Inside the world of super hot chillies and the Aussies that love them

There are three types of people who walk into Phillip Botha's spice shop in Perth's north-east.

Those who work in restaurants, those who want to add a kick to their meals at home and those who are looking for a challenge.

For customers in the latter category, Botha often sees groups of young men who are ready to sting their tongues to one-up each other.

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"You do have the people who are just crazy and say 'give me the hottest product in the shop, I want to see if I can handle it'," he told 9news.com.au.

"If a bunch of guys get together, they just want to prove who can handle the hottest things."

Sometimes the products have a Scoville rating, which is a measurement of spiciness, of more than a million.

"They love to come and tell me the stories," Botha said.

"Some of them say 'that was absolutely crazy, we all almost passed out but we're going to try it again'.

"Although with women, I find they're the return customers, they really enjoy the heat."

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For others, the store is a way to stay connected to their cultures and get a taste of home through food.

"There's a group of people from parts of Asia who feel they can't find what they're looking for in Woolworths and Coles," Botha said.

"In my shop, the hottest sauce, it's a lady who comes to buy it.

"She will come and buy a bottle a month, it's two million Scovilles."

Growing appetite for eating challenges

Botha has owned the Spice Wagon and Latino Grocer in Morley for 16 years.

He has seen a new wave of customers with a growing enthusiasm for chillies in recent years, inspired by the US TV show Hot Ones, a chat show where celebrity guests answer questions as they attempt to eat rounds of chicken wings coated in spicy hot sauce.

"They try to emulate that where they have a chilli challenge," he said.

"There's quite a bit of that crowd that says 'give us the mildest to the hottest you've got'.

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"They say 'we've seen it on Hot Ones, we're going to try it' and I say 'do you know how hot it is?'

"I do find that even the restaurants now, they try to satisfy that need.

"We do sell it to quite a few restaurants who use it for chicken wing challenges."

The success of the show has led to a bigger following and knowledge of chillies.

"They know what a Carolina reaper is and a ghost chilli is," Botha said.

'It takes your breath away'

While the hit show has brought a greater awareness to chilli products, another incident brought one item to infamy this month.

Father-of-three Paul Andrew Hart was jailed for 16 months after he sprayed a chilli substance called Satan's Spit inside Bunnings Northam in Western Australia.

The 52-year-old claimed he intended to release a "fart spray" he bought online to "lighten the mood" but grabbed the wrong can from his pocket.

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In Botha's 16 years in business, he has never seen anything like it.

"It's really like being pepper sprayed, it's not a toy," he said.

"Not knowing what it is, you'd catch a fright, it takes your breath away."

Botha's stocks the 30ml bottle in his store, which sells for $22 and is normally used in small amounts on food in restaurants.

"You have to dilute it," Botha said.

"I usually talk to people when they buy it and say 'listen, it's not a game'.

"I don't sell it to school-aged kids, youngsters do come in and ask about it."

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The product has a Scoville rating of 1.8 million.

In comparison, pepper spray is normally rated between two and five million.

If reforms were ever introduced for the spray, Botha suggested the product should be treated like alcohol.

"It may be regulated to be sold from behind the counter or sold like liquor where you've got to be of age or a responsible adult," he said.

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