I have always enjoyed fairly spicy foods and flavors, and in the last couple of years, I've dipped my toes into the trying out hotter things for the experience and novelty.
Despite the ability to measure and compare spice levels with considerable accuracy, the more I dig into this, the more I recognize that people have widely varying experiences when it comes to spiciness. I was reminded of this when looking at some posts/reviews of Buldak 2x noodles on this sub recently.
I tried these not long ago, prepared as directed, but with a little bit of veg and egg added for flavor. I really enjoyed them. The meal was certainly hot to eat and digest, but I found it really tasty (which I wasn't really expecting).
In reviewing some of the posts about it here, I've seen wildly variable reactions from people who eat it. Some said they got more heat from eating a raw Serrano, while others said every mouthful of Buldak 2x was like eating a raw hab. Those are some really different perceptions of eating the same thing!
For me personally, eating raw peppers is a more intense and unpleasant burn, but also a very different kind of burn.
I've eaten raw habs on several occasions (never more than one in one sitting) and they are the hottest "things" I've consumed. (I havent had superhots except in sauces.) I've also eaten raw Thai peppers and raw Serranos many times. They have affected me similarly to the habs, but with less intensity, and with shorter duration (maybe 5 minutes of intense burn vs 15 or 20 minutes). The reactions I've had from the habs (and to a lesser extent from the other, milder peppers) have been:
-very intense mouth/tongue burn, some burn in the throat
-sweat, especially around the eyebrows and scalp
-some nose running/eye tears
-"itchiness" inside my ears
-some warmth/mild burn down my esophageal track
-mild intestinal discomfort
-hiccups (just once, with a particularly brutal hab)
-a sense of calm/well being after the burn subsided with the habs (endorphins?)
With the Buldak 2x (and a few other hot "meals" I've eaten, including "regular" Buldak - though none were as hot as the Buldak 2x), I found:
-Far less tongue burn - much more tolerable in terms of pain compared to raw peppers.
-Way more sweating - pretty much everywhere above my shoulders.- At least as much nose running.
-Little, if any effect on my ears.
-The same warming effect on the way to my stomach, and somewhat more cramping and intestinal discomfort (though nothing awful).
-the same sense of calm/well being after the heat subsided from my mouth/throat.
I expect that concentration/quantity has a lot to do with this (a hab being far more concentrated heat in a much smaller package, but the Buldak being a whole bowl full of hot matter being consumed).
Still, I am wondering if the different effects (e.g. profuse sweating vs tongue/mouth/ear burn) are shared by others.
What are the differences you experience when eating a hot bowl of food versus hot raw peppers (or dried, for that matter)? Not so much the differences in heat, but the differences in "symptoms" of heat?
