Scoville Scale

 

SCOVILLE SCALE

The Scoville Scale is a measurement of the capsaicin concentration in a chile pepper.  It is measured in Scoville Heat Units.  The higher the number, the hotter the pepper.

CAROLINA REAPER- 2,200,000 SHU (SCOVILLE HEAT UNITS)

TRINIDAD MORUGA SCORPION - 2,009,231 SHU

TRINIDAD CHOCOLATE 7 POT - 1,853,396 SHU

TRINIDAD SCORPION BUTCH T - 1,463,700 SHU

TRINIDAD SCORPION 7 POT - 1,291,800 SHU

TRINIDAD BARRACKPORE - 1,200,000 SHU

BHUT JOLOKIA (Ghost Chile) - 1,041,800 SHU

JAY'S PEACH GHOST SCORPION - 900,000 SHU

JAY'S RED GHOST SCORPION - 800,000 SHU

RED SAVINA HABANERO - 577,000 SHU >

ORANGE HABANERO - 350,000 SHU

AFRICAN BIRD'S EYE - 190,000 SHU

JALAPENO PEPPER - 2,500 SHU

BELL PEPPER - 2,500 SHU

 

In 1912, Wilbur Scoville devised a method to rate the heat in a chile pepper diluting an alcohol based extract until human tasters no longer taste the heat.  The amount of dilution translates to the Scoville Scale.  Today another method is used; high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).  Scientists can determine how many parts per million of heat-causing alkaloids are present in a chile pepper and multiply that number by 16 to get the chile pepper's Scoville Rating.