What one word, and it can be borrowed from another language, so long as it has been definitively accepted into the lexicon of English, describes something that is simultaneously spicy and sweet?
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2There is no such word on hat I’m familiar with in English. And while it’s good to know you’re open to answers from other languages, here on EL&U, the focus is helping people better understand and use English, and so the rules restrict answers to be in and about English.– Dan BronCommented Nov 24, 2017 at 16:35
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3Like what? Like bittersweet chocolate squares or gingered beets or hot cinnamon chocolate or cold hamburger dills or bitter-orange sparkling soda or spicy-sweet dill spears or hot spiced cider or tamarind chutney or gingerbread or Warhead candies or pumpkin spice bread or sweet hot mustard or vegetable korma or Hungarian paprika or hot buttered rum or Indian pickle or Massaman lamb or sweet-and-sour shrimp or bittersweet chocolate fudge sauce or sweet-chilli dipping sauce or sweet-and-spicy horseradish-cream sauce or jalapeño ice cream or cherry bombs?– tchrist ♦Commented Nov 24, 2017 at 17:45
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Don Bron: many English words are borrowed when our mother tongue is insufficient. Piss off, for instance, was originally French.– JackCommented Nov 25, 2017 at 17:39
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Tchrist Thank you for working with me. Jalapeño ice cream, (or much of my Thai food experience) is exactly the flavor. Tangy is as close as I have gotten.– JackCommented Nov 25, 2017 at 17:41
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1Urban dictionary has the neologism swicy. It is also used in some recipes if you search the term.– ermanenCommented Nov 26, 2017 at 4:00
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3 Answers
Piquant
Piquant, being interestingly spicy, or having some quality that ‘piques’ you - or gains your attention and interest, albeit by sticking you with something sharp - it’s origin being from the French ‘piquer’ which means to prick or sting.
I know it doesn’t specifically include sweetness, but I don’t think there is a word that does. Unless you can stick ‘honeyed-’ onto something perhaps.
‘Piquant’ sounds softer to my English ears than being stung by a bee, evoking in me balmy skies and spiced (possibly sweet?) oriental cocktails, and also drawing me to a very ancient personal memory of Miss Stickley teaching us to make ‘Piquant Deckers’ in our very first cookery class; said recipe being a kind of hamburger sandwiched between toast and flavoured with sweet (English!) pickle. Which must live up to its name, as I can still remember it’s pleasingly sweet and spicy taste, 4 decades later.
In the realm of fragrance classifications, this is usually referred to as "Oriental." I find this term to be possibly offensive and would also like to find an alternative that is meaningful. As if the English language isn't vast enough... Ha!
Tangy might work
See definition 2 from the Urban Dictionary definition of tangy (as of this posting, having 19 upvotes and 9 downvotes):
A sweet flavor that also gives something a little "kachow"! Tangy can be referred to as sweet yet spicy. No one can live without having some tangy in their life. It is just not possible. It gives you all the flavors to your taste buds!
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4Personally I don’t consider tangy at all spicy. Like Tang is an orange-flavored drink which has a kick, derived from its citric acid, but is in no way spicy. Similarly the famous Chinese-American dish sweet and sour chicken: a tang arising from the sour combined with the sweet. Misinformation like this is why we generally don’t rely on UD for authoritative Information. Though sometimes it’s useful for just-emerging slang.– Dan BronCommented Nov 24, 2017 at 16:44
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3I second that tangy evokes sweet and sour for me, not sweet and spicy.– psosunaCommented Jan 23, 2018 at 21:10