Sweet Heat

I’ve been on a beef jerky kick. After trails and trails of spice combinations, I couldn’t help but notice something.

No matter how spicy I make a batch, if I add a sweetener, like brown sugar, then I always taste the “sweet” before the “heat”.

I’ve polled family members, and this seems to be true for them too. (We all know 3 people is enough for a study, right?).

My mother-in-law thinks it’s because the taste buds that taste “sweet” are the first ones to come into contact. Seems plausible?

I guess that’s why they call it “sweet heat”, not “heat sweet”.