Just 'Hot or Not' is Not a Lot
June 5, 2022 11:12 AM   Subscribe

Anyone who eats a variety of spicy food is aware of the inadequacy of using only magnitude to describe its heat. A person who steers clear of a stinging, instant heat at the back of the throat might relish a slow, lingering burn on the tongue and lips, even if the latter is magnitudes "hotter" according to simple SHUs.

To address this paucity of language, Dr Ivette Guzmán, Dr Paul Bosland, and a sensory panel developed a new vocabulary (main link) to describe five commonly experienced attributes which make up a more descriptive heat profile.

The paper is very interesting and more readable than most (and goes into the capsaicinoids which lead to these textures of pain; it ain’t just capsaicin anymore), but I'll pull out the attributes themselves along with their brief descriptions (table 1, in the paper) for easier discussion:
Development: heat sensation can be felt immediately or is delayed by 5, 15, 30 s, or longer.
Duration: heat sensation lasts for a short time, disappearing quickly, or may last for many minutes to even hours
Location: where is the heat sensation felt; on the lips, front of the mouth, tip of the tongue, mid-palate, or in the throat.
Feeling: heat sensation feels SHARP like pins pricking the area or FLAT like the heat is being smeared or painted on with a brush.
Intensity: [usually] stated as Scoville Heat Units [or] labeled mild, medium, hot, or extra hot, however there are no industry standards for these terms.
posted by thoroughburro (40 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: Poster's Request -- Brandon Blatcher



 
Table 2 matches my experience of (most of, not sure I've ever had a Rocoto, but 'incredibly sharp?' now I want to try one) these peppers:

Chile pepper variety - Heat profile

Capsicum annuum
Asian 1) very rapid, 2) sharp, 3) tip of tongue, front of mouth, 4) dissipates quickly, and 5) very hot.
Cayenne 1) rapid, 2) sharp, 3) front to middle of the mouth, 4) dissipates quickly, and 5) hot.
Chile de Arbol 1) delayed, 2) sharp, 3) mid-palate then moves to tongue, and lips, 4) lingers, and 5) medium hot.
Chiltepin 1) immediately, 2) sharp, 3) mid-palate, moves to tongue and throat ending on the lips, 4) dissipates on tongue and mouth, lingers on lips, and 5) hot.
Hungarian Paprika 1) moderately rapid, 2) flat, 3) mid-palate, 4) dissipates quickly, and 5) mild.
Jalapeno 1) rapid, 2) flat, 3) tip of the tongue, front of the mouth, 4) gradual loss of heat, and 5) hot.
New Mexican 1) moderately rapid, 2) flat, 3) mid-palate, 4) dissipates fairly rapidly, and 5) medium.
Poblano 1) moderately rapid, 2) flat, 3) side of tongue, 4) dissipates quickly, and 5) medium-mild.

Capsicum baccatum
Aji 1) rapid, 2) sharp, 3) tip of tongue, 4) dissipates quickly, and 5) hot.

Capsicum chinense
Bhut Jolokia 1) delayed, 2) flat, 3) back of throat, 4) lingers, and 5) extremely hot.
Habanero 1) delayed, 2) flat, 3) back of throat, 4) lingers, and 5) very hot.
Scorpion 1) delayed, 2) flat, 3) back of throat, 4) lingers, and 5) extremely hot.

Capsicum pubescens
Rocoto 1) rapid, 2) incredibly sharp, 3) whole mouth effect, lips, mid-palate, throat, 4) greatest lingering heat, and 5) very hot.

Capsicum frutescens
Tabasco 1) delayed, 2) flat, 3) lips and tongue, 4) lingers, and 5) hot.
posted by box at 11:52 AM on June 5, 2022 [3 favorites]


As someone who was gifted a yearlong subscription to Hot Ones, I can say with confidence that the only metric that actually matters is How Many Meals Can This Bottle Ruin. Of the three bottles I received every month, one would be None, This Is Quite Good, and the other two would be Every Meal For The Rest Of My Life Rendered Inedible.

I thought I was hardcore. I am not.

