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My friend and I have gotten into a disagreement. He claims that wasabi is "bitter", but I believe that wasabi is "spicy". We would like to hear the opinions of others so as to come to a consensus.
*Hint: its spicy.

Do you mean real wasabi, or just the green colored horseradish paste?
I only have experience with the horseradish version, and I'm not sure spicy is quite the right word. For me, it gives a sudden and quick kick in the back of my sinuses, and then it's gone. No real burn like a hot pepper gives.

 Tannhauser42 wrote:
Do you mean real wasabi, or just the green colored horseradish paste?
I only have experience with the horseradish version, and I'm not sure spicy is quite the right word. For me, it gives a sudden and quick kick in the back of my sinuses, and then it's gone. No real burn like a hot pepper gives.

Really. I find it... not spicy exactly, but it fething stings something awful. It's certainly not bitter though. Then, that's that green stuff. I don't think I've ever had real wasabi.

It’s both. Spicy, like hot horseradish. Bitter, because it has a bitter, earthy flavour.

Not everyone experiences the “heat” in Wasabi. My sister in-lawesome can eat it by the spoonful, with no more than a gentle warm sensation. I can eat a pea-sized bit with some sushi and have my nostrils thoroughly cleared out.

On the rare occasions I've had real fresh wasabi it's spicy and complex as well as sinus blasting

the green paste you get from a tube made from horse radish just blasts my sinuses and doesn't give me much flavour but i'd put it closest to bitter

Fake wasabi is bitter because it can never be authentic.

I would call it 'fresh' as it clears the nostrils.
Why this is I do not know because I certainly dont snort it.

It is both for sure. Though for people who are especially sensitive to the hot element they might not notice the bitterness because it gets overwhelmed by the heat. People who notice the bitter element are probably also less sensitive to the heat.

I was raised on horseradish. My dad grew the stuff. What we found is that different harvests have different levels of kick. With some you got more flavor than kick, with others a small amount makes it feel like your nose hairs just got singed. And I've found that can be true with the store-bought stuff too. So 'is it this or that' makes sense to me. It can kinda go either way even before personal preferences and tolerances come into the equation.

Wasabu is a type of horseradish.

Well it all depends on which Wasabi you mean. Most Wasabi people have is actually Horseradish. In the case of the Horseradish it does have a spicy element to me.

Real Wasabi I have not had the opportunity to try seeing as how it is notoriously hard to grow and does not have a long shelf life. Once you grind it into the wasabi paste it only keeps its flavour for 15 minutes as the taste comes from the grinding process/chemical reaction.

 Tannhauser42 wrote:
Do you mean real wasabi, or just the green colored horseradish paste?
I only have experience with the horseradish version, and I'm not sure spicy is quite the right word. For me, it gives a sudden and quick kick in the back of my sinuses, and then it's gone. No real burn like a hot pepper gives.

Because unlike the capsicum which is what gives pepper their burn and hits the mouth, the 'spicy' compounds in wasabi (and horseradish & mustard) is much more aromatic and volatile and hits the nasal passage. You could call both 'spicy' but it's two very different reaction and effect for each.