What Is Sharp Heat?

Sheela Prakash
Sheela PrakashSenior Contributing Food Editor
Sheela is the Senior Contributing Food Editor at Kitchn and the author of Mediterranean Every Day: Simple, Inspired Recipes for Feel-Good Food. She received her master's degree from the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Italy and is also a Registered Dietitian.
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published Sep 1, 2016
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Bite into a chile pepper and you may simply think it’s hot or not, but according to scientists, that heat is more specific than you might think. The spice of every kind of chile peppers is measured using the Scoville scale, which assigns a number to the pepper depending on how pungent it is. One factor to determine this number is whether the heat the pepper produces is sharp or flat. What the heck does “sharp heat” mean?

A Chile Pepper’s Sharp Heat, Defined

If you bite into a hot chile pepper or taste anything with that pepper in it, your mouth does a little dance. Sharp heat feels like pins and needles on your tongue, but then vanishes quickly. This type of spice is common in Asian chile varieties, like Thai bird’s eye chiles and Indian ghost peppers.

Read More: What Is Flat Heat?

3 Recipes That Use Chile Peppers with Sharp Heat

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Ingredient
Tips & Techniques
Vegetables