What are the peppers used in the 'One Chip Challenge'?

In the wake of the “One Chip Challenge” and its believed involvement in the death of a Worcester teen, exactly what kind of peppers are used in making the chip so spicy?

The trend stems from Paqui, a tortilla chip brand owned by the Hershey Company. Paqui’s chips typically come in spicy flavors, like Fiery Chile Limon, Zesty Salsa Verde, Jalapeño Tropicale and Haunted Ghost Pepper.

• Read more: What is the ‘One Chip Challenge’? Family believes it led to Mass. teen’s death

The challenge simply involves eating one of their Carolina Reaper and Naga Viper-flavored chips. One chip is sold in a coffin-shaped package, featuring a melting red skull with a green, fanged snake emerging from an eye socket. Then the challenger sees how long they can last without needing to drink water or milk to soothe the heat.

The chip’s ingredients include blue corn, sunflower “and/or” safflower oil, Carolina Reaper pepper, Naga Viper Pepper and sea salt. Those two peppers are often considered among the spiciest peppers in the world, with Carolina Reapers scaling at 2.2 million Scoville heat units, according to the Los Angeles Times. Naga Viper peppers scale at around 1.4 million Scoville heat units, according to the online pepper shop website PepperHead.

For context on both of these, the jalapeño pepper is only 2,500 Scoville heat units.

• Read more: Read the warning label for the One Chip Challenge, Paqui’s extra spicy tortilla chip

Despite their heat level, Carolina Reapers are grown and consumed across the United States. It was grown as a crossbred pepper, between a ghost pepper and a red habanero, according to Food Republic. In 2013, it won the Guinness World Record for the hottest chili on Earth. Its heat scale, so named after pharmacist Wilbur Scoville in 1912, is based on human taste buds and how much water is necessary to dilute said heat, according to Smithsonian Magazine.

“That’s insanity in edible form,” the website PepperScale described the Carolina Reaper. “Yet, behind this extreme super-heat is a surprising sweetness that’s perfect for enhancing hot sauces and other spicy foods.”

Hotter than the already notorious ghost pepper, the Naga Viper pepper was named in 2011 as the Guinness World Record holder for the hottest chili pepper in the world. The pepper’s creator, Gerald Fowler, told the Daily Mail that the pepper was “hot enough to strip paint.” Fowler has customers sign a waiver that they are of “sound mind and body before trying a Naga Viper-based curry,” according to Yahoo! News.

• Read more: Family blames spicy ‘one chip challenge’ for Worcester student’s death

These two peppers are at the heart of what’s believed to have taken the life of 14-year-old Harris Wolobah. He took part in the “One Chip Challenge” before he died unexpectedly at 14, a GoFundMe page read.

He felt sick after eating the chip before heading to the nurse’s office, officials told Boston 25 News. His parents then picked him up from Doherty Memorial High School and drove him home. He died on Sept. 1.

Pending an autopsy, a connection between his illness and subsequent death after participating in the “One Chip Challenge” has yet to be made.