You might want to think again when considering the really hot burgers at Burger Off, a burger joint in Brighton in the U.K. Two journalists for the local outlet The Argus learned that the hard way on Wednesday.
Assistant news editor Arron Hendy and reporter trainee Ruari Barratt of The Argus decided to try the XXX Hot Chilli Burger, since Trip Advisor called it one of the Top 10 burgers in the U.K.
Hendy tried it first and decided it was far too spicy to continue and rushed to get a sip of milk. Barratt apparently didn’t learn from his superior, so he took a bite too. He got it even worse, complaining about not being able to feel his hands or feet and his eyes rolled back into his head. Handy began feeling the same way and they were rushed to a nearby hospital.
“It was hard to walk,” Barratt said. “I needed to drink milk to neutralise the burning, which was hard because I was hyperventilating so much my hands had seized up.”
“I was in so much pain I was telling people I felt like I was dying,” Hendy added.
The sauce on the burger is hotter than pepper spray and is made in India, where they cram 5,000 kilos of piri piri chilis concentrated into a single kilo.
According to ITV News, owner Nick Gamardella says that the sauce hits 7 to 9 million on the Scoville scale, which is used to measure food hotness. Therefore, he does make customers sign waivers before they order it, but that doesn’t help them get prepared for the intensity.
Despite the journalists’ scare, the restaurant is enjoying the publicity. “Oops we did it again,” the owner wrote on Facebook.