Contestants feel the burn during hot sauce challenge

By Justin Seward - Lethbridge Herald on August 30, 2022.

Herald photo by Justin Seward The Hickory Street Beyond Hot Sauce Challenge challenged competitors to eat seven increasingly hot pulled pork servings and endure a five minute burn period after every serving.

The heat was felt at Whoop-Up Days through the Hickory Street Hot Sauce Challenge all week long.

Ten contestants a day had to taste seven different levels of hot sauces in pulled pork, which had to be finished, and it was after that there was a five-minute burn period.

Pain and sweat were endured throughout the duration of the event and vomiting was considered a disqualification.

“So it’s our Hickory Street pulled pork that we put hot sauce from Beyond Hot (on),” said Brian Bohn on Thursday, who emceed the event with Hickory Street.

“We put different hot sauces on them and try and come up with an ultimate winner. So far we’ve come up empty. We haven’t had an ultimate winner in any of the days yet. Most of the contestants have managed to push through until the end. Every day we try and kick it up a little bit further to eliminate people but we’ve had lots of tough competitors.”

Bohn said part of Whoop-Up Days is the experience.

“You come here to ride the rides and eat the food but also to see the different things and have the experiences,” said Bohn.

“Without people stepping up and competing in these things and without people willing to put on shows like this, it wouldn’t be Whoop-Up Days. So part of what we do is we want to help to make sure everyone has a good time here, everybody remembers something and they take something away from this – they remember it and talk about it down the road.”

When asked about how hot the pulled pork gets, Bohn’s response was, “It’s pretty hot.”

“It’s rated in scoville units but scoville units are not an accurate representation of how hot something is.

While Beyond Hot carries more elements than just heat, the competition used more heat on some of the pulled pork because Hickory Street wanted to kick it up a notch trying to make people sweat.

“But they all have different elements,” said Bohn.

“Some of them have sundried tomato, garlic, lemon juice, fresh herbs and spices just to give it some bit more depth of flavour. We don’t want to have heat for heat’s sake. We want them to be able to taste it and have a good experience when they do it.”

There was a change-up in the meat heading into today’s finale.

“This contest is no joke,” said Mike Wuchterl, Exhibition business development representative.

“This is one you would see traveling across North America. We’re dealing with some of the hottest peppers in the world here.”

He said it creates an opportunity for our partners and for Lethbridge and District Exhibition to really interact with the community on that personable scale.