Some like it hot. And no one does hot better than the tasty, mouth-watering chili pepper. Legendary for their texture and taste, chili peppers have long been a staple in Mexican, Latin and South American cooking, as well as a favorite addition to many dishes native to the Southwestern United States.

Tasting chili peppers has become something of an art form over the years, with the most experienced tasters learning to accurately determine different levels of heat with their own senses. Those with less discerning palates have their pick of various scientific tests with the Scoville index being the most common.

Developed in 1912 by chemist Wilbur Scoville, a trained panel of tasters measures heat as Scoville Heat Units (SHU) in a given weight of fruit tissue. If your tongue can’t handle the heat, capsaicin content can also be measured in parts per million (PPM) by a machine called a high pressure liquid chromatograph (HPLC), in which case a conversion factor of 15 is used to convert between PPM and SHU.

In layman’s terms? Sweet peppers have 0 SHU, chilies with a slight bite may have 100 to 500 SHU, and blistering habaneros? Between 200,000 and 300,000 SHU. The Bhut Jolokia pepper, considered by the Guinness World Records to be the world’s hottest chili pepper, tops the scale at a whopping 1,001,304 Scoville Heat Units. Since heat is relative, and people have different tolerances for heat in food, SHU’s can be extremely useful in more accurately labeling products designated as “mild,” “medium” or “hot.”

But the chili pepper’s appeal extends well beyond its heat factor - which is actually concentrated in the chile membrane, not the seeds, contrary to what most people believe. Dr. Terry Berke, the senior plant breeder for hot peppers at Seminis Vegetable Seeds in Woodland, California, says that tasting peppers is like tasting wine. It is, he says, an experience filled with delicate nuances.

“You bite into a small piece, roll it around your mouth, and spit it out, noting things like mouth-feel (or crunchiness), sweetness, pungency, aroma and flavor. In the case of green bell peppers, their characteristic aroma – resulting from the chemical 3-isobutyl 2-methoxy pyrazine - is particularly distinct.”

So distinct, in fact, that the human tongue can detect the chemical at 2 nanograms per liter. That’s equivalent to approximately one drop in a swimming pool.

With dozens of varieties to choose from, and an incredible range of exotic flavors, peppers truly shine in a bevy of creative, diverse recipes. One mythic Mexican dish, called “Stuffed Xoloitzcuintles,” highlights ancho and pasilla peppers stuffed into the gut of a hairless dog – a dish that is, according to the recipe, “low in fat and cholesterol and high in protein.” Less adventurous, though no less tasty fare ranges from the jalapeño-based “Seconds” dish, created in honor of a recent presidential inauguration, to the health-conscious “Grilled Chili Rellenos,” a modern twist on a traditional Cinco de Mayo dish filled with poblano, jalapeños, and bell peppers.

And there’s more to the Chili than just taste! In addition to being rich in vitamins C, A and E, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that meals containing chili peppers reduced the amount of insulin required to lower blood sugar after a meal – a fact that could potentially help diabetics. And a recent Taiwanese study discovered that, when mixed with capsaicin in a test tube, fat cells died before maturing.

And just remember when you take a bite of an “o’ too hot” Mexican dish – the best way to calm the burn – it to drink a glass of milk.