When Robert Palmer sang, “Some like it hot and some sweat when the heat is on,” he could have easily been crooning about an Idaho pizzeria that serves up a pie that requires a waiver before you can take your first bite. Travel to Boise and make a pitstop at The Flying Pie Pizzaria in the summer months, and you could sample this pizza shop’s Habanero Pizza. But because this pizza covered in chopped orange peppers delivers such a kick, the eatery needs to do a little risk management that, per Only in Your State, explicitly states that the restaurant will not be held responsible for “… intestinal distress, plumbing bills, or wardrobe malfunctions.”
That’s pretty extreme, but when you consider that a habanero pepper clocks in at between 100,000 and 350,000 Scoville Heat Units on the Scoville Scale for measuring chile spiciness, you realize that these peppers pack quite a punch. They are the kind of hot that makes you curse as you aimlessly go in search of something to cool your mouth, tongue, and throat with. For comparison, you would need five jalapeño peppers to substitute for the heat of one habanero. The Flying Pie’s Habanero Pizza comes in several heat levels, including Single, Double, and Triple. But in 2018, the chain launched a fourth: Quadrupal level Habanero Pizza topped with even hotter ghost pepper sauce. This pizza is sprinkled with 24 habanero peppers, which is the spice equivalent of 20 pounds of jalapeños. A Triple only has 18 of these peppers.
How and when to enjoy a Habanero Pizza
These fiery pizzas were first introduced to heat hunters in 1994. And while the Triple and Quad are for the truly adventurous, the Single Habanero Pizza is a little easier on the mouth. This pizza is still a backdraft in the making, but there are fewer peppers on it so your mouth is not overwhelmed, allowing you to enjoy the red sauce, mozzarella cheese, chicken, and olives that adorn this masterpiece. You can wash it down with a glass of milk, and trust us when we say you are going to want that milk.
What makes habanero peppers so hot? Peppers contain varying levels of a chemical compound known as capsaicin. It’s not really causing a fire in your mouth when you eat it, but this compound makes you think it is — and in hotter types of chile peppers like habaneros, the burn is pronounced. To compensate for this reaction, your body goes through all the motions of trying to cool down. This can lead to a laundry list of effects that reads like a new drug disclaimer: diarrhea, bowel distress, nausea, and even, in rare cases, hospitalization.
In other words, these pizzas aren’t for the faint of heart. In 2009, they were even featured on Travel Channel’s reality show “Man v. Food.” But like a summer fling, Habanero Pizzas become unavailable once Labor Day hits, so plan accordingly. For true thrill seekers, the peppers’ spiciness peaks in August. Or, you can spice up one of your own pizzas like Tasting Table’s fully loaded barbecue chicken pizza or up the kick of our Calabrian chile spicy flatbread with a few habanero peppers. Just make sure to warn your eaters — and perhaps, create your own waiver.
