The Scoville Scale and Scoville Heat Unit (SHU) were named for scientist Wilbur Scoville in 1912 for measuring a chili pepper's pungency and heat. Learn what is the Scoville Scale, a list of chili peppers and their Scoville Heat Units (SHUs) from hottest to mildest and more.
What is the Scoville Scale?
The Scoville Scale was named for scientist Wilbur Scoville in 1912. At the time, Scoville worked for a pharmaceutical company named Parke-Davis where he developed a test called the "Scoville Organoleptic Test" which is used to measure a chili pepper's pungency and heat, measured in "Scoville Heat Units".
Originally, Scoville ground up peppers and mixed them with sugar water, then tested them with a panel of tasters who sipped from these sugar-water-pepper solutions.
He would then dilute the solutions bit by bit until they no longer burned the tongues of the tasters, after which he would assign a number to the chile pepper based on the number of dilutions needed to kill the heat.
The measurements are divided into multiples of 100. Note that 1 part per 1,000,000 dilutions of water is rated at 1.5 Scoville Units. Pure capsaicin, the stuff that makes chili peppers hot, is rated at 16,000,000 Scoville heat units. This is incredibly HOT.
See the chart at the bottom of the page to compare several peppers on the range of the scale, and how they relate to pure capsaicin.
Several factors can affect the heat of a pepper, but they generally fall into the ranges listed below.
Current Scoville Scale Measurements
Today, testing chili pepper heat is not quite so subjective. It has been replaced by High Performance Liquid Chromatography, or HPLC, which measures the pepper's heat producing chemicals and rates them in ASTA pungency units.
The Scoville Scale can be used to not only measure chili peppers, but anything that is made from chili peppers, such as hot sauce. What is really being measured is the concentration of "capsaicin", the active ingredient that produces that sensation of heat on our tongues.
The term "capsaicin" comes from the pepper plants' classification, of the genus Capsicum. Capsaicin occurs naturally in peppers along with other capsaiciniods, all of which make up the unique tastes and heat reactions of each pepper, depending on their ratios.
A List of Chili Peppers from Mildest to Hottest as Measured on the Scoville Heat Unit (SHU) Scale
This is not a complete list of chili peppers, but rather a representation of some of the more popular chili peppers listed by heat level from hottest to mildest.
Scoville Scale for Some of the Most Common Chili Peppers and Hot Sauces
Here is a list of Scoville Heat Units (SHU) of the most common chili peppers and hot sauces so you can get an understanding of how they relate to each other.
- Bell Pepper - 0 SHU
- Banana Peppers - 0 - 500 SHU
- Shishito Peppers - 50 - 200 SHU
- Pepperoncini Peppers - 100 - 500 SHU
- Cholula Hot Sauce - 500 - 1,000 SHU
- Anaheim Peppers - 500 - 2,500 SHU
- Texas Pete Hot Sauce - 747 SHU
- Valentina Hot Sauce (Red Label) - 900 SHU
- Ancho Peppers - 1,000 - 2,000 SHU
- Poblano Peppers - 1,000 - 2,000 SHU
- Ancho Peppers (Dried Peppers) - 1,000 - 2,000 SHU
- Hungarian Wax Peppers - 1,000 - 15,000 SHU
- Valentina Hot Sauce - 2,200 SHU
- Crystal Hot Sauce - 2,000 - 4,000 SHU
- Espelette Peppers - up to 4,000 SHU
- Tabasco Hot Sauce - 2,000 - 5,000 SHU
- Huy Fong Sriracha Hot Sauce - 2,200 SHU
- Guajillo Peppers - 2,500 - 5,000 SHU
- Tapatio Hot Sauce - 3,000 SHU
- Jalapeno Peppers - 2,500 - 8,000 SHU
- Chipotle Peppers - 2,500 - 8,000 SHU
- Tabasco Habanero Hot Sauce - 7,000+ SHU
- Aleppo Pepper - 10,000 SHU
- Serrano Peppers - 10,000 - 23,000 SHU
- Calabrian Peppers - 25,000 - 40,000 SHU
- Chile de Arbol Peppers - 15,000 - 65,000 SHU
- Cayenne Peppers - 30,000 - 50,000 SHU
- Aji Amarillo Peppers - 30,000 - 50,000 SHU
- Chiltepin Peppers - 50,000 - 100,000 SHU
- Bird's Eye Peppers - 50,000 - 100,000 SHU
- Thai Pepper - 50,000 - 100,000 SHU
- Datil Peppers - 100,000 - 300,000 SHU
- Devil's Tongue Peppers - 125,000 - 325,000 SHU
- Habanero Peppers - 100,000 - 350,000 SHU
- Scotch Bonnet Peppers - 100,000 - 350,000 SHU
- Ghost Peppers - 1,000,000 + SHU
- African Bird's Eye - 175,000 SHU
- Trinidad Scorpion Butch T Pepper - 800,000 – 1,463,700 SHU
- 7-Pot Chili Pepper - 1 Million SHU +
- Brain Strain Peppers - 1 Million - 1.25 Million SHU
- 7-Pot Primo - 1.47 Million SHU
- Komodo Dragon Peppers - 1.4 Million - 2.2 Million SHU
- Trinidad Moruga Scorpion Pepper - 2,009,231 SHU
- Pepper X - 2 Million + SHU
- Carolina Reaper Chili Pepper - 2.2 Million + SHU
- Pepper Spray - 2 Million SHU or stronger
- Dragon's Breath Pepper - 2.48 Million SHU
- Apollo Pepper - 2,500,000 - 3,000,000 SHU
- Pure Capsaicin - 16 Million SHU
For a more complete list of chili peppers, visit the following links...