(I still recommend Hot Ones, it’s fun)
posted by Skrubly at 11:54 AM on June 5, 2022 [14 favorites]


Tangentially, as someone who can't handle capsaicin, but loves radish/mustard/wasabi, why isn't there a counterpart to the Scoville scale for measuring that family of spiciness?
Current labelling doesn't do a good job of indicating how strong particular mustards are, so I wish somebody would step up.
posted by cheshyre at 12:15 PM on June 5, 2022 [14 favorites]


I was wondering the same, lots of different types of "spicy" from raw onion to black pepper to ginger to cinnamon to wasabi to Szechuan peppercorns, beyond capsaicin.
posted by rikschell at 12:27 PM on June 5, 2022 [4 favorites]


Warning: NSFA

Incomplete metric. Needs a 6th dimension; with 6 levels.

On the “return journey”, does one’s anal sphincter feel:

i) Normal - like a breezy day in paradise?
ii) Slightly Tingly - like a set of pop rocks were dropped in yer keks?
iii) Moderately Uncomfortable - like when you make a faux pas, but with your arse?
iv) Severe Itching - like someone’s replaced your loo paper with wire wool and given a good scrub to the exit area?
v) Painful Burning - like a fine misting of concentrated sulfuric acid has been applied to your ringpiece?
vi) Indescribable Agony - a new portal has opened from painspace into this universe, through thine bunghole?
posted by lalochezia at 12:35 PM on June 5, 2022 [50 favorites]


I laughed my socks off at that, lalochezia. Many thanks!
posted by dutchrick at 12:51 PM on June 5, 2022


cheshyre, oddly, I am incredibly sensitive to wasabi and other forms of horseradish. Can’t handle them at all, yet I’m fine with “spicy” food that uses chilies. Even trace amounts are deeply unpleasant to me, including beer made with wasabi (yes, there are some, no, they aren’t worth seeking out). Other people say they barely notice it, but I’ll notice it right away.
posted by Ghidorah at 1:37 PM on June 5, 2022 [2 favorites]


(I still recommend Hot Ones, it’s fun)

I am also a fan! And I think one of their guest's reactions to their "Bomb Beyond Insanity" sauce could suggest another avenue of description: "It tastes like a yak's ass on fire."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 1:57 PM on June 5, 2022


My experience of horseradish, primarily through hot mustard, is a burning sensation on the scalp on the back of my head. I have never understood the pharmacokinetics of that reaction. I do get mouth burning sensation, but the scalp will hit a few seconds later, build, and then fade away in about a minute. Subsequent bites get weaker and weaker. The first bite is the winner.

As to lalochezia’s scale, the only term I’ve ever heard is “ringstinger.”
posted by njohnson23 at 2:00 PM on June 5, 2022 [1 favorite]


lalochezia, your scale is wonderful. I'll keep in mind, as often people describe hot peppers by their...after effects, and it takes me a little bit to realize they're not talking about mouth sensations.
posted by winesong at 2:13 PM on June 5, 2022


As to lalochezia’s scale, the only term I’ve ever heard is “ringstinger.”

I always come back to Johnny Cash for describing this situation.
posted by condour75 at 2:32 PM on June 5, 2022 [8 favorites]


I don't quite understand something in this paper. They have 11 tasters; how do they combine their tasting notes to yield the single description results posted in table 2?

I'm asking because there's an interesting result in wine tasting. The florid wine tasting terms people use ("mahogany", "musty leaves", "lemony") are entirely inconsistent from taster to taster. However they are consistent for the same taster if they taste again (blind) weeks or months later. So the wine tasting terms mean something to the individual, just not collectively.

I don't expect chile tasting to be quite as idiosyncratic; there's a pretty common experience and these are plenty blunt tasting terms they're using. Still curious if they're consistent between subjects.
posted by Nelson at 2:40 PM on June 5, 2022 [1 favorite]


Yeah, I'm really curious about the relationship between chilli and wasabi spiciness. I am absolutely physically intolerant of chilli spice. People present me with food that they claim has hardly any in and I'm on fire (and the fire lasts for a long, long time, not fading); the other day I was eating a jar of pesto and thought "WTF! Why have they put chilli in pesto - surely not?!", scoured the ingredients list and sure enough, right down there at the bottom of the least, in a tiny quantity, was chilli. But even when diluted by being thrown into a pasta sauce with a jar of tinned tomatoes and load of other stuff, it was still right on the border of my comfort zone.

