This ice cream won't help you beat the heat - it will fan the flames

ANGIER -- Scott Wilson won't eat his newest flavor of ice cream.

He warns customers at his ice cream shop away from it. And he's not even sure whether he'll make another batch when he runs out.

It's called Cold Sweat.

Along with milk, sugar and the other usual ingredients, the ice cream is made with three kinds of peppers and two kinds of hot sauce. It's so spicy that just touching it makes your fingers feel hot.

The ice cream has turned into a hot sales gimmick at Sunni Sky's, the roadside ice cream shop Wilson and his wife have run for the past three years along N.C. 55.

It's not a top seller, though.

Classic chocolate and vanilla and Wilson's other flavors, such as cake batter, s'mores and strawberry cheesecake, are more popular. Most who taste Cold Sweat once don't want more.

Rod McCallum was one of the first regular customers to try it. "I thought it was a cool idea, but I didn't think he'd make it that hot," McCallum said between spoonfuls of butter pecan.

"It tasted like fire -- with a side of fire."

After he made the first batch, Wilson drew up a waiver that customers have to sign before a taste. It forbids a taste to anyone younger than 18 without consent of a guardian, and pregnant women and people with health problems.

Despite the warnings, the waiver has dozens of signatures.

On Thursday, Wilson started his sales pitch on a software engineer from Cary who stopped by the shop for the first time.

Doug Hunt was game. Wilson told him about the waiver, but Hunt laughed. Wilson said he was a "brave, brave soul."

Wilson offered to get him a "wimpy sample" -- a tiny taster spoon with ice cream flecks so small that you would think it had already been licked clean.

Hunt started to back down, but goaded by his wife and perhaps influenced by the presence of a reporter, he decided to try it -- a big spoonful, but with just one pepper. (Daredevils ask for three.)

"Do you have something against bald guys?" he asked, nervously.

After a few seconds, he tasted the heat. "It's pretty hot," he said. "That's really hot."

Wilson's wife, Staci, looked on expectantly. "I'm good," Hunt said. She handed him a spoonful of cake batter ice cream.

"Your face is getting red," she said. Beads of sweat had popped out all over Hunt's forehead.

Wilson first thought a spicy ice cream might appeal to his Hispanic customers. One of his regulars, who works with international grocery stores, told him it was a bad idea.

"He said, they like hot and they like sweet, but they don't mix the two," Wilson said.

Still, he went ahead, stirring jalapenos into vanilla ice cream. It tasted terrible, and, as predicted, his Hispanic customers weren't interested.

As it turned out, a few others were. They didn't like the jalapeno flavor, either, but were up for something hot.

A month ago, one of them gave Wilson a bottle of Toad Sweat, an ice cream topping made with habanero peppers and created by a North Carolina couple. Wilson mixed it with a batch of vanilla.

It worked. But the heat seekers said it wasn't enough.

The final version is made with a blend of Dave's Insanity Hot Sauce and Blair's Megadeath Hot Sauce, along with a secret ingredient. Chile peppers, habaneros and Thai chiles are then stirred in.

One of the first test-tasters was Justin Smith, 22, a woodworker from Angier.

He had a spoonful of the ice cream. Then he went to the bathroom and threw up.

He has had about five samples since then, and he hopes to try for the store's record -- 14 ounces in one sitting.

"It's got a good flavor," Smith insisted. "As someone who really likes hot stuff and doesn't mind being scorched, I can taste the difference, and it really does taste good."

WHAT'S IT TASTE LIKE?

A spoonful of Cold Sweat ice cream looks a little like tutti frutti. But appearances are deceiving.

News & Observer reporter Ryan Teague Beckwith sat down for a spoonful -- with three peppers, as hot as it gets.

At first taste

It's a little bland, with the heavy cream flavor overwhelming the hotter oils. After about 10 seconds, the heat sets in. At 20 seconds, you can feel it in the back of your throat. At 30 seconds, you realize that it's not going to stop.

After a minute

The underside of your tongue starts to burn. If you have subconsciously licked your lips, you'll notice that they're now burning as well.

After three minutes

The burn moves down your throat and into your stomach.

Then what?

From there, it's perhaps best to let the taste-testing waiver speak:

"It should be noted that what is painful going in may be painful upon exit."