Wasabi and horseradish hit me in the sinuses, while hot sauce and curries hit the tongue and throat instead. Am I making sense?
Was curious if there’s a reason for that?
In: 7
Weirdly, [this exact question was posted 30 minutes ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/v7fu1d/eli5_why_is_the_heat_you_feel_from_eating/ibkjs5m) too. I’m copying my answer from there:
Because their spiciness comes from two different chemicals! We call them both “heat” because they both kind of burn, but that’s a big generalization. They’re two different flavours. It’s like saying “Why is the fruitiness of a strawberry different from the fruitiness of a cherry?”
Hot-sauce hot comes from capsaicin, a thick oily liquid. It activates pain receptors, not taste buds. We call the sensation “burning” because to your brain it actually registers as burning, not as a flavour. The thick oiliness is also why hot sauce heat can linger longer than horseradish heat.
Horseradish and wasabi get their spiciness from “allyl isothiocyanate”, which is a volatile (thin and easily evaporating) liquid. That’s why horseradish heat gets into your nose and sinuses so easily – it’s evaporating from your mouth. It’s also why it doesn’t stay in your mouth as long as the thick oily hotsauce-spice.
[https://www.pepperscale.com/pepper-heat-vs-horseradish-heat/](https://www.pepperscale.com/pepper-heat-vs-horseradish-heat/)
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