The Pepper Heat Scale Scoville Units Conceptually, you know that a pepper is not hot. You can touch one with your fingers and understand that it is at room temperature. However, when you pop a 'Habanero' into your mouth, the sensors in your oral cavity may tell your brain that you have just tasted a glowing, hot coal! (Note: Do not touch mucous membranes after touching peppers.) Spicy peppers contain a substance called capsaicin. This is what makes them taste hot. Concentrated in the veins of the fruit, the compound stimulates your nerve endings making your brain "think" that you are in pain. The brain responds by releasing substances called endorphins (like distance runners experience), which are similar in structure to morphine. A mild euphoria results making peppers mildly addictive because of this hot pepper "high" (and you don't have to run 20 miles!). Ask any pepper-head. Devised by Wilbur Scoville in 1912, a Scoville Unit is a measurement of capsaicin level in a particular pepper or variety. Although peppers can vary from pod to pod, plant to plant, variety to variety, and even season to season, listed below is an approximate scale for several varieties of peppers. | Scoville Units | Pepper Variety | | 16,000,000 | Pure Capsaicin | | 2,000,000 - 5,300,000 | Standard US Grade Pepper Spray | 10 | 100,000 - 450,000 | Habanero, Scotch Bonnet, Caribbean Red | 9 | 50,000 - 100,000 | Santake, Thai | 8 | 30,000 - 50,000 | Cayenne, Tabasco, Piquin | 7 | 15,000 - 30,000 | Serrano (5,000 up to 30,000), Chile de Arbol | 6 | 5,000 - 15,000 | Yellow Wax, Peter (10,000 up to 23,000) | 5 | 2,500 - 5,000 | Jalapeno (3,500 up to 10,000), Miasol | 4 | 1,500 - 2,500 | Sandia, Cascabel | 3 | 1,000 - 1,500 | Ancho (Poblano), Pasilla, Espanola | 2 | 500 - 1,000 | Anaheim, New Mexico | 1 | 100 - 500 | Mexi-bells, Sweet Cherry, Pepperoncini | 0 | 0 - 100 | Mild Bells, Sweet Bananas, Pimento | When peppers are dehydrated, they tend to increase in "heat" by about 10 times. Sources: -
Biography of Wilbur Lincoln Scoville at Wikipedia |
FAQs
Scoville heat units are found by multiplying the ppmH value by a factor of 15. By this definition of ppmH, spicy compounds other than the two most important capsaicinoids are ignored, despite the ability of HPLC to measure these other compounds at the same time.
How much is 1000000 Scoville units? ›
Scoville Scale
Scoville Heat Units | Scoville Heat Level | Capsicum Species |
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1,000,000 - 1,853,936 SHU | 10+++ | Capsicum Chinense |
1,200,000 - 1,590,000 SHU | 10+++ | Capsicum Chinense |
1,100,000 - 1,469,000 SHU | 10++ | Capsicum Chinense |
800,000 - 1,463,700 SHU | 10++ | Capsicum Chinense |
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Is 8000 Scoville hot? ›
On the Scoville pepper scale, jalapenos range from 2,500 to 8,000 SHU. They're considered spicy but not too hot for most people.
How spicy is 2000000 Scoville? ›
An educational resource of the Victory Seed Company
| Scoville Units | Pepper Variety |
---|
| 2,000,000 - 5,300,000 | Standard US Grade Pepper Spray |
10 | 100,000 - 450,000 | Habanero, Scotch Bonnet, Caribbean Red |
9 | 50,000 - 100,000 | Santake, Thai |
8 | 30,000 - 50,000 | Cayenne, Tabasco, Piquin |
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How hot is 9 million Scoville? ›
At 9,000,000 Scoville Units, it delivers the hottest chili pepper extract on the face of the earth. And the purest. A single drop of this clear extract will send you to the moon – almost literally.
What Scoville level is Takis? ›
Specifically, the favorite takis corn tortilla chips with a strong taste of hot chili pepper and lime have a Scoville rating of 1,041,427 shu. But what does that mean? That is, it is about 400 times hotter than tabasco sauce, 200 times hotter than a jalapeño pepper and about 6 times hotter than a habanero pepper.
What food has 16 million Scoville? ›
For now, 16 million Scoville units is the upper limit to the chilli experience — there's nothing hotter, at least with the biomolecule capsaicin.
How hot is a Deadpool pepper? ›
Crispy thick-walled flesh with a fruity aroma with little sweetness. Heat level between mild and hot. Shrubby plants between 75 and 100 cm - 2.5 and 3.3ft.
Is 300000 Scoville hot? ›
Here's a glance at heat levels for some popular hot peppers, according to the Scoville scale: Ghost Extremely Hot (over 1,000,000) Habanero Extra Hot (100,000 to 300,000) Tabasco Hot (30,000 to 50,000)
Is 200000 a Scoville? ›
The Scoville scale is a measure of the 'hotness' of a chilli pepper or anything derived from chilli peppers, i.e. hot sauce.
