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This FAQ will explain all about the Scoville Scale rating system for the hotness of chili peppers and answer some of the common questions about chili peppers, capsaicin, and heat.
What is the Scoville Scale?
The Scoville Scale is a rating system used to determine a chili pepper’s relative heat. It was developed by Wilbur Scoville in 1912. His test, which was called the Scoville Organoleptic Scale, used pepper tasters to taste different chilis and judge how many parts of sugar water needed to be added to one part of chili essence in order to completely erase the chile’s heat.
However, that is not how chili heat is measured today. A modern test called a High-Performance Liquid Chromatography(HPLC) test is used. This test determines the capsaicin concentration in the chili in parts per million. It is the capsaicin in chiles that is responsible for the heat.
Why Does the Scoville Rating or ASTA Pungency Units of a Chili Pepper Matter?
Some folks like to know how hot chili peppers are so they know whether they are too hot or whether they want to challenge themselves to a super hot pepper or a hot sauce made from one. However, for those who like to make their own hot sauces, knowing the relative Scoville Scale rating scores of different chilis can help them balance the heat and flavor of the sauce. There is more to a good hot sauce than just heat, although heat certainly is one of the main attractions.
Is the Scoville Scale Always Accurate?
The heat in chilis varies. You probably have encountered a jalapeno, for instance, that blew your socks off, being so much hotter than you expected it to be. When an HPLC test is used, the results are reported in ASTA Pungency Units, which themselves can be converted to Scoville Heat Units by multiplying them by a factor of 15.
The Scoville Rating often exists in a range of units and cannot always be accurate for any given chili. Instead, it is an average. Growing conditions, weather, soil, environment, etc. all can affect the amount capsaicin in the fruit. Not only that but even two chiles pulled from the same plant can have quite different levels of heat. Chile plants cross-pollinate so much that up to 35 different levels of pungency can be found on the same plant. 1 So when an official measurement is given, it is a mean taken from many tests on different plants.
How Many Varieties of Chilie Peppers Exist?
Chili peppers come from the genus capsicum and there are 7000 varieties in the world. No doubt even more ridiculously hot ones will be uncovered in the near future.
Why Does it Take a Few Seconds for the Heat of a Chili Pepper to Register?
The chemoreceptors in your tongue (and elsewhere) that detect capsaicin, and its heat, are located just a bit under the surface of the tongue…a few millimeters at best, but enough to delay the burning sensation for a second or two.
What’s the Best Cure for Too Hot Chili Pepper Burn?
Dairy, hands down. Drink milk or eat some other dairy product high in casein protein. The casein joins with the capsaicin, thus removing it from your tongue. Water can just spread the oils, and the burn, around!
Here is a List of the Hottest Chilis and Their Scoville Ratings
This list is not in alphabetical order. Instead, it goes from the least spicy to the highest Scoville ratings. To put into perspective the kind of heat we are talking about with these chili peppers, the familiar jalapeno chili has a Scoville rating of 2,500 to 8,000.
Thai: 50,000 – 100,000
Diablo Grande: 60,000 – 100,000
Malagueta: 60,000 – 100,000
Charleston: 70,000 – 100,000
Pico de Pajaro: 70,000 – 100,000
Merah: 85,000 ~ 100,000
Bahamian: 95,000 – 110,000
Tabiche: 85,000 – 115,000
Bahamian: 95,000 – 110,000
Carolina Cayenne: 100,000 ~ 125,000
Kumataka: 125,000 – 150,000
Bahamian: 125,000 – 300,000
Jamaican Hot: 100,000 – 200,000
Birds Eye: 100,000 – 225,000
Madame Jeanette: 175,000 – 225,000
Tepin: 100,000 – 265,000
Texas Chiltepin: 100,000 – 265,000
Datil: 100,000 – 300,000
Devil Toung: 125,000 – 325,000
Fatalii: 125,000 – 325,000
Orange Habanero: 150,000 – 325,000
Scotch Bonnet: 150,000 – 325,000
TigrePaw-NR: 265,000 – 348,000
Rocoto / Manzano: 225,000 – 350,000
Caribbean Red: 20,000 – 400,000
Chocolate Habanero: 325,000 – 425,000
Red Savina Habanero: 350,000 – 575000
Dorset Naga: 800,000 – 970,000
Naga Jolokia’/Ghost Pepper: 800,000 – 1,041,000
Infinity800,000 – 1,067,286
Naga Viper: 800,000 – 1,382,118
Trinidad Scorpion: 900,000 – 1,463,700
Carolina Reaper: 1,400,000 – 2,200,000
Dragon’s Breath: 2,480,000 (unconfirmed so never held world record officially)
Pepper X: 3,180,000 (world’s hottest pepper)
Which Chili Pepper Holds the World Record For Hottest Chili Pepper?
