Scoville Heat Units are used to specify of the hotness of food, specifically chili peppers. In 1912 Wilbur Scoville, devised a system to determine how hot foods are. He used a panel of tasters to provide heat scores for different peppers. Although we still use Wilbur's name for the Scoville Heat Units, the current method is much more scientific.
The sensation of heat that we experience from eating certain peppers is attributable to a chemical called capsaicin. The more capsaicin present in a pepper, the hotter it will seem. Although the Scoville scale spans from 0 to 16 million, the American Spice Traders Association (ASTA) set the standard for conversion from ppm (parts per million) of capsaicin to Scoville Heat Units as 1:15. This means that a sweet bell pepper has 0 Scoville units because there is no capsaicin present, and pure capsaicin crystals have 15,000,000 Scoville Heat Units (or 16 million, depending on who you ask.
As is evident from the table below, Scoville Heat Units vary widely from one species to the next.
The hottest pepper ever grown is the Naga Jolokia from Assam, India which has a Scoville score of 855,000! There are also variations of heat from one pepper to the next within the same species; growing conditions, soil and other factors have an affect on the amount of Capsaicin within a given pepper. The Scoville Heat Units listed below represent the average minimum amount detectable within the item in question, but keep in mind that the amount of Capsaicin in any single type of pepper can vary greatly:
Scoville Units
|
|
|
15,000,000 |
Pure Capsaicin |
|
5,300,000 |
Police-Grade Pepper Spray |
|
2,000,000 |
Common Pepper Spray |
|
855,000 |
Naga Jolokia |
|
580,000 |
Red SavinaTM Habanero |
|
350,000 |
Habanero Pepper |
|
325,000 |
Scotch Bonnet Pepper |
|
200,000 |
Jamaican Hot Pepper |
|
100,000 |
Thai Pepper |
|
50,000 |
Cayenne Pepper |
|
30,000 |
Manzano Pepper |
|
23,000 |
Serrano Pepper |
|
10,000 |
Chipotle Pepper |
|
8,000 |
Jalapeno Pepper |
|
5,000 |
TabascoTM Sauce |
|
2,500 |
Rocotilla Pepper |
|
2,000 |
Ancho Pepper |
|
2,000 |
Poblano Pepper |
|
1,000 |
Coronado Pepper |
|
500 |
Pepperoncini Pepper |
|
500 |
Pimento |
|
0 |
Sweet Bell Pepper |
|
Scoville units and there measurements are a vast concern for our Barbecue Sauce
The clearest representation of the Scoville scale with with folks who have very little tolerance when it comes to spicy foods. One of the things I often deal with when doing demos is how many folks ask me how hot or spicy our barbecue sauce may be. I tell then what I tell everyone else....the hotness or spiciness depends on their understanding of what hot and spicy means. If you think hot is the use of black pepper then our Medium and Hot barbecue sauces may not be for them. But if you enjoy hot or spicy food more that twice a week then you will love having our Medium Hot BBQ Sauce and in fact you may be suited to our Really Hot Inferno which uses Habanero and Jalapeno peppers. The selection of hot and spicy really is specific to the actual user.
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This product was added to our catalog on Thursday 21 September, 2017.