...
The Scoville Heat Scale.
Scoville Heat Units | Chilli Pepper |
---|
100,000 - 200,000 | Jamaican Hot pepper |
100,000 - 125,000 | Carolina Cayenne pepper |
95,000 - 110,000 | Bahamian pepper |
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Scoville Scale
Scoville Heat Units | Scoville Level | Hot Sauce |
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6,000,000 SHU | 10+++ | CaJohns Get Bitten Black Mamba 6 Hot Sauce |
6,000,000 SHU | 10+++ | Mad Dog 357 Collector's Edition |
6,000,000 SHU | 10+++ | Mad Dog 357 Mark of The Beast |
5,500,000 SHU | 10+++ | Blair's 5 A.M. |
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How hot is 2.2 million Scoville? ›
The Carolina Reaper is currently considered to be the hottest pepper in the world with a Scoville Heat Unit ranging from 1.56 million units to 2.2 million units. Even your bottle of hot sauce has a Scoville rating.
What is the highest Scoville ever eaten? ›
The Bhut Jolokia chilli pepper can register 1 million - or more - Scoville Heat Units (SHU). That means in one minute, Gregory consumed roughly 17 million SHU.
What food is 9 million Scoville? ›
Mad Dog Plutonium Pepper Extract is the hottest sauce we have outside of Blair's collector bottles. This sauce goes beyond pumping up hot sauce heat but rather destroys all other extracts with a whopping 9 million Scoville heat units.
Is 13 million Scoville hot? ›
So in the Scoville scale Hot-Headz Suspect Device scores a number of 13 million!! This is so hot, that after opening the jar even the fumes from inside burn and suffocate you.
What is 10000 Scoville? ›
Jalapeño peppers, for instance, have a Scoville rating of 10,000, which means a jalapeño solution would have to be diluted 10,000 times before the heat was neutralized.
Is there anything hotter than plutonium 9? ›
Mad Dog 357 No.
There is no way in hot and fiery hell there's a human alive on this planet who can take the heat of Mad Dog 357 No. 9 Plutonium. But still, plenty of thrill-seekers are willing to try. With a record 9 million SHUs, Mad Dog 357 No.
What Scoville is hot Cheetos? ›
According to some experts, they suggest that Flamin' Hot Cheetos rate around 50,000 Scoville units, but there's no evidence to back this up. That would place Cheetos at the lower end of the scale, with the Carolina Reaper pepper, being somewhere between 1.5 million and over 2 million units!
What is the Scoville unit of wasabi? ›
Wasabi is said to have a heat level similar to Jalapeño Peppers which fall between 2,500 SHU and 8,000 SHU .
How much Scoville is Sriracha? ›
Depending on the crop of peppers used, sriracha can range from 1,000 to 2,500 Scoville units. To put that into perspective, Tabasco sauce runs anywhere between 2,500 and 5,000, while Texas Pete hot sauce is around 750. And habanero pepper contains upwards to 350,000.
Resiniferatoxin has a score of 16 billion Scoville heat units, making pure resiniferatoxin about 500 to 1000 times hotter than pure capsaicin.
What is the hottest gum? ›
- CaJohn's Trouble Bubble Gum has been carefully crafted to contain Pure 16 Million Scoville Extract. Making this the HOTTEST Bubble Gum on Planet Earth! Can you chew a piece of CaJohn's Trouble Bubble Gum long enough to blow a single bubble?
What is hotter than a ghost pepper? ›
Ghost peppers (aka bhut jolokia) also have an awesome level of heat, and are one of the original superhot peppers, but the Carolina Reaper takes that heat to a whole new level. Ghost peppers range in heat from 855,000 – 1,041,427 Scoville Heat Units (SHU), so the hottest Carolina Reaper is more than twice as hot.
How hot is Satan's Kiss pepper? ›
Approximately 40,000-50,000 SHUs.
What is the hottest pepper in the universe? ›
The Carolina Reaper is officially the Worlds Hottest Pepper as ranked by Guinness Book of World Records. It's hot, and by hot, we mean HOT! The Carolina Reaper can top-out at 2.2 Million SHU!
Is there anything hotter than 9 million Scoville? ›
The most extreme heat you can buy? The hottest hot sauce in the world is called Mad Dog 357 Plutonium No. 9 and comes in at 9 million Scoville Hotness Units (SHUs).
Is 750000 Scoville hot? ›
750,000+ Scoville heat units A cross between a Ghost Chilli (Bhut jolokia) and a Trinidad Scorpion. Fruity taste gives way to terrible suffering. The Scoville scale ranks foods in terms of heat units, measured per unit of dry mass.
Is 1m Scoville a lot? ›
Collectively called "superhot chili peppers", these are peppers that top the 1 Million Scoville Heat Unit range, and I have some of them listed below. You can also review this link of Super Hot Chili Peppers List or my collection of Superhot Chili Peppers.
