Talking Spices Again: Piquant

Someone asked what "piquant" meant in describing spices, and I didn't have a very good definition.

According to Wikipedia, "Piquance (pronounced /ˈpikəns/)[1][2] or piquancy, is the sensation commonly referred to as "spicy" or "hot" which is found in foods such as chili peppers. It is associated with the sense of taste, and in various Asian countries it has traditionally been considered a basic taste.

Use of the word "piquance" eliminates potential lingual ambiguity arising from overlap in meaning with the words "hot" and "spicy" which usually requires a determination or assumption of meaning based on context.

Instead of "hot" simply referring to temperature, and "spicy" being used to refer to the presence of spices (many of which are not actually piquant), the former two words are often used as synonyms for the latter, a word less commonly employed in reference to the characteristic which in regards to taste it solely defines, which is pain associated with the sense of taste.

For instance, a pumpkin pie can be both hot (out of the oven) and spicy (due to the common inclusion of ingredients in its recipe such as cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, mace and cloves) but is not actually piquant. Conversely, pure capsaicin is piquant, yet is not naturally accompanied by a hot temperature or spices."

Reference:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piquance

You'll recognize a spice as piquant when you get that feeling of prickliness or burning in your mouth and you wish someone would spritz you down with an old-fashioned bottle of seltzer, like in the Bugs Bunny cartoons.  Now we know!