It was a relief/revelation when I realised I could cope with wasabi fine, and the pain from that faded fairly quickly, and that it was very specifically chilli that caused me excessive pain. Kind of confirmed for me that I wasn't just an out-and-out wuss, it was some kind of super-sensitivity to chilli.
posted by penguin pie at 3:04 PM on June 5, 2022


The Hot Ones sampler was totally worth it to discover Tomasa, which has stayed in the household rotation. It has both habanero (C. chinense) and manzano (C. pubescens), so it’s very hot, but its unusual dark umami flavor tastes for all the world like it contains something like dried shiitake mushrooms. However, it’s apparently all due to either the peppers themselves or the onion, celery, and chia base. Perhaps due to its oiliness, the spice lingers so long that you can follow the sensation through every curve of your entire digestive tract. And it’s addictive with other dark spicy flavors like a biryani.
posted by mubba at 4:01 PM on June 5, 2022 [5 favorites]


I am not a scientist, but I regularly read journal articles in a range of fields, including the occasional science or science-adjacent paper. I regularly teach library patrons how to identify research methodologies, etc.

The paragraph is not quite as clear as it could be, but to me that last sentence reads simply as a conclusion. They had instruments — the sensory organs of the 11 humans. They calibrated them before the actual study began — the “training” on peppers that were a known quantity on the pre-established scales. And then the fuzzy part — with the known scale and people trained on it, they did their testing to see if the scale worked. Sounds like it was — and one can reasonably assume that they would not have rolled along with the publication if the scales were useless to the tasters. Had the article focused more on their testing methodology (had been the focus of the article), I bet we’d have gotten the true methodological nitty gritty.

(Also, 11 seems like a heck of a small sample size to me, but I also don’t know food science.)
posted by cupcakeninja at 4:09 PM on June 5, 2022 [1 favorite]


I am absolutely physically intolerant of chilli spice. People present me with food that they claim has hardly any in and I'm on fire (and the fire lasts for a long, long time, not fading);
...
It was a relief/revelation when I realised I could cope with wasabi fine, and the pain from that faded fairly quickly, and that it was very specifically chilli that caused me excessive pain. Kind of confirmed for me that I wasn't just an out-and-out wuss, it was some kind of super-sensitivity to chilli.


That's fascinating, penguin pie!

The fact that the fire lasts so long with you made me wonder whether there could be endogenous capsaicins that were stimulated when you ate exogenous ones and carried on the campaign. Googling showed that none were known in 2002, but by 2010 they were known to exist and play a role in hyperalgesia and allodynia (abnormally increased sensitivity to pain and pain due to a stimulus that normally does not cause pain):
Some of the central molecular mechanisms that lead to hyperalgesia and allodynia after peripheral tissue injury involve the spinal dorsal horn transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1). Amol Patwardan and colleagues at the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, TX, USA have shown that peripheral injury stimulates the central release of an endogenous family of lipids—oxidized linoleic acid metabolites—which activate TRPV1 in the spinal cord to produce inflammatory hyperalgesia. “We have shown that certain linoleic acid metabolites serve as endogenous capsaicin-like compounds by activating central TPRV1 receptors and producing central sensitization,” explains senior author Kenneth Hargreaves.
Normally introducing an exogenous compound which activates a receptor will cause down regulation of endogenous activators, which might help explain the efficacy of capsaicin patches for low back pain — which is often considered to be centrally mediated — but obviously not what’s happening to you.

Did you have exceptionally bad food poisoning after eating a chili spiced meal, by any chance?
posted by jamjam at 5:03 PM on June 5, 2022


My spouse says bring on all on of the wasabi/horseradish you can, but I really don't like that sensation. I do, however, like moderate amounts of capsaicin. By moderate I mean it's probably too spice for people that don't like spicy stuff, but it's definitely on the low end for people who like to eat ghost peppers.
posted by mollweide at 5:48 PM on June 5, 2022 [2 favorites]


I'm really enjoying getting to know the málà 麻辣 flavor that is one of the distinctive tastes of Sichuan food, the combination of numbing Sichuan pepper and hot capsaicin chiles. I know it best from mapo tofu but lately have been enjoying it in Shuǐ zhǔ yú 水煮鱼 which gets translated as "Hot Sauce & Boiled Fish" or "Water Boiled Fish".

The combination of the hot chile with the weird buzzing / numbing of the Sichuan pepper is really distinctive. Also love the flavor of the fermented bean paste used to add some depth to the flavor. One thing I'm slowly learning about Sichuan food is that while it uses capsaicin the chiles are there as much for a smokey aroma and the red color. They're often served whole, not meant to be eaten, although their flavor and heat certainly permeates the broth.
posted by Nelson at 5:56 PM on June 5, 2022 [5 favorites]


I appreciate that this paper tries to provide us with a vocabulary that lets us differentiate the flavor profiles of different types of peppers, because they clearly differ from one another.

