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I am making this sauce, which is extremely hot (as in hot peppers) that is being served cold (as in temperature). People who try it ask me what it is, so I say it is "cold hot sauce", which is a bit problematic, as the two are literal antonyms, even if not in the particular context.

So is there another world I could use for (extremely) hot that makes it clear it is indeed very hot? "Spicy" comes to mind but it is a big understatement. Anything else?

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    Did you check a thesaurus for "hot" and "spicy"?
    – Hot Licks
    Jan 21, 2017 at 22:51
  • 'Peppery'. But this too is polysemous.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Jan 21, 2017 at 22:56
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    related: A better word for 'hot' (spicy)? and Difference between “spicy” and “hot”
    – Mari-Lou A
    Jan 21, 2017 at 23:04
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    @Mari-LouA - piquance is also present in my native language, however it implies "moderately spicy" not "you really don't want to eat a spoonful of it on its own".
    – dtech
    Jan 21, 2017 at 23:08
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    @Airymouse - the scoville heat unit measures capsaicin. the heat from onions and garlic comes from allicin and is measured on the pyruvate scale. I was trying to find a site that tried to relate the two but I was not successful. I would imagine it couldn’t be higher than a couple thousand at most though.
    – Jim
    Jan 22, 2017 at 0:00

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How about fiery?

MW:

fiery: hot like a fire: "the fiery taste of red pepper"

It's hard to imagine anything hotter in your mouth than fire.

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