“hot” isn’t a flavor? Then why spice foods with it?
The irritants in spicy foods trigger an endorphin release to kill the pain. Endorphins are like natural morphine, so people tend to do things that release them, like have sex and eat chocolate.
Nope, “hot” is the sensation of microscopic ulcers being formed on the inside of the mouth—pain writ small, but producing a release of endorphins, nonetheless—no chemoreceptors register the sensation, so it is neither a taste nor a smell nor the nameless sense mediated by chemoreceptors ties to the trigeminal nerve that register, for instance, ammonia.