Chongqing Hot Pot Association is setting a series of degrees to gauge the spicy flavors of the famous Chinese hot pot, the Chongqing Evening News reported on November 4.

So far, Chongqing Hot Pot has categorized its flavors into three general groups – mild spicy, medium spicy and very spicy. However, different restaurants standardize the flavors differently.

The association received a complaint from a Zhejiang native, surnamed Wang, who had ordered a Chongqing Hot Pot of "mild spicy", but found the soup to be heavily spiced.

According to He Yongzhi, director of the association, the staff members are working overtime to categorize the spicy flavors into different degrees, hoping to reduce the complaints triggered by the oblivious definition of "spicy".

The standardization test, ranging from 50 degrees to 8 degrees, is set based on the spicy flavors of hot peppers. According to He, the categories copy wine degrees and are scheduled to be carried out next year.

The standardized degrees of Chongqing Hot Pot made a big splash in public. Some believe there is a necessity to set up such standards in order to better regulate the market. Su Xingrong, chief executive officer of Big Sister Su Hot Pot, said the standardized degrees of the spicy flavors are in a trendsetting process. A unified standard is good to internationalize domestic hot pot industries. Nevertheless, there are others who think setting standards for hot pot is not necessary, the newspaper reported.