The Fatalii is a cultivar of the chilli pepper Capsicum chinense developed in southern or central Africa from chilies introduced from the Americas.

When eating a whole white chili and chewing for at least 10 seconds before swallowing (not recommended for untrained tasters) the heat may be first felt aggressively in the back of the throat, up the nose, then eventually moves to the roof of the mouth and finally the tongue where the pain is intense, at which point there can be gustatory sweating and tears from the eyes.

[3] Hot chili aficionados who have tasted all four colour varieties report the heat increasing from the white, which has pronounced citrus lime and lemon flavours, through yellow, then red, then to the hottest and sweetest being the chocolate or brown Fatalii.

The distinctive chinense (species) fruit flavour, also present in Habanero, becomes more prominent in the yellow than the white, and increases and becomes more rounded in the red and the chocolate.

White and yellow have more effect on the back of the throat and are slower to decline than the red and brown, which have more of a searing mouth burn, especially the tongue.