Chili Pepper News — Capsaicin

Super hot sauce isn’t Tabasco. It’s also not that sriracha that people put on everything thing (unless, of course, it is our Mad Dog Reaper Sriracha hot sauce). We’re talking about condiments with Scovilles that range in the tens of thousands to the hundreds of thousands, as the Mad Dog 357 hot sauce that boasts an impressive 357,000 Scovilles.

You know there is a difference between hot sauces and ridiculously hot chili sauces, don’t you? But, if you’re not a chili head, you may not have any idea just what that difference is. 

Why do chilies burn?  It doesn’t matter whether you love hot sauce or not, chilies burn; some people just have a higher pain threshold than others.  It could be because they’ve developed a love for the world’s hottest sauces and they continue to build their tolerance.  Or, it could simply be because they are birds.  No, truly, birds are immune to the effects of capsaicin – the compound that gives chilies their fiery flavor.

You know that burning feeling you get on your tongue when you eat spicy foods? I'm sure you wonder: is it literally burning off my taste buds? This food myth is in fact, false. As an average human being ages, the sensitivity of their taste buds decreases, which is mistaken for taste loss due to spicy food choices. The loss of sensitivity is a gradual process that happens over time. This is also why most people don’t like spicy foods throughout their childhood but grow into likin