Photo/Illutration Habanero peppers growing on a farm in Hirata, Fukushima Prefecture (Motoyuki Tanaka)

HIRATA, Fukushima Prefecture--When the menu reads "Living hell curry" and "Hell-grade ice cream," the warning seems pretty clear: daring taste sensations await.

The concoctions were devised to help farmers in a village here to spur sales of their produce and combat the negative publicity stemming from the 2011 triple meltdown at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant about 40 kilometers away.

And it seems to be working.

In the aftermath of the disaster, farmers in Hirata became resigned to not selling their crops, finding that even vegetables that passed checks for radioactive substances were left unsold on shelves at a roadside outlet.

In autumn that year, Masao Hosokawa, 82, his wife, Teiko, 76, and a small number of fellow farmers harvested and sold habanero chili peppers for the first time, but found it difficult to attract buyers. Many went unsold.

The local Michi no Eki Hirata roadside rest area tried various tactics to sell the local produce, such as buying items at half price and using the ingredients at a restaurant operated next door or processing them into other products.

Several attempts were made for the habanero peppers, such as selling them in powder form or in miso. One idea was to sell curry advertised as 10 times spicier than normal.

But not only did the habanero products not sell, some customers said the special curry was not as hot as advertised.

Things took a turn for the better two years ago after Tetsuya Kono, 58, the manager of the roadside rest area, decided to go all out in finding an extreme use for the habanero.

When preparing a test curry, workers sported goggles and face masks to protect themselves from habanero powder in the air.

Fast forward to today and Michi no Eki Hirata now offers "living hell" curry for 750 yen ($6.90), tax included, and requiring customers to sign a waiver absolving the shop of liability if they experience health issues as a result.

The reason for the waiver is that the curry has been upgraded to about 300 times the spice level of normal curry, containing the equivalent of seven habaneros.

The curry, which is also sold in retortable packages for 498 yen, has become something of a hit, with about 2,000 meals and packages sold annually, both at the rest area and over the Internet.

The rest area outlet also sells ice cream topped with habenero powder for various levels of spiciness. The "hell-grade" option is almost completely red because of the amount of powder. The desert sells for 400 yen, but is free for anyone who can finish the "hell-grade" cone.

So far, about 500 customers have had the ice cream for free.

As a testament to the ingenuity behind the products, stocks of the habanero power ran out over the Golden Week holiday period in 2018 and sales of the spicy ice cream had to be suspended until autumn.

This autumn about one ton of habanero peppers was harvested in the village, roughly six times the volume at the time of the nuclear accident.

Twelve farmers are now growing the vegetable and a new producers' cooperative has been set up.

"We never aimed at turning it into a specialty product. It was just a coincidence," Kono said. "If the Great East Japan Earthquake hadn't occurred, the habanero pepper-related products may never have come into being."

Hirata locals now have a new goal--to become the "spiciest" village in Japan.