text: Spice, spiciness, or spicity, symbol τ, is a term in oceanography referring to variations in the temperature and salinity of seawater over space or time, whose combined effects leave the water's density unchanged.   For a given spice, any change in temperature is offset by a change in salinity to maintain unchanged density. An increase in temperature decreases density, but an increase in salinity increases density. Such density-compensated thermohaline variability is ubiquitous in the upper ocean. Warmer, saltier water is more spicy while cooler, less salty water is more minty.  For a density ratio of 1, all the thermohaline variability is spice, and there are no density fluctuations.