Chilli champion beats the heat
The first thing Charlotte Knudsen did after winning a chilli eating competition was pull a bottle of chocolate milk from her bag and take a sip.
The win secured her a place in the NZ Chilli Eating Champs.
The fourth annual chilli eating competition in Christchurch was held at Riverside Market yesterday afternoon, seeing 14 brave souls each take a seat next to a vomit bucket and a bottle of CocaCola – using either of these during the competition would see them instantly disqualified.
The last person standing would claim victory.
Crowds gathered to watch as competitors ate their way through more than 10 rounds of chillies, each one upping the stakes.
It was just the second round, after eating a Blondie Chilli, when four participants walked away, including Will Struthers, who was on his stag do.
‘‘It was everything I thought of and more, that’s why I’ve called it on the second round,’’ he said as he tipped back the bottle of Coke.
A few rounds later, DD bowed out because he said his ‘‘gut and mouth’’ were on fire.
‘‘My hands are going numb.’’ Benjamin Bastion was the first competitor to utilise the bucket a couple of chillies later. He said he had ‘‘tingly hands, red-hot lips’’.
And he sarcastically added he was looking forward to going to the toilet the next day.
The second and final participant to be sick left in the next round, leaving just John Lighart and Knudsen to battle it out.
Lighart was visibly shaking, his eyes were watering, and he looked to be tortured by the hot fruit while seasoned competitor Knudsen, who won last year, tying with Jesse Painter, appeared unaffected by the chillies.
The pair pushed through the rounds which included the Carolina Reaper, the hottest chilli according to Guinness World Records, and Dragon’s Breath, which Southern Spice organiser and Spicy Boys sauce creator Jay Madgwick-Pamment said was possibly hotter than Carolina Reaper.
In the end, it was the double chilli round, a big Carolina Reaper and a peach Carolina Reaper, which had Lighart looking reluctantly at his plate of chillies before giving up.
As he ate a pottle of ice cream, he said he ‘‘could’ve kept going’’ but ‘‘I’ve had enough’’.
‘‘I’ve never done this many peppers in a row.’’
There was no technique to eating the chillies, he said – which saw some small enough to eat in one bite, while others took a few crunchy mouthfuls to finish.
‘‘A lot of it comes down to willpower.’’ Knudsen said the competition was harder than last year, and the main contributor to that was the wild card spicy jelly round.
The half cup of green jelly looked innocent enough in the early rounds, but she said it went ‘‘straight to my stomach’’, causing stomach cramps moments after eating. Competitors would still be feeling the heat of the chillies the next day, Madgwick-Pamment said.
‘‘You’ll be able to point in your body where they are’’ as they go through your system.
As for the cure to quell a burning mouth: ‘‘You just have to wait it out.’’