Chile Pepper

The heat of chile peppers or the heat of passion? For a long time, the former has been said to aid the latter. Almost everything either pungent or hard to acquire has been declared an aphrodisiac at one point or another, but in this case there is a case for it.
South America (home to so many aphrodisiac legends) has numerous tales about using the spicy fruit for amorous encounters. And Dr. John Kellog, who founded the Kellog cereal company, warned nymphomaniacs to avoid peppers altogether.
The chemicals that light one's tongue on fire have several internal effects as well. Most useful to students of aphrodisia are the following:

1) Increased and improved circulation, most notably on the skin.
2) Increased perspiration as the pores open up.

The net effect is to increase apparent body temperature. What use is that? Consider the misplaced effect of a movie:
A couple watches a scary movie, for example. The heart jumps, adrenaline surges, etc. Afterward, the effects of the movie linger, and the apparent cause is the company one is keeping. Conscious or not, the results are real. Useful thing to know, no?
There are many aphrodisiacs and near-aphrodisiacs that work on this principle in one way or another. The very dangerous Spanish Fly is perhaps the most (in)famous of them, and chile peppers are among the most innocuous. Increased body heat is a normal reaction to arousal, the body taking a cue from the mind. It turns out that the roles can be reversed, and the mind will follow the body's lead. At the very least, the charge of flavor is similar to the fun and excitement of one's lover, and that's a good thing.