Events

The Spice Bar turns up the heat in downtown Floyd

Overall, the rules were simple: finish one level and wait one minute before moving on to the next stage. The challenge itself? Eating cracker bites coated in increasingly fiery chili powder ranging from jalapeno to Carolina Reaper.

The Spice Bar hosted a Live Chile Challenge on Saturday that was so intense waivers and gloves were required to participate.

Overall, the rules were simple: finish one level and wait one minute before moving on to the next stage. Nothing to eat or drink in between stages. After finishing the final pepper, you have to wait three minutes. From the start, to the final three minutes, there is no wiping of the face, or blowing of the nose. These will result in a disqualification.

The challenge itself? Eating cracker bites coated in increasingly fiery chili powder ranging from jalapeno to Carolina Reaper.

Tonya Urban, owner of The Spice Bar, said, “We figured everybody — well... a lot of people like heat, and they like to challenge themselves and challenge each other. So, we are starting with jalapeno and going all the way up through the Scoville Heat Index to Reaper, which is the hottest pepper that is not genetically modified.”

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Six willing participants signed the appropriate paperwork and donned their personal protective equipment on Saturday to eat some of the hottest natural peppers known to man, starting with smiles and ending with tears. Only one disqualification occurred when a contestant blew his nose on the last challenge.

Urban became the third owner of the 20-year-old Spice Bar in 2023. Before she took the business over, The Spice Bar catered to different restaurants and commercial kitchens all over Roanoke and the New River valleys. Urban said that when she took over, the business expanded to do wholesale from NOVA — around the Charlottesville area — to Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. "Then we also expanded into retail," she said.

Urban says that if you missed the contest on Saturday, you can participate in the Chile Challenge anytime The Spice Bar is open to the public. "I would say probably maybe once a month we'll be trying to do an actual event, whether it's the Chili Challenge or another kind of a challenge,” she added.

The Spice Bar is located at 302 S. Locust St. in the WinterSun building. The store is open from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays, and from noon until 5 p.m. on Sundays. Find more information at www.facebook.com/spicebarspices.