The Scoville Heat Scale - Chilli Pepper List
American pharmacist Wilbur Scoville created a test in 1912 to measure the heat of a chilli pepper known as the Scoville Organoleptic Test.
The Scoville scale measures the level of capsaicin concentration in a chilli, capsaicin is the chemical that give s chilli its heat, the more capsaicin there is the hotter the chilli.
The SHU
The unit of measure for the Scoville scale is the Scoville Heat Unit or commonly referred to as the SHU. When the tests were devised chillies were relatively tame so something like a jalapeño which measures up to 10,000 SHUs and the tabasco pepper which is anywhere up to 50,000 SHU would have been maxing out the scale!
But in today's terms these measures are almost considered negligible with peppers like the Trinidad 7 Pot hitting 1 million SHUs and the former World Record Holder, Australia's Own Trinidad Scorpion "Butch T" tapping out at just under 1.5 million SHUs. And of course we have to mention the reigning Guinness World Record holder since 2013 "Smokin' Ed's Carolina Reaper" hitting 2.2 Million SHUs on the Scoville scale. Fun fact this chilli was created by the merging of two former world record holders the Red Savina Habanero (580,000 SHUs) and a Bhut Jolokia or ghost pepper (1 Million SHUs) a very spicy union indeed!
Scoville Heat Scale and Chilli List
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Get the Scoville Heat Scale Poster
The Scoville Heat Scale poster is now available to buy from the ChilliBOM Hot Sauce store. This glossy A2 size poster is perfect to hang on your wall as a handy chilli reference.
Want to discover even more?
If you want to discover more about these chillies then get into the ChilliBOM blog with specific articles featuring:
- Carolina Reaper - the world's hottest chilli
- Habanero - the undisputed champion of hot sauce
- Bhut Jolokia - the ghost pepper
- Naga Viper - the cobra of chillies
- Scotch Bonnet - the bonnie Jamaican
- Jalapeño - world's most popular chilli
- Cayenne - the world's most common chilli
- Devil's Tongue - the name says it all!
- Bird's Eye - the red gem of South East Asia
- Piri Piri - did someone say Chicken?
- Fatalii - Citrus fire
- Aji - The pepper from Peru
You can explore the full collection of hot sauces available in the ChilliBOM Hot Sauce Store
Text Version:
| SHUs | Chilli Peppers | |
| Mild | 0-10,000 |
bell pepper |
| Medium | 10,000 to 50,000 |
jalapeño |
| Hot | 50,000 to 100,000 |
bolivian rainbow |
| Extra Hot | 100,000 to 580,000 |
fatalii |
| Inferno | 580,000 to 2,000,000 | trinidad scorpion trinidad 7 pot bhut jolokia (ghost pepper) 7 pot inifinity naga viper "Butch T" scorpion moruga scorpion |
| Guinness World Record Holder since 2013 | 2,200,000 (2.2 million) |
smokin' ed's carolina reaper |
| 5,300,000 | police grade pepper spray | |
| 16,000,000 | pure capsaicin |