What Others Say: [Please make the background go away so I can read this. CLICK'Here] Recent neurophysiological studies suggest that the word "hot" is a pretty good description of the sensation. Turns out that the capsaicin receptor is one of the primary sensory receptors for heat transduction--it opens when it's heated. That is, capsaicin chemically forces this channel open and the nervous system interprets this (in part) as burning! As we all know, it's NOT exactly the same, but it IS pretty similar. Not to pull us too far into geek-land, but at the recent Society for Neuroscience convention in LA, there were tons of studies on the cap. receptor and it's role in pain perception, etc. Soooooo, while it's partially inaccurate to call the sensation "HOT," I don't think it's THAT far afield. Don't know if there is an "official true" difference here between "pungency" and "heat", but what *I* mean can be conceptualized by this difference: The difference between the *flavor and aroma* of habs and (for instance) thai hots. Datils are an extreme case of this. While they can pack a pretty solid punch, they have a *very* "PUNGENT" aroma and flavor that is different from just about any other chile I've had. I will sometimes cut open a few of them and drop them in a big pot of steaming rice (basimati or jasmine). The aroma infuses the rice and gives it a nice aftertaste independent of a very mild heat (unless you eat one of them....). Hi you all Chile-Heads from southern Italy. In the G. Caselton's Capsicum database I read about Datil chile pepper: "A native pepper from St. Augustine, Florida, the pepper is thought to have been brought there around 1776 when the surviving Minorcans fled to that city to escape the abuses at Turnbull's plantation. The pepper can rate as high as 300,000 Scoville Units, almost as hot as the Habanero.... Who were the Minorcans?." Mi·nor·ca1 (m?-nôr'k?) also Me·nor·ca (m?-nôr'k?, m?-nôr'kä). A Spanish island in the Balearics of the western Mediterranean Sea. Held by the British and the French at various times during the 18th century, it was a Loyalist stronghold in the Spanish Civil War. Mi·nor'can adj. & n.

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