If you’ve been anywhere near YouTube in the last year or so, at some point, you’ve probably stumbled across a “World’s Hottest ________ Challenge” of one sort or another.

My boyfriend loves these things, and I don’t mean watching the videos, but actually doing them. Wings, chips, chocolate…you name it, and he’s probably done it.

Now me, being curious in nature, got a little interested. How hot is hot? How bad could it be?

Don’t get me wrong; I’m curious — not stupid. I wanted to ‘test the waters’ so to speak without inadvertently dying.

I’ve decided the best way to do this is to work my way up and share my experiences with y’all along the way.

This week I tried the ‘World’s Hottest Ramen Noodles.’ I’ve mentioned before that I generally have the appetite of a 12-year-old, so this seemed like a good place to start. Hot, but not ridiculous, plus I LOVE ramen!

I stacked my deck a little beforehand. I did eat a solid dinner of steak and potatoes before I ate the ramen. So I was prepped and ready. With drink in hand, I dug in. I’ll be honest; I didn’t really struggle with the ramen. They were actually pretty good. I ate the whole bowl and didn’t need much in the way of cooling. I had a little iced coffee with some half & half, and that was it. Well — and a little wine.

Doing some research, I discovered that this ramen comes in at around 8,000 on the Scoville Scale. For those who don’t know, the Scoville Scale is a measurement of the pungency of chili peppers and other spicy food. A score of 8,000 puts them right between a jalapeno and a Serrano pepper. So not too bad.

Since I think I did a pretty good job with the ramen, I decided to dive in and see what else I could do. So off to the interwebz I went, and that’s where I found Paquai Haunted Ghost Pepper tortilla chips.

By comparison, ghost peppers come in around 800,000 on the Scoville Scale, so I will be taking a pretty big leap with this.

I’m really not sure how this is going to go. I really hope I don’t die. Or barf. But here is my plan. I’m a brave soul, so I’m going to video eating the chips. If I get some interesting footage, I’ll upload it to the Webb Weekly Facebook page for all of you to laugh at. It’s fine; I can take it — probably.

Regardless, I’ll keep you guys updated on how each challenge goes and what I think of each one.

There are some wings out there I would like to try; there is also a ‘one chip challenge’ that looks interesting. I’m also open to suggestions if you know of anything.

My ultimate goal is to work my way up to doing the Choco Loco challenge. That involves the world’s hottest chocolate bar (featuring the black reaper). This challenge has been getting a lot of press recently, because the company that makes the bar, Fuego, is also donating a portion of the sales of the bars to prostate cancer research.

So wish me luck guys! Also, remind me about doing this, 20 years from now when I can’t figure out where my stomach ulcers came from!