So today I got a Progressive brand onion chopper from Kmart, and did a taste test between red, white, yellow, and sweet onions, plus a shallot.

The shallot was totally bitter when diced.
The red onion was really strong, and somewhat bitter.
The yellow and white onions were relatively mild.
The sweet onion was also mild and had the best flavor.

Of course all of those were equally bitter when I had tried food processing them individually. I guess the reason for this is that the chemical which makes onions potent gets concentrated when the onions are compacted to the point where it can longer be distributed at all.

The onion chopper worked nicely by the way. :cool:

interesting experiment and results!

especially as "conventional wisdom" holds shallots to be mild&subtle, red onions to be mild for raw consumption.

I agree somehow, but i think, the inner layer of the onion are sweeter than the outer layer of the onion. I just noticed this in the middle east. They eat the inner layer of the onion fresh.