That said, I'd love to have a single measure for the heat of hot sauces. I can use Cholula and Crystal like ketchup, but more boutique hot sauces vary so widely in terms of heat (to me, at least) that I'm afraid to buy them. The more extreme among them seem to swamp the flavor with heat so fast that their idiosyncratic 1 to 5 pepper heat rating loses all meaning.
posted by mollweide at 7:09 PM on June 5, 2022


I generally like really spicy foods. Sometimes I'll eat a straight spoonful or two of chili crisp with hot chili oil drizzled on it. Sriracha is sweet ketcheup to me and barely spicy. It's mostly vinegar and sugar, really.

I like spicy food to the point that I have to beg and plead when I go out for Thai food in particularly firmly insist that yes, I am indeed ordering a dish as a 5, 6 or 7 star even though the menu only goes to 4 star and promise I'm not going to send it back. Like, yes, I really do want you to make me cry and make all my face holes leak including even my ears.

There's a couple of places I've known over my lifetime that have known me well enough to do just that and they seem to bust out the extra spicy oils, dried chilies and powders and whatnot, and if it's an open kitchen and I'm sitting close to it I'll feel it in my eyeballs before it even leaves the wok and hits a plate. There's like a whole different and complex layer of spicy there when I get what I want, both with up front quick heat and lingering heat and layers and layers of smokey, astringent and zesty heat going on. (And yes, can I please have like 2-3 cups of chili sauce to go with that? Thank you.)

I don't order like this all the time and it's definitely some weird macho thing. Most of the time I just want a slightly spicy, mellow and sweet pad thai with some sweet and crunchy fried tofu.

But if I'm ordering something that spicy it usually means I have a wicked hangover, or allergies, or a sinus infection and/or I'm getting over a head cold and I want to actually be able to taste something and/or melt my whole face right off and do wacky things to my endocrine and lymphatic system. If my ears don't start crackling and draining in the first few bites it's not hot enough.

All that being said you won't catch me eating a whole, fresh Ghost Pepper or Carolina Reaper because I'm not an idiot. There's enjoying spicy food and then there's intentionally blasting yourself in the face with bear spray. One of those involves actually eating a meal with ingredients and flavors, and the other one you might as well just go ahead and taser yourself right in the mouth and face.

All that being said I don't normally experience ring of fire after effects on exit, but when I do it's rather alarming and it makes me seriously question my status as an atheist.

Because why - why oh why, please tell me - would I ever have any need for taste buds in my asshole unless god was real and they were a cruel and vengeful god. Just.. why? Why is that even a thing?
posted by loquacious at 8:23 PM on June 5, 2022 [8 favorites]


you might as well just go ahead and taser yourself right in the mouth and face

Is that good?
posted by flabdablet at 8:45 PM on June 5, 2022


Well taste buds in that region really would be the work of a vengeful, Human-Caterpillar-esque mad deity, but it sounds like the main mechanism for the hot spicy sensation is sneaky activation of the very same one that reports actual heat, which is a sense you probably want to keep to inform you of potentially damaging temperatures in your anus. That said, I feel like honestly by the time that’s an issue the butt-cheek alarms would have rung soundly enough to get me to move, tbh.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 8:46 PM on June 5, 2022 [1 favorite]


I think the more complicated thing with spicy food is that tolerance varies widely, so that “a pleasant tingle” for one person is another’s “so hot I’m looking into the face of death.” As someone who really enjoys spicy food but not suffering, it’s a careful line to walk! I’m not an extreme death sauce kinda girl, but I have to tone down my cooking for many guests after bad reactions to what I thought was a pleasant penne arrabbiata…
posted by vanitas at 8:48 PM on June 5, 2022 [2 favorites]


Well taste buds in that region really would be the work of a vengeful, Human-Caterpillar-esque mad deity, ...

You do actually have taste buds in your colon.
posted by jamjam at 11:09 PM on June 5, 2022 [3 favorites]


I wonder whether any of the indigenous languages of Mexico have more specific words distinguishing these kinds of spiciness, since they've been eating Capsicum peppers for millennia.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 1:53 AM on June 6, 2022 [1 favorite]


Hey, jamjam - thanks so much for that, I can't pretend to understand most of it on first reading but will have a closer look when I have a little more time! Really appreciate you digging into it. I've always vaguely assumed there was a certain type of tastebud/receptor that was primed to taste chilli and that I just had way more of them than other people. Though of course that would only explain the heightened sensitivity to them, not the fact it doesn't die away quickly afterwards.

