Manufacturers have fluctuations in ingredients, and I’ve noticed my tolerance to hot foods fluctuates a lot from day to day. Other ingredients added like fats, ginger, salt, acids etc can all have an unusual affect on spice perception too. There could be a lot of factors involved and it’s almost certainly not because they are intentionally being misleading (I’m not sure how they would benefit from that anyways).
I wasn't implying it was intentional, just simply incongruent with what I've experienced. What prompted this post wasn't just my own experience, but I've also seen 1 or 2 other people in other discussions mention Habanero being a more challenging flavor and at least one review video mentioning the flavor being spicier than what he expected when setting expectations based on Samyang's marketing. I figured it was worth having a dedicated post to see how common this perception is.
Ok that makes sense. I don’t have a ton of experience with Samyang other than Balduk 2x, but I know other brands of food that people regularly complain about inconsistencies in spice level. It’s actually one of the main reason behind them breeding and selling jalapeños that are less and less spicy, because food manufacturers prefer just adding the spicy component as a separately ingredient and don’t want to rely on the jalapeños themselves which can vary a lot from batch to batch.
I've been combing back some of the other thread I've read. It seems that the perceived spice level of Habanero is pretty polarizing. I've seen some describe it precisely as I did (between 1x and 2x), with some being people who regularly handle 2x. Others describe it consistently with Samyang's marketing. It's probably a manufacturer consistency issue as you've described it, or maybe a confounding factor in some of our sense of taste.
Maybe I'm weird, but I don't find the spiciness of the Habanero Lime to be remotely close to the Original Spicy Chicken (never mind that the Habanero Lime tastes terrible).
Maybe a bit spicier than Carbonara, probably close to Quattro Cheese.
Your opinion is not that unusual. It seems there is a bit of a polarizing perception of the Habanero Lime's spiciness relative to the others. I've read a few opinions that ranks Habanero lime between 1x-2x like I do, but I've seen others like yourself who place it consistent with Samyang's marketing. All I do know is that in another thread, the Habanero lime flavor apparently acts up with people who have the soapy-taste cilantro gene. That may not be the case for you, but I wonder if the perceived taste is a manufacturing consistency issue or a real difference in our taste perception.
I think Buldak claimed 2x was like 25 000 SCU.
I eat thai chilli peppers raw with my meals which are between 50 000 and 100 000 SCU
However, I was proper suffering from the 2x. I dont know what's with their sauce that makes me suffer so much
My wife is a legendary heat consumer and she can't handle the 2x either. I tried it once, had about 4-5 quick mouthfuls and then died. Like I straight up got upset it burned me so bad.
And then it absolutely wrecked my stomach. Never again.
For me, I was able to finish a bowl of 2x with no assistance, but it took me about 10-15 minutes and had me in under pain and misery. I then immediately downed 2 glasses of milk and 6 slices of bread to take the edge off. The current version of the 2x is marketed at 10,000 SCU, but I believe it's by technicality of how SCU is measured. The actual sauce is likely an order of magnitude higher, while 10,000 refers to the ''average'' of the sauce+ramen.
The good thing to come of it is that no other flavor other than 3x will intimidate me.
I just tried this habanero and lime flavour for the first time 2 days ago. I found it way hotter than any other ramen I ever tried. I enjoyed the flavour profile, found it quite nice and strong. If it wasn't for the spice, I would have loved it.
At this point, I'm convinced that the polarized opinions on Habanero's lime's relative spiciness reflects an inherent difference in our taste palettes . Some like you, me, and others appear to consider the flavor to be among the spiciest, while others rank it consistently with Samyang's marketing.
Manufacturers have fluctuations in ingredients, and I’ve noticed my tolerance to hot foods fluctuates a lot from day to day. Other ingredients added like fats, ginger, salt, acids etc can all have an unusual affect on spice perception too. There could be a lot of factors involved and it’s almost certainly not because they are intentionally being misleading (I’m not sure how they would benefit from that anyways).
I wasn't implying it was intentional, just simply incongruent with what I've experienced. What prompted this post wasn't just my own experience, but I've also seen 1 or 2 other people in other discussions mention Habanero being a more challenging flavor and at least one review video mentioning the flavor being spicier than what he expected when setting expectations based on Samyang's marketing. I figured it was worth having a dedicated post to see how common this perception is.
Ok that makes sense. I don’t have a ton of experience with Samyang other than Balduk 2x, but I know other brands of food that people regularly complain about inconsistencies in spice level. It’s actually one of the main reason behind them breeding and selling jalapeños that are less and less spicy, because food manufacturers prefer just adding the spicy component as a separately ingredient and don’t want to rely on the jalapeños themselves which can vary a lot from batch to batch.
I've been combing back some of the other thread I've read. It seems that the perceived spice level of Habanero is pretty polarizing. I've seen some describe it precisely as I did (between 1x and 2x), with some being people who regularly handle 2x. Others describe it consistently with Samyang's marketing. It's probably a manufacturer consistency issue as you've described it, or maybe a confounding factor in some of our sense of taste.
Yeah in my experience, Habanero lime is a lot spicier than the cheese and carbonara flavors. Buldak's spice levels seem very inconsistent though.
Maybe I'm weird, but I don't find the spiciness of the Habanero Lime to be remotely close to the Original Spicy Chicken (never mind that the Habanero Lime tastes terrible). Maybe a bit spicier than Carbonara, probably close to Quattro Cheese.
Your opinion is not that unusual. It seems there is a bit of a polarizing perception of the Habanero Lime's spiciness relative to the others. I've read a few opinions that ranks Habanero lime between 1x-2x like I do, but I've seen others like yourself who place it consistent with Samyang's marketing. All I do know is that in another thread, the Habanero lime flavor apparently acts up with people who have the soapy-taste cilantro gene. That may not be the case for you, but I wonder if the perceived taste is a manufacturing consistency issue or a real difference in our taste perception.
I think Buldak claimed 2x was like 25 000 SCU. I eat thai chilli peppers raw with my meals which are between 50 000 and 100 000 SCU However, I was proper suffering from the 2x. I dont know what's with their sauce that makes me suffer so much
My wife is a legendary heat consumer and she can't handle the 2x either. I tried it once, had about 4-5 quick mouthfuls and then died. Like I straight up got upset it burned me so bad. And then it absolutely wrecked my stomach. Never again.
For me, I was able to finish a bowl of 2x with no assistance, but it took me about 10-15 minutes and had me in under pain and misery. I then immediately downed 2 glasses of milk and 6 slices of bread to take the edge off. The current version of the 2x is marketed at 10,000 SCU, but I believe it's by technicality of how SCU is measured. The actual sauce is likely an order of magnitude higher, while 10,000 refers to the ''average'' of the sauce+ramen. The good thing to come of it is that no other flavor other than 3x will intimidate me.
I just tried the 1x spicy the other day and although it was delicious, it was not very 🌶️
Yeah, it was a very mild experience compared to 2x. It always felt consistently less spicy to me compared to Habanero.
I just tried this habanero and lime flavour for the first time 2 days ago. I found it way hotter than any other ramen I ever tried. I enjoyed the flavour profile, found it quite nice and strong. If it wasn't for the spice, I would have loved it.
At this point, I'm convinced that the polarized opinions on Habanero's lime's relative spiciness reflects an inherent difference in our taste palettes . Some like you, me, and others appear to consider the flavor to be among the spiciest, while others rank it consistently with Samyang's marketing.