How much Scoville is a pepperoni? ›
Thick-walled pepperoni are preferred for pizza and pickle. The pungency is between 15,000 and 30,000 SHU. The moderately contained capsaicin leads to a healthy degree of spiciness.
How many Scoville units is fire? ›
Pepper spray used by the police has a rating of 5.300. 000 SHU. Capsaicin is the active ingredient that gives peppers their pungency. The number of SHU is related to the amount of capsaicin.
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The Scoville Scale.
Naam | SHU |
---|
Poinsettia | 2500 |
Jalapeno Emerald Fire | 2500 |
Cascabel | 2500 |
Guajillo | 3000 |
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Frank's Red Hot is made with cayenne peppers and has 450 SHU. The sauce was the secret ingredient in the original Buffalo wings recipe, created in Buffalo, New York, in 1964, according to Frank's.
Has anyone eaten a Carolina Reaper? ›
California man eats 10 Carolina Reaper peppers in 33 seconds, a Guinness World Record. Greg Foster is on a record-breaking hot streak. The San Diego, California, hot sauce maker recently earned his third Guinness World Record within a year for his ability to rapidly ingest super-hot peppers.
What's hotter than a Carolina Reaper? ›
Komodo Dragon Pepper
The Komodo Dragon Pepper came on the scene in 2015 poised to dethrone the Carolina Reaper as the hottest pepper in the world. A crow between a 7 Pot and a Ghost Pepper, the Komodo Dragon rivals the Reaper in terms of SHUs, but has a delicious fruity flavor that singes every one of your taste buds.
How much Scoville can a human handle? ›
If the air is dry, a person can stay at 120℃ for 15 minutes at room temperature, and there is no adverse reaction, and the body temperature can still be stable.
How many Scoville units is 911 sauce? ›
Looking online it says 911 is 1.5 million and Blazin is 350k. I've had both and Blazin seems so much hotter.
Who decides the Scoville scale? ›
The American Spice Trade Association (ASTA) uses HPLC to accurately measure capsaicin (and other “burn” producing chemicals) in foods and assigns a unit of measure called the ASTA Pungency Unit. 1 ASTA Pungency Unit equals approximately 15 SHUs.
Are Scoville ratings accurate? ›
The Scoville scale is reliable in the sense that an accurate scientific process (high-performance liquid chromatography) measures the amount of capsaicin present in a particular chili pepper.
Is there a limit to Scoville units? ›
For now, 16 million Scoville units is the upper limit to the chilli experience — there's nothing hotter, at least with the biomolecule capsaicin. But other biomolecules carry more punch than capsaicin.
How hot is 350 Scoville units? ›
Scoville scale
Scoville Heat Unit | Products or Chilis |
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350 000 – 577 000 | Habanero chili, Red Savina variety |
100 000 – 325 000 | Habanero chili, Scotch bonnet, rocoto chili, Jamaican Hot chili, African Birdseye |
50 000 – 100 000 | Thaï Hot chili, Malagueta chili, Chiltepin Pepper, |
30 000 – 60 000 | Bird chili or pequin chili |
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Why is Scoville Scale not accurate? ›
Taste testers are far too subjective to determine an accurate SHU number for most peppers. This is because each tester's existing spice tolerance is different, and their spice tolerance will increase over extended periods of testing.
The Carolina Reaper is officially the Worlds Hottest Pepper as ranked by Guinness Book of World Records. It's hot, and by hot, we mean HOT! The Carolina Reaper can top-out at 2.2 Million SHU!
Can high Scoville hurt you? ›
For all their health benefits, eating hot chillies may cause a bit of discomfort. This includes swelling, nausea, vomiting, eye pain, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, heartburn from acid reflux, and headaches. But the feelings we get are simply from our body's response, not anything the chilli is doing to actually burn us.
Is 1000000 Scoville hot? ›
Here's a glance at heat levels for some popular hot peppers, according to the Scoville scale: Ghost Extremely Hot (over 1,000,000) Habanero Extra Hot (100,000 to 300,000) Tabasco Hot (30,000 to 50,000)
Is 10k Scoville hot? ›
Jalapeño peppers, for instance, have a Scoville rating of 10,000, which means a jalapeño solution would have to be diluted 10,000 times before the heat was neutralized.
How much Scoville is the bomb? ›
The Hot Sauce that everyone loves to hate - it's Da'Bomb! Da'Bomb comes in four levels of pain: Ghost Pepper at 22,800 Scovilles, Beyond Insanity at 135,600 Scovilles, Ground Zero at 321,900 Scovilles, and The Final Answer at a killer 1.5 million Scovilles! They're explosive!
How many Scoville is a jalapeño? ›
So, where do jalapeños fall on that scale? They usually fall in the range of 2,000 to 8,000 Scoville Heat Units (SHU), which sounds like a lot, but it really isn't! Some of the hottest peppers in the world measure up to 1,000,000 SHU, muy caliente!