The official outlet added that the Sichuan Province Hotpot Association had begun working on the idea.

Chief executive of the association Yan Long said the index would interpret and transfer spiciness into a more precise set of degrees, replacing the prevailing scale that only distinguishes flavours into “mild, medium, hot and super-hot”.

The mala, or numbing-spicy flavour, synonymous with Sichuan and hotpots from its neighbouring Chongqing municipality, is made from a combination of home-grown chili peppers, Sichuan peppers, a range of spices, beef tallow and vegetable oil.

Despite China boasting multiple types of the dish, such as Beijing’s non-spicy clear soup copper hotpot and Chaoshan beef hotpot prevalent in the southern province of Guangdong, the Sichuan variant is most popular nationwide.

According to a hotpot industry report published by the Chinese food and beverage research institute, known as NCBD, the number of Sichuan hotpot restaurants ranked top across China, accounting for 12.4 per cent of the total, or 395,000, by the end of 2021.

The popularity of Sichuan cuisine is not confined to domestic tastes alone; the spicy fare is a hit around the world.

Nearly one third of restaurants across China serve Sichuan cuisine, according to a 2022 report by Unilever Food Solutions.

In the overseas market, the cuisine is also served in a third of the 600,000 Chinese restaurants, generating a total value of 250 billion yuan (US$36 billion), according to the World Sichuan Cuisine Conference, held in the provincial capital Chengdu in 2018.

In 2016, an outlet of the Chinese hotpot restaurant chain Shancheng Lameizi took over a space from the iconic US fast-food brand Burger King in Los Angeles.

James McDougall, director of the Humanities and Social Sciences programme at the Sichuan University-Pittsburgh Institute, wrote that the globalisation of Sichuan cuisine restaurants since the 2000s was a result of China’s efforts to promote its soft power abroad.

One of the eight cuisines of China, Sichuan food is known for a variety of spicy flavours that range from mala to piquancy and sour spiciness, generated from different selections and proportions of a variety of peppers and ingredients.

Its signature dishes include Kung Pao chicken, mapo tofu, and fuqi feipian – officially translated as “sliced beef and ox tongue in chilli sauce”, and recently known by its new name “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” – given by the Houston Sichuan Cuisine restaurant, Pepper Twins.

It is widely believed that Sichuan people developed the habit of eating spicy food in the Qing dynasty (1636-1912) to withstand the clammy weather typical of its basin topography.

The Sichuan hotpot further originated as a “food of the poor”, as dock workers by the Yangtze River invented a faster and cheaper way to finish their meals.

On why this spicy flavour later enjoyed nationwide popularity, a reply in China’s equivalent of Quora, Zhihu, explained that Sichuan cuisine is priced lower and is less time-consuming to cook and serve than other national cuisines.

In addition, since the spicy sensation from a chilli pepper is in fact a pain sensation instead of a taste, consumption of spicy food releases endorphins and dopamine, chemicals which make people feel better.

However, the “feel better” solution that local Sichuan and Chongqing people have grown used to is still unbearable to many.

Stories of how visitors from other parts of the country were “spiced to tears” in the two provinces constantly spark online debate.

Of news that the Sichuan hotpot association is to set up a standard heat scale, one person commented online: “Thank you. I prefer mild, mild, mild and mild spicy please,” implying that the current “mild spicy” in Sichuan barely describes the national standard.

Another suggested it was “impossible” to set up a universal standard.

“Different people have different standards for spiciness. It is difficult to cater to all tastes,” the person said.