Gilford mom defends title at hot pepper-eating contest

GILFORD — After a battle of spice, Meg McLean of Gilford came out on top as the winner of the Hot Pepper-Eating Contest at the Notch Biergarten at Beans & Greens Farm on Friday afternoon.

This is McLean’s second win in the contest, as she won last year’s battle during Cinco de Mayo. This year's contest was scheduled to align with Laconia Motorcycle Week, hoping to attract visitors to the area.

McLean outlined her strategy for handling the heat this year.

“Mind over matter for sure,” she said. “It's gonna hurt. You never know how spicy it's gonna be, but you know it's not gonna feel great. It's just like an adrenaline rush, I guess.”

McLean competed against two people: Beans & Greens Farm Owner Chris Collias, and Kaden Wilhelm, visiting from Chicago. Of the 25 people seated in the biergarten, Wilhelm raised his hand last minute to compete after some peer pressure from his girlfriend Anna Kaminski, of Lynnfield, Massachusetts.

"No one was stepping up for the contest, so I told him to go,” she said.

The competitors were in for a ride. According to the rules, contestants would eat peppers of graduating spice until there was only one person left. A small cup of milk was provided for each person, and drinking if they drank it, they forfeited their participation in the contest.

The first pepper was a jalapeño. On the Scoville Scale, a sorted list recording the heat of numerous chili pepper varieties, the jalapeño was measured at 2,500-8,000 heat units. The next pepper was a serrano, measured at 10,000-25,000 SHU. Contestants then graduated to the orange habanero, a big jump, ranging from 100,000-350,000 SHU. If that didn’t take out the competitors, they were asked to drink ghost pepper hot sauce. While the hot sauce does not have a Scoville heat unit, the ghost pepper itself measures from 600,000 to over 1 million SHU. A Carolina reaper hot sauce was available for a tiebreaker if necessary, measuring anywhere from 1.5 million to 2.2 million SHU.

The contestants ate the jalapeño with ease. Then the serrano pepper. When it got to the habanero, it seemed spicier than expected. McLean and Collias powered through it, but after Collias suggested they all eat another habanero, Wilhelm tapped out.

“I just didn't really feel the need to go any longer,” he said. “Feel like I did my deed.”

McLean and Collias consumed the ghost pepper hot sauce, and despite the audience's interest in the Carolina reaper sauce, Collias tapped out, leaving McLean as the winner.

McLean won a certificate, Notch Brewing swag, a cookie, stickers and a free beer, but she doesn’t drink. So instead, her two children — Marley, 7, and Penelope, 4, who were watching her mother compete — got two boxes of apple juice. McLean was excited by her win.

“I'm actually really proud, because that was a whole new level of challenge. Like the levels of spice,” she said. “I've never done it like that.”

The contest was one event in a broader list of activities the farm hosted Friday evening. The Family Fun Nights included live entertainment, a food truck and wood-fired pizza wagon. Those who order food receive a free ticket for the kids fun park. The park has a giant bounce pad with mini zip lines, barrel car rides, and a merry-go-round, as well as farm animals. Collias said these activities have some supervision, so parents can come with their kids and still have a fun night out.

“The kids can go see the animals; they can hang out at the fun park. They can have something to eat. And parents can relax for a little bit and with some great local entertainment,” he said.

The biergarten also has games set up, like cornhole and beer pong.

Collias thinks the farm is the biggest secret in Gilford. He said everyone who visits loves it and comes back.

“We want to be the place where the community meets,” he said. “What you're seeing tonight is an intersection of that.”