The Dragon’s Breath chili, developed by Mike Smith, the owner of Tom Smith’s Plants in the United Kingdom, is definitely one of the hottest chilis in the world. He developed the chili with researchers at the University of Nottingham. It was unofficially tested at 2,480,000 Scoville Heat Units, meaning this pepper is as hot as some pepper sprays, although it is not as hot, as some sources suggest, as military or police-grade pepper sprays, which can pack a punch as great as 5 million SHU.
The Dragon’s Breath may not be, and probably isn’t, the hottest chili, however. The Pepper X was measured at 2.69 million SHU on August 23, 2023, and was officially given the status of hottest pepper by Guinness. It was created by Ed Currie, who also created the Carolina Reaper, which was the world record holder before the Dragon’s Breath surpassed it.
What’s the Difference Between Chili Peppers and Dried Black Pepper?
Chili peppers and black peppercorns are completely unrelated. In fact, although we in America are always calling chilis “peppers” they have nothing to do with true ‘pepper,’ like the Black peppercorn that we grind to get the stuff in our pepper shaker. The genus, capsicum, has more in common with tomatoes, potatoes, and eggplants than it does pepper. These all come from the nightshade family, otherwise known as Solanaceae. Although we eat the fruits of some of the plants from this family, many of the plants themselves are poisonous. You have probably heard of the Deadly Nightshade.
Tomatillos also belong to the Nightshade family. So, the next time someone hells you how tomatillos aren’t related to the tomato at all, but are related to the gooseberry, you can tell them that, indeed, they must be related to the tomato, being from the same family and all.
You can also tell them that there are completely different fruits known as gooseberries, so they must be specific. The Peruvian, or Cape gooseberry are also of the family Solanaceae, but of the genus physalis, as are tomatillos. Whereas tomatoes are of the genus Solanum.
On the other hand, the Eurasian gooseberry is from the family Grossulariaceae and the genus Ribes. Tomatillos, by the way, are often mistaken for being a type of chili, causing some to wonder about the tomatillo Scoville rating. They, of course, have no chili heat, although some might call their taste ‘spicy.
Black pepper, or piper nigrum, is a plant that is also unrelated to chilis, being of the order Piperales and the family Piperaceae, the genus piper. The fruit of this plant is known as the peppercorn, and it is dried and ground as a spice.
Is There a Black Pepper Scoville Rating?
It is the chemical piperine that gives black pepper its pungency, not capsaicin. Although I have never been able to find a Scoville rating for black peppercorns, it should be possible to use the same organoleptic Scoville rating scale, although modern tests which find the amount of capsaicin would not be useful at all.
It is reported that capsaicin is about 70 times hotter than piperine. If this is true, black pepper can never come close to the heat of a truly hot chili pepper.
Why Do We Call Chilis “Peppers,” If They Are Not Really From the Same Family?
By the time Europeans (the Spanish), first came to the Caribbean islands and encountered chilis (which they called chiles), they were already well familiar with black pepper. So naturally, the “chili’s pungent spice reminded them of the black pepper they knew, and the name pepper became associated with the chili from then forward.
What’s the Correct Spelling, Chile or Chili?
You can spell it either way. Using the Western spelling “chili” can cause the chile pepper to be confused with the Texas dish, chilli, but it is not incorrect to use the spelling chili. Chile, with an -e on the end, is the Spanish spelling. I have began using the spelling chili on this page to avoid confusion, since it is the most common spelling in the U.S.
How Hot is Pepper Spray in Scoville Units?
Police-grade pepper spray hits up to 5.3 million Scoville units. The common consumer self-defense pepper spray is 2 to 3 million SHU.
- Butel, Jane. Hotter than Hell: Hot and Spicy Dishes from around the World. Flagstaff, AZ: Northland Pub., 2005.