessarily that your mouth is on fire either but a distinct science connected to the burning sensation.
“Your tongue is sending a signal to your brain which is lowering, in effect, your brain’s concept of what your average body temperature should be. Your body temperature is still the same,” Mrs. Smith said. “The greater discrepancy the hotter you’ll actually think it is.”