I'm not aware of ever having had food poisoning after eating chilli - I've had this intolerance for as long as I can remember, there was never a time when I could eat chilli spice comfortably. I do remember that as a child I was also the unusual kid who didn't like fizzy drinks (the bubbles hurt my tongue/mouth) or ice cream (the cold was painful/uncomfortable). I'm a little more open to both those now, but they're not top of my list for things to enjoy... if I have carbonated drinks or ice cream, I enjoy them despite the fizz/cold, and it still diminishes my pleasure in them slightly.
posted by penguin pie at 4:24 AM on June 6, 2022


Having been blessed with a high spice tolerance (inbound, outbound), I've found that these days I'm more interested in the flavor profile that goes with the heat profile; the slow sweet burn that becomes as meltdown is my favorite, which is why, for example, my chili tends to start with a cocoa and honey front before eviscerating souls in the back. It's that sweet to heat that makes it for me, not unlike the best ddeokbokki and buldak. That said, my favorite hot sauces tend to be high heat with a citric or garlic lean.

The problem I find with a lot of things geared just towards heat level is that the flavor is utter shit. Every time I've tried the Paquí one-chip challenge, it's always bothered me more how black-peppery the taste is, and how stale the chip tastes; the scorpion pepper hot sauce I have is a bit bluntly vegetal, with nothing to back it.

w/r/t mala or wasabi, for me i don't associate them with heat so much as cold, in a way? i love those too, but I don't cook with them as much.
posted by i used to be someone else at 8:32 AM on June 6, 2022


The Metafilter mullet: a cocoa and honey front, eviscerating souls in the back.
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:36 AM on June 6, 2022 [1 favorite]


If you haven't tried it, I strongly recommend looking up Rick Bayless's recipe for habanero hot sauce. It uses roasted garlic, carrots, white onion, apple cider vinegar, salt and habaneros. It's a beautiful heat - slow coming on, then intense for about 20 seconds and then - gone. I add a bit of sugar to it.

His website has a fairly extensive collection of salsas and sauces.
posted by onesidys at 12:56 PM on June 6, 2022 [1 favorite]


My spouse says bring on all on of the wasabi/horseradish you can, but I really don't like that sensation. I do, however, like moderate amounts of capsaicin. By moderate I mean it's probably too spice for people that don't like spicy stuff, but it's definitely on the low end for people who like to eat ghost peppers.

My spouse likes wasabi at a level that makes him twitch and which I find unpalatable, but capsaicin-based things that I consider barely warm will knock him on his butt. They seem to be working with different sensory pathways.
posted by Lexica at 3:19 PM on June 6, 2022


I once worked on a "farm" (and those quotes are doing a LOT of work) run by hippies. One day I was clearing out a field that had been fallow for a 2-3 years, and a combination of staff rollover and lax (i.e. no) record keeping meant nobody currently had any idea what had been grown there before. One corner of it turned out to be a small horseradish patch that had been left to its own devices for a while. I uncovered a bunch of roots as big around as my thumb or a little larger. I cleaned up one and started nibbling on it - absolutely wonderful flavor! I guess I got carried away and took too big a bite; next thing I knew it felt like my brain was literally going to explode. A minute or so later that was gone, but I was woozy for the next half hour. Didn't stop me from finishing my snack though, I just remembered to take smaller bites from then on.

The first time I had kimchi a similar thing happened - not quite as intense as the brain-exploding feeling, but I felt lightheaded and almost tipsy for a while afterward. Hooked me on kimchi forever.
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:37 PM on June 6, 2022 [2 favorites]


I wonder whether any of the indigenous languages of Mexico have more specific words distinguishing these kinds of spiciness, since they've been eating Capsicum peppers for millennia.

I am not sure about distinguishing these kinds of spiciness, but there are at least six degrees of spiciness in Nahuatl. You probably could have ordered your cacahual at a banquet in Tenochtitlán coco, cocopatic, cocopetz-patic, cocopetztic, copetzquauitl, or cocopalatic.

In modern Mexican Spanish I am not aware of specific adjectives, but everything in the article is part of the lore. I am happy it has been codified by researchers.

