"You acknowledge that eating the Reaper can cause you harm, including but not limited to, bodily injury, property damage, emotional distress, or even death." I am not used to contemplating my own mortality in order to eat at a fried chicken restaurant, but I signed on the dotted line.
That's part of the liability waiver that Dave's Hot Chicken requires you to complete before eating the hottest spice level they offer: Reaper. You hear about signing waivers for extra spicy restaurant food all the time because it's a gimmick, right? Makes it sound scary and gets them lots of attention (and likely makes their lawyers happy too). The fact that it prints out on receipt paper from the register doesn't exactly make it seem particularly important.
So I was largely unconcerned about trying the Reaper tender, especially since I love the hot and extra hot heat levels at Dave's already. I'm not a wimp, and have a special place in my heart for Puckerbutt, the hot sauce and pepper company that created the Carolina Reaper, the namesake pepper of DHC's highest heat level. But the Reaper Challenge — the name this feat takes on social media — defeated me.
How Hot is Dave's Hot Chicken's Reaper Tender?
Unlike every other "it's super spicy we swear!" fast-food letdown, the Dave's Hot Chicken Reaper chicken tender actually lived up to the heat hype.
After my first bite of the chile powder-coated chicken, I knew that this was going to be a difficult ride. It had the same distinct seasoning as the milder options with just a hint more bitterness from the chiles, but it was way hotter. This was going to be a tug of war between shoving delicious chicken in my mouth and my brain telling me I've been pepper sprayed.
Photo credit: Lacey Muszynski / CheapismAfter my second bite, my nose started running, and I looked down at my orange-stained fingers and made the conscious decision to wipe them off with a napkin instead of licking them. I reached for the ice water, holding it my mouth for a few glorious seconds of coolness.
After my third bite — mind you there was some brief recovery time in between these bites — my eyes starting watering, a reaction to spicy food that I've rarely experienced in the past. More ice water, and more french fries dipped in creamy sauce, please. A milkshake probably would have helped, but the thought of all that dairy mixed with the heat in my stomach sounded very unpleasant.
At that point, I knew I had been defeated. I wasn't going to finish my Reaper tender. I could have if someone offered me a million dollars, but it would have been very unpleasant, so why bother when there's nothing but bravado involved? I offered the rest of the tender to my partner, who proceeded to brush off as much seasoning as possible before also throwing in the tender.
Then we sat there in shameful silence, taking occasional drinks of water and blowing our noses, as our mouths cooled over the next 10 minutes. As I looked down at the sad, half-eaten chicken tender under a blanket of Reaper powder, I knew at that moment that those damn chickens from Dave's logo looking up at me from the paper wrapper were put there to mock me.
Hungry for more taste tests and fast food trends? Sign up for our free newsletters.
