Taste Bud Alert! Fun Facts About Spicy Food

March 28, 2023

Feeling hot, hot, hot (as the song says…)

If you love spicy food, you’ll enjoy learning a bit more about what lies behind its fiery flavour!

The Heat Level Can Be Measured

If you've ever watched the popular web series Hot Ones, featuring international celebrities who sample chicken wings covered in super-hot sauces, then you’re probably familiar with the“Scoville scale”. It measures the level of pungency of a pepper and how hot it will feel in your mouth!

Invented in 1912 by pharmacologist Wilbur Scoville, the scale divides chili peppers into “Scoville heat units”. Scoville came up with this classification by mashing chili peppers and diluting them with water and sugar, trying them on a group of testers. The numbers on the scale indicate how much the particular chili that is being measured has to be watered down before it no longer scalds your mouth.

At 0 (zero) the peppers contain no capsaicin (the chemical compound that gives food its taste and flavour), so they are not spicy at all—like bell peppers. From zero, the scale rises and rises and rises… all the way up to 1,500,000 Scoville heat units, a measure of the hottest chili pepper in the world!

The Carolina Reaper

This is the world’s most fiery chili! A hybrid pepper created in 2013 by an American, Ed Currie, it typically scores 1,500,000 units on the Scoville scale.

In 2017, a Carolina Reaper pepper earned a listing in the Guinness World Records with a score of 1,641,183 Scoville units!

What Beverages Lessen the Fiery Effect?

A glass of water doesn’t do the trick, but milk or oil are effective. Capsaicin dissolves in fatty substances and that reduces the heat level. Drinking a glass of milk with spicy food can alleviate heartburn and the acid reflux that goes along with it.

Beer can also work as an antidote! Opt for a milkshake IPA or a malted beer. Those drinks will alleviate the heat on your tongue and taste buds.

The Hottest Part of a Chili Pepper Is…

... its centre! Surprisingly, it isn’t the seeds or the skin that create the burning sensation, but rather the “placenta” (the white part) in the middle, where the capsaicin is most concentrated.

If you want to cut down on the level of spiciness in a chili pepper, just cut out the centre, making sure that bits of it don’t remain in contact with the rest of the vegetable.

Our Menu Is Also Spicy!

At OMG, we like it hot! Our Nashville Burger, for example, is served with a cayenne pepper sauce, while the Thai Poutine comes with a sweet and spicy chili sauce.

Also, you might have noticed that our popular Big Wagyu Burgeris garnished with two small chili peppers—like two devil horns! Muahahahah!

These arebird’s eye chilies, which score 50,000 to 100,000 on the Scoville scale. They’re not as hot as habanero peppers, but they’re much hotter than chipotle, jalapeno, or tabasco peppers. Try them if you dare!

If these descriptions are making you hanker after something spicy, drop by the restaurant and order a dish that will set your mouth on fire! Cocktails and cold beers will, of course, also be on hand…

1175 King St. West
Sherbrooke (QUEBEC)
J1H 1S6