> He had some goofy concoction about tasters eating pure pepper mash and > the numbers being determined by how many squirts of sugar water in the > mouth it took to stop the burn. I must say this conjures a very amusing image. Yes, that does sound like an entertaining show; and probably not even particularly less accurate than anything else on TV. I think it would be very difficult to find too many persons willing to do this job as described above, though there are undoubtably a few on this list who would volunteer for it. Just imagine what a shock it would be for some poor random incompletely-explained USA hire of 20 years ago, say, if his first assignment were even serrano (mash), not to mention tabasco or pequin or the dreaded habanero. --- Brent