PORTLAND, Maine — Ready, set, burn.
That was the call to action Monday night at the Portland Eagles Club on St. John Street as a hot wing eating contest got underway. Inspired by Hot Ones, a popular internet show, contestants ate 10 rounds of progressively hotter wings while being asked inane questions.
Sweaty brows, a lot of mouth fanning and comedy then ensued.
The winner got a $25 gift certificate to the bar, which was really only worth $5 when you consider the contest entry fee was $20. But the prize wasn’t the point. The club was raising money for a good cause.
They want a third pool table.
That’s perhaps not the loftiest goal Casco Aerie No. 565 ever reached for but pool tables bring in members and members bring in money, which keeps the fraternal order flying and collecting money for other, more high-flying causes.
“Every year, we pick a charity. In years past, we’ve raised money for the Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital and Make a Wish of Maine,” said Club President Brendan Dahill. “For the last couple years, we’ve been raising money for members who are hurting.”
That includes efforts to help two members whose son was lost at sea in a commercial fishing tragedy as well as several members with colossal medical bills.
Round one featured a chili maple sauce rated at a paltry 1,600 Scoville heat units, commonly known as SHUs. The units are named for Wilbur Scoville, who created the mouth-heat measurement system in 1912, seven years after the Portland Eagles Club was founded in 1905.
In general terms, mild sauces run from 100 to 2,500 on the scale. Medium heat is in the 2,500 to 30,000 range. Hot falls between 30,000 and 100,000 while extra hot sits in the 100,000 to 300,000 range. Anything above 300,000 is considered extremely hot.
By round five, the SHUs had shot up to 46,000 with an oil-based chili sauce from China.
“Damn,” James Tracy shouted, wiping a napkin across his forehead. “That’s a good tingle.”
Alexis Higginbotham, a vegetarian, sat at a table, eating tofu nuggets draped in the sauces.
“It’s all good,” Higginbotham said. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m sweating but it’s OK.”
By round eight, it was no longer good.
That sauce, at 135,000 SHU’s, knocked her out of the running.
After regaining the ability to speak, Higginbotham described the experience.
“It tingles, like my tongue was asleep and is now waking up,” she said.
Through it all, Dahill peppered contestants with dumb questions.
“Is cereal a soup?” he asked. “How many chickens does it take to kill an elephant?”
Jeff Davidson and Mitch Moutinho served each round of wings with tongs for safety. They’d used gloves while tossing the chicken bits in the torrid slathers. Contestants were warned throughout the competition not to touch their eyes, even if they began to water. Given the amount of chili pepper on their hands, doing so would be disastrous.
Sauce number nine came from the Puckerbutt Pepper Co. in South Carolina. Their Unique Garlique strain of mouth-burning fire gravy clocked in at 642,000 SHUs, putting it at double the minimum rating for “extremely hot.”
That’s when contestants began to cry for mercy and a cooling cup of cow juice.
Moutinho obliged with full paper tumblers of whole milk, still chilly from the cooler.
The final sauce, called The Last Dab: Apollo, was rated at over 2,500,00 SHUs. It had most of the 10 or so remaining contestants gasping for air and fanning their open mouths with hands, plates and greasy napkins.
“Oh my god,” shouted someone over by the bar.
A few seconds later, there was a mass exodus to the restrooms where contestants washed their hands, wetted their faces and regained composure.
A short while later, Tracy was on his third cup of milk.
“My lips are still burning,” he said.
With several people making it through the final round, a tie breaker had to be employed to declare a winner. After some discussion, it was decided that whoever dared to do a shot of the last sauce would get the $25 gift certificate.
Livia Serappa was the brave one.
After downing the ghost pepper-ridden sauce, Serappa smiled and flexed her biceps, bodybuilder-style, to a round of applause.
While mouths cooled off, pool team member Jason Pichette, who thought up the fundraiser, declared the event a success. After expenses, it added $160 to the table fund.
“I’m going to feel that tomorrow,” said one contestant, as he headed for the door.
“Just think of me while you sit there,” Pichette said.
