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 gives chilli its heat, the more capsaicin there is the hotter the chilli. Contrary to popular belief, the heat of the chilli is in the internal membrane of the chilli, the seeds do not contain any capsaicin.
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.
In August 2023 a new Guinness World Record holder was crowned, Pepper X measured in at AVERAGE of 2.693 Million SHUs, grown in the USA by Smokin' Ed Currie from the Puckerbutt Pepper Company, surpassing his last Guinness World Record in 2013 for the Carolina Reaper which came in at 2.2 Million SHUs on the Scoville scale.
For a short time it looked like UK grown Dragon's Breath was going to take the crown measuring at 2.48M SHUs but it was never officially recognised and in the meantime Pepper X has come through and won the day.
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 former 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 2013 to 2023 | 2,200,000 (2.2 million) |
smokin' ed's carolina reaper |
| 2,480,000 | dragon's breath | |
| Guinness World Record Holder since 2023 | 2,693,000 (2.6 million) |
pepper X |
| 5,300,000 | police grade pepper spray | |
| 16,000,000 | pure capsaicin |