Best Drink With Hot Chili Peppers?

What’s the most mouth-cooling beverage to drink when eating hot chili peppers? According to new research conducted at Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, it’s milk. A Penn State news release reports that researchers at the college tried five beverages on 72 people who had just downed a Bloody Mary mix with a good amount of capsaicin, the heating element in chili peppers. The research subjects drank purified water, cola, cherry-flavored Kool-Aid, seltzer water, non-alcoholic beer, skim milk and whole milk, then rated the perceived burn every ten seconds for two minutes. The envelope please…. Every beverage significantly reduced the burn, but the largest reductions came from whole milk, skim milk and Kool-Aid. Beer drinkers take note: beverages with carbonation such as beer, soda and seltzer water performed poorly, and the researchers warn that if the beer had contained alcohol, it would have done even worse, because ethanol amplifies the sensation.