Hulu’s Superhot Docuseries Fans the Flames of “Pepper People” Passion

According to polling and research, it is thought that roughly two-thirds of all Americans report that they enjoy spicy food, at least on some level. Granted, this no doubt includes many of us who think of “spicy” as a few dashes of Tabasco on our eggs, and probably a few sheepish folks who think of black pepper as a “hot and spicy” addition to their cuisine. Compartmentalize the results further, and you find that about a third of people identify as those who “love” spicy food, and consider themselves aficionados of heat. But Hulu’s new docuseries Superhot: The Spicy World of Pepper People isn’t about that third of the population. This is a deep dive into the much smaller subculture that goes far, far beyond those levels, to the borders of hell itself.

Superhot is dedicated to those spice obsessives who throw themselves willingly into the world of what are referred to as “superhot chiles.” Variously defined as chile pepper breeds that can boast Scoville heat unit scores beyond 500,000 or 1 million, they’re essentially chiles as you or I would know them in the same way that a rocket vehicle blasting across a salt flat at 700 mph is technically a “car.”

Or to put it another way: Have you ever been challenged to eat a habanero, or tasted an all-habanero hot sauce? The average Scoville reading of a ripe habanero is roughly 100,000 to 300,000 Scoville, making it painfully hot, given that a jalapeno tops out around 8,000. The Carolina Reaper, on the other hand, which held the world record for about a decade until recently, weighs in at a verified 1.64 million Scoville. But wait, the pepper arms race is only heating up at this point—the newly unveiled Pepper X, from Carolina Reaper creator “Smokin’” Ed Currie has just recently been named as the new holder of the title, obliterating the previous mark with a score of 2.69 million Scoville. We are talking levels of heat intensity that the average person literally can’t even fathom.

And yet, at various points of the year, hundreds or thousands of superhot aficionados will come together to baptize themselves communally in the fire of capsaicin, gathering at pepper conventions, hot sauce expos or competitions hosted by organizations such as the League of Fire, to revel in their collective agony. That’s really what it’s all about; the shared experience of challenging themselves and the associated high generated by the chile pepper’s endorphin rush. It’s certainly not about flavor, even if a superhot eater might make that claim—if you want the fruitiness of a fresh chile, you can get it from varieties 10 or 20 times less hot. The consumption of superhots is something outside of the culinary world—instead, it reflects a passion for masochism and that endorphin rush, the same sought by practitioners of extreme sports or various more illegal pastimes. Rest assured, though, that the mentality of the superhot consumer generally has more in common with the drug addict than the yuppie foodie. That isn’t hyperbole: the crossover between other forms of substance abuse and superhot pepper fandom is quite real.

This is the world that Hulu’s Superhot: The Spicy World of Pepper People, skillfully directed by Brian Skope, is tenderly exploring. Narrated by an incredulous-sounding Ben Schwartz, the series profiles the subculture as a whole by drilling in on a handful of prominent personalities within it, including both “kingmaker” critics with hundreds of thousands of online followers and upstart pepper growers who haven’t yet sold a bottle of hot sauce in their lives. All are united in a quest to experience the hottest peppers that the world has to offer, and many dream of creating that very pepper themselves, in search of the glory (and money) that comes along with it.

At this point, anyone casually familiar with the pepper world—certainly anyone who has watched the popularity of First We Feast’s YouTube flagship Hot Ones over the years—will likely be pointing to the elephant in the room. That would be pepper grower Ed Currie and his record-holding Carolina Reaper, now replaced on the totem pole by his own Pepper X. Currie does not appear in Superhot, but he is unavoidably referenced on a regular basis by the many growers who make up this colorful cast of characters, and their opinion is probably the one you could guess for yourself: none of them believed that the Carolina Reaper was the hottest chile pepper out there. And wouldn’t you know it, they all tend to think that the peppers they grow should really hold the title.

This is a classic jumping off point for a docuseries about the obsessive limits of hobbyism, particularly compelling given that it’s a hobby that inherently involves electing to inflict vast amounts of pain upon yourself, in search of a certain spicy nirvana. Some of these characters, like longtime grower and widely respected pepper expert Troy Primeaux, have been in the game for decades and are pursuing the chile world as a commercial venture, hoping to build enough hype for their creations (like his diabolically-hot 7 Pot Primo Chile) to secure its use in more lucrative ventures, like the large-scale world of commercial snack foods. Others, like charmingly earnest nurse Aurea DeGuzman, are just starting out on the professional side of the hobby, making the leap from passionate home gardener to budding hot sauce merchant. She stands out as perhaps the most purely likable personality among the bunch, fronting an Instagram account heavily featuring her peppers, her dog, and Filipino ancestry, a combination she refers to as “Chilipino.” An early episode features Aurea effectively “coming out” to her nurse friends by revealing her chile pepper and hot sauce obsession, which she seems to fear might somehow be seen as shameful or strange. But by the time she’s successfully selling her first bottles of hot sauce, it’s heartwarming to watch the neophyte being welcomed into the larger chilehead community.