For example, a good torta ahogada in Guadalajara does not do much at first, but after a few bites your lips and tongue are burning, and if you are not pouring tears and snot you are doing it wrong, the sensation should last an hour or so. A torta ahogada that stings immediately or that burns the throat is not a good torta. Good salsas for seafood in the pacific coast should sting immediately, but like sharp pins, not like napalm, and the sensation should go away quickly. Good miles with their dozens of types of chilies and spices should have an all over effect, but no burning lips, and should go away before dessert arrives.
posted by Dr. Curare at 4:53 PM on June 6, 2022 [9 favorites]


but there are at least six degrees of spiciness in Nahuatl.

Dr. Curare, I would absolutely devour an essay or newsletter about any of this.

There is easily a 2+ hour TED talk in there about the history, cultural mobility and language of peppers and chilies in particular. I know there's the article in the FPP but that's just a teaser, really.
posted by loquacious at 5:10 PM on June 6, 2022 [3 favorites]


Regarding the cultural mobility of chili peppers and 2 hour talks, this year I was growing “Buena Mulata” chilies until hail destroyed the plants yesterday.

Buena Mulata peppers were introduced to mainstream (ha!) rare chilies by Horace Pippin the folk artists in 1944. I have tested the patience of more than one guest talking about the migration of chilies from Peru to North America and the world, colonization, slavery, race, the US pre and post WW2, etc…
posted by Dr. Curare at 5:23 PM on June 6, 2022 [3 favorites]


I'm very sorry about the hail and loss of rare plants that I'm googlin', but please do feel free to go on. Or link to something, what do you mean testing the patience of guests talking about the migration of chilies!?

Oh dear, your profile picture is food. Oh help I'm suddenly hungry and I had a late lunch.
posted by loquacious at 8:04 PM on June 6, 2022


Oh my god they're purple!

https://www.rareseeds.com/buena-mulata-hot-pepper
posted by loquacious at 8:06 PM on June 6, 2022 [1 favorite]


loquacious, I enjoyed this book (actually all the ones in the picture), it gives a good overview of capsicum's travels from Peru to the rest of the continent, the world, and back. But almost anything you read in print books is going to be outdated, genetic sequencing keeps getting cheaper and easier and the science is being revised all the time. I just look for papers online once in a while.

what do you mean testing the patience of guests talking about the migration of chilies!?

When I get obsessed with something I go deep, and the more I learn and experience the more I experience awe and wonder. I want to share that joy with everyone. But I also suck at reading social cues, the more polite the person the worse I can read them.

I met you a couple of times back in prehistory and got the impression you are the kind of person that would not find it excruciating to discuss niche hobbies at length. I have a few friends like that. I also have close friends that know that is is perfectly fine to tell me that it is time to change the subject, and I am grateful for that. For the rest of the people, I have a system with my wife where she reminds me to look for cues and act normal.

This year I focused on chilies that look interesting, have a backstory, and/or have a unique taste and heat. I think I posted pictures here before, I think this trio of Black Cluster, Brujo, and Buena Mulata look like fairy trees.

After the hail, the only survivors were the Purple Cream Tiger, which goes through similar color changes as the Mulata and has pretty variegated leaves, and this wild "Piquin" that has been in the family for generations and is an essential ingredient in the "chile para picar", dry chilies ground up with cocoa nibs, salt and a secret ingredient. Designed to be used on mango, cucumber, orange and jicama salad for hot afternoons.
posted by Dr. Curare at 9:00 AM on June 7, 2022 [2 favorites]


Just to harp on about my own chilli sensitivity - it's so fascinating and alien to me to see all this discussion of flavours and subtleties around them because to me, there is no flavour, only pain. It's like someone letting off a flamethrower in your mouth and saying "So, can you get the earthy undertones of that one, and the fruity aftertaste?" There are obviously lots of different things going on in chilli consumption - heat and flavour as separate things that are perceived in combination. Except in whatever odd configuration is in my mouth, the heat makes it impossible to perceive flavour (or anything at all except pain).
posted by penguin pie at 3:34 AM on June 8, 2022


I know what you mean. I love spicy food, but my tolerance tops out around Fresno/Jalapeno level; anything hotter than that I only experience as heat with no flavor.
posted by Greg_Ace at 10:11 AM on June 8, 2022 [1 favorite]


This is all getting me very very excited for the peppers I've got in my community garden plot. I have a couple of sweet bell peppers, a jalapeno and a Hungarian wax pepper; a couple of them just started flowering, and I'm already planning ahead.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:15 AM on June 9, 2022


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