If you like spicy food enough to risk your life, here’s an ice cream you must try.
Named “Respiro Del Diavolo” (meaning ‘Breath of the Devil’), it’s made with Carolina Reapers—the world’s hottest chili peppers—by Aldwych Café and Ice Cream Parlor in Glasgow, Scotland. At approximately 1,569,300 Scoville units (That’s about 500 times hotter than Tabasco), the ice cream is so hot that the café only sells it to people who are at least 18 years old, and asks each to sign a liability waiver first.
Now, rarely do you need to sign a death waiver at a restaurant (let alone an ice cream parlor); but to Martin Bandoni—Owner of the Scottish café, this is actually necessary.
“When we decided to launch the product, we were concerned about people having fatal response to the very hot chilli peppers. So we spoke to our insurance company, and they advised us to use the waiver protection from multi-million pound lawsuits,” said Bandoni.
While the idea of adding chilli peppers into ice cream may seem like a fairly modern idea, the original recipe actually dates back to early 1900s when the Bandoni family lived in a small village in Italy.
Every year, local families would meet up at Devil’s Bridge, where they would share recipes with one another. According to Bandoni, young men would try to impress girls by eating large amounts of this spicy ice cream, hoping to do so without breaking a sweat. “Unfortunately, that was never the case, as many would end up jumping into the water to cool down.”
In 2017, when Bandoni decided to launch this limited-edition ice cream, he proceeded to refresh the recipe by condensing hundreds of Caroline Reaper chilli peppers (that’s approximately ten per scoop) to intensify the heat. Apparently, the finished product is so hot that the team could only handle it wearing nuclear-proof gloves.
Spicy as the Respiro Del Diavolo most certainly is, it isn’t the ice cream’s only notable feature. With five key ingredients and a proprietary extraction method in the highly complex recipe, Bandoni described the flavor as a “unique sweetness followed by a huge kick which only intensifies in time.”
Expectedly, he is protective of this recipe, as there are only four people who know every ingredient and secret method involved. But what the owner was willing to tell me is that the production process requires many late-night tests, which often results in burns and a visit to the ER when one of the team members touched her eyes after sampling the raw formula.
So far, the reception has been terrific. “As one of Aldwych’s most popular ice creams, we are full evenings and weekends because people want to try it. We also get requests from around the world daily—with one customer in the U.S. spending $400 just to ship a pint overnight for a party,” he said.
Personally, one opinion I’m most curious about is Ed Currie’s—President of PuckerButt Pepper Company in South Carolina and inventor of the Carolina Reaper.
He attended the NYC Hot Sauce Expo on April 21 to 22, and tried two quarts of this ice cream with a friend. The pepper creator loved it.
“I thought the people at Aldwych did a great job at making this spicy ice cream. It’s a new way of using the Carolina Reaper, and I can taste a mix of cinnamon, Madagascar vanilla and good amount of heat from the pepper.”
Granted, a pepper nut like Currie thought they could double, or even triple, the amount of peppers in the recipe, but it is an extremely good product in its current form.
The only other complaint Currie had is that this ice cream isn’t mass-produced. “I could imagine at least 1,000 people in this conference buying this ice cream right now.”
As of press date, the spicy ice cream is available for international licencing deals to major retailers looking to carry the line.
Needless to say, this ice cream and all the spicy add-ons are not for the faint-hearted. Since the ice cream came onto the market on February 18, the owner witnessed some people fainting and having panic attacks. “One woman even claimed it induced labor!”
However, if you’re one of those people who want extra heat, Lee Bandoni—Martin’s entrepreneurial brother who runs his own business in events, e-commerce and technology—suggests adding chocolate covered reaper bits—a topping that melts in the mouth for more intense flavor. “There’s also a special, extra-concentrated formula called “X sauce” (named after our favorite inventor Elon Musk) for an even bigger kick.”
