the.com/spicy
a chemical trick that fools your tongue into screaming fire where none exists
means Describing food that produces a hot, pungent, burning sensation in the mouth, or by extension anything risqué, exciting, or provocative.
from From "spice" plus the adjective ending "-y." "Spice" came into English from Old French "espice," which traces back to Latin "species" — meaning a "kind" or "sort," the same root behind biological "species." In late Latin and medieval commerce, "species" drifted to mean "goods" and especially the precious aromatic wares — pepper, cinnamon, cloves — that merchants prized. So "spicy" carries a quiet irony: a word for "type" became the word for the rarest, most fiery types of all. The slang sense of "racy" or "scandalous" is a much later flavoring of the same heat.
- not a taste
- Capsaicin triggers heat receptors, not taste buds
- plant defense
- Peppers evolved spice to repel hungry mammals
- birds immune
- Birds feel zero burn, spreading pepper seeds freely
- milk fix
- Casein in milk dissolves capsaicin, water doesn't
- masochist high
- The pain releases endorphins, hooking chili lovers
scoville heat units — carolina reaper pepper measures 2.2 million shu, hottest in the world
bhut jolokia — ghost pepper from assam, india, held world record at 1.04 million shu until 2011
da lat pepper — vietnamese chili variety from central highlands, prized for intense pungency in southeast asian cuisine