The Burger Challenge: New Red Robin Hamburgers Spice Things Up with Infamous Ghost Chili Pepper
The Seattle-based "casual dining" restaurant chain Red Robin is turning up the heat in a big way by unveiling the very first nationally marketed hamburgers to be infused with a kick in the jaw from the notorious Naga Bhut Jolokia — AKA the Ghost Pepper.
400 times hotter than Tabasco sauce, the Ghost Pepper was, until very recently, the Guinness Record holder for world's hottest chili pepper. The pepper is so hot, in fact, that it has been the subject of a long-running Internet challenge wherein participants attempt to survive without liquid for as long as possible after consuming an entire chili. Few make it past several seconds.
Starting today, Red Robin will be offering two distinct burgers prepared with the Scoville-shattering pepper:
The Fiery Ghost style contains a ghost pepper sauce, fried jalapenos and pepper jack cheese. The Cry Baby style, features crispy onions straws tossed in sriracha dry seasoning with more onions sauteed in Cholula hot sauce, plus jack cheese and ghost pepper ketchup.
According to Scott Roberts of the Hot Sauce and Spicy Food Blog, the burgers are "very tasty," but "not at the upper end of the heat scale." Then again, this is a man whose website features a drawing of himself on fire, so anything short of lava is likely to disappoint him.
