The Scoville Scale was created to measure the hotness of chile peppers. The chemical found in chile peppers that gives them their heat is called capsaicin.
The scale measures the amount of capsaicin using Scoville Heat Units (SHU). Here are some popular peppers and how they rank on that scale.
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Who is Wilbur Scoville?
The SHU was named for scientist Wilbur Scoville in 1912. At the time, he helped a pharmaceutical firm named Parke-Davis where he developed an examination called the “Scoville Organoleptic Examination” which is utilized to determine a chili pepper’s bite and also heat.
Originally, the scientist ground up peppers and also blended them with sugar water, after that evaluated them with a panel of testers who sipped from these sugar-water-pepper options.
He would then weaken the remedies little by little until they no longer burned the tongues of the guinea pigs. Once accomplished, he would assign a number to the chile pepper based upon the number of dilutions needed to eliminate the heat.
| Pepper | Scoville Heat Units (SHU) |
|---|---|
| Carolina Reaper | 2,200,000 |
| Trinidad Moruga Scorpion | 2,009,000 |
| Bhut Jolokia (Ghost Pepper) | 1,041,000 |
| Habanero Pepper | 200,000-350,000 |
| Thai Peppers | 50,000-100,000 |
| Serrano Peppers | 5,000-19,000 |
| Jalapeño | 5,000-9,000 |
| Pasilla Peppers | 1,000-1,500 |
| Bell Peppers | No Heat |