No one has a more endearing love for her plants than Aurea DeGuzman.

Of course, it’s not all sunshine and capsaicin-related chemical burns. Like any docuseries delving into a geeky subculture, this is of course the perfect breeding ground for all the usual pitfalls and drama between competitive personalities who come to know each other all too well. The envy, suspicion, and paranoia can be truly out of control, with the various growers accusing each other of damaging their reputations or stealing their pepper seeds, as grower Jimmy Pickles demonstrates most vividly when he refuses to send peppers through the mail, wary of what he describes as “seed ninjas” who will somehow intercept the packages to steal his precious cargo. It’s hard not to laugh at the lengths to which someone like Pickles will go to protect a secret that 99.99% of all humans would have no particular interest in uncovering, but that’s the point—Superhot is dedicated to chileheads who have descended so far into this culture that they’re unable to even remember how the rest of the world views hot peppers.

So too does director Skope seem to subtly critique the excesses and undeniably unhealthy aspects of that culture at times, both in terms of the health impact inflicted on the hobbyists and the way that any obsession can damage one’s career and personal relationships. Popular YouTube personality Johnny Scoville (the Robert Parker of chiles and hot sauces) is heavily featured as arguably the primary character of Superhot, but he’s also repeatedly shown implying that he chooses to vomit whenever he eats superhot chiles rather than digest them, effectively endorsing the chile equivalent of bulimia. Is it easy to understand why someone would choose that route, rather than the suggested alternative of “putting toilet paper in the freezer” to deal with the painful fallout? Absolutely, but if one is going to make a point of eating superhot peppers on a daily basis, then isn’t “digesting superhot peppers” something they’ve effectively signed up for?

Even more concerning, perhaps, is the spotlight on the likes of amateur chile-eating competitor and would-be YouTuber Zach Goot, a person without the audience of Johnny Scoville who seemingly aspires to attain the same kind of scene clout, despite the objections of his wife. Asked to “retire” from his 750-follower superhot pepper YouTube account by a woman who clearly sees the parallels to his stated prior cocaine addiction, Goot acts like he’s being martyred in the quest to be a better “family man,” when all he’s really being asked for is a little life balance. As Superhot premieres on Hulu, a quick glance at Goot’s YouTubing indicates he’s just as active as ever, despite the docuseries spending plenty of time on the idea that he’ll be curtailing his chile activities for the sake of his family. Status of the marriage: unknown.

On the other hand, the series also spotlights those for which superhot chiles aren’t necessarily a genuine passion, but more of a professional interest. The most jaw-dropping example is the sensational career of “U.K. Chilli Queen” Shahina Waseem, the unquestioned G.O.A.T. of the superhot pepper eating circuit, but someone who reportedly doesn’t particularly enjoy peppers. She competes not because she’s wrapped up in the near-religious fervor of a Johnny Scoville, but because she’s simply too good at eating peppers to not capitalize on her skills—despite being a supertaster who reportedly experiences heat even more acutely than the normal person, Shahina Waseem’s superhuman pain tolerance and unbreakable will have led to her status as an undefeated competitor even after a DECADE of competitions. She’s currently sitting on 97 consecutive wins in competition, perhaps waiting for the release of Superhot to reemerge with new publicity as she takes a run at her stated goal of 100 wins in a row.

All of these spicy lives are synthesized by Superhot into a televised puree of liquid fire, with Skope not skimping on both the elation and the genuine suffering being endured by those who choose to explore such an intense subculture. Look no further than the post-competition footage included of top competitors such as Shahina Waseem and Mike Jack, captured as they writhe around hours later, still feeling the equivalent of a ball of molten lava slowly making its way through their innards. It can’t help but make one curious about the dizzying highs they must feel, if it’s worth the abject agony that follows. But the vast majority of us will never be able to say so for certain.

Think about that, the next time you reach for the Tabasco to liven up your eggs.

Superhot: The Spicy World of Pepper People premieres January 22nd on Hulu. 

Jim Vorel is Paste’s Food and Drink editor. You can follow him on Twitter for much more film content.

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