A Recent History of Hot Peppers - Hottest Peppers in the World - News and the Scoville Scale
The Red Savina Habanero Pepper was the original "hottest pepper in the world", with a heat range of up to 580,000 Scoville Heat Units, but newer, hotter chili peppers came fast and hard in the last 20 years.
Collectively called "superhot chili peppers", these are peppers that top the 1 Million Scoville Heat Unit range, and I have some of them listed below. You can also review this link of Super Hot Chili Peppers List or my collection of Superhot Chili Peppers.
The list of the hottest chili peppers in the world is growing all the time.
Growers are producing hotter and hotter hybrids with hopes of pushing the Scoville Scale limits. 2017 saw a flurry of news articles with potential new “hottest pepper in the world” claims, including the “Dragon’s Breath Pepper” and the ultra blazing “Pepper X“. However, there have been no official confirmation of tests performed.
The “Dragon’s Breath Pepper” quite possibly may have been a publicity stunt, so there is little hope for that particular pepper, though “Pepper X” was propagated by Ed Curie, the man behind the current record holder, the “Carolina Reaper”.
But for now, we can only await for more official announcements.
Want More Chili Pepper Heat Information?
Check Out Our List of Chili Peppers Organized by Heat Levels, from Mild to Superhot
This article was updated on 11/11/20 to include new information. It was originally published on 6/14/14.
Kevin S says
What a beautiful wrinkled beauty the Reaper is.
Grow them every year. They make the best jelly to share with friends at breakfast wit bagels and a shmear…
Mike Hultquist says
Yes, so good!
Ed Moder says
Connie & I are going to make an Ed & Connie alarm scale. Right now I think it will be something like this:
.
For a serving of four, use:
20,000 SHUs (1 serrano OR 2 jalapenos) to get 1-alarm
50,000 SHUs (1 serrano AND 2 jalapenos) to get 2-alarm
100,000+ SHUs (1 habanero AND 1 serrano AND 1 jalapeno) to get 3-alarm
4-alarm - we won't go there. lol
.
Of course this all has to be tested.
Mike Hultquist says
Yes, best to create your own scale! Heat tolerance is different for everyone. But it's fun!
Rev Dr John Benjamin David Tatum DD PhD says
Any plans for X Pepper Recipies =:0)
Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says
For sure, when I can get my hands on some!
Judith says
Where can I get a scoville chart with pictures of the peppers?
Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says
I'll have to work on that! Though I do have links to the pepper pages themselves.
Christopher Addae says
I enjoyed reading this piece. I'm an avid lover of chili pepper. The list makes interesting. However, living in Ghana, I'm convinced that a small species of the chili called "mesewa" will feature very high up on the scoville scale.
Where can I get it tested and what processes are involved?
Thanks.
Chris
Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says
Thanks, Christopher. You can try to contact a local lab for testing. There is a chemical analysis that would need to be done. I'm not sure of the cost. You also might contact the Chile Pepper Institute in New Mexico to see if they have done any testing for this particular pepper. If you do obtain any further information, I hope you will share it here. I'd love to hear.
Kevin King says
Hi Mike;
Is there any way I can get a high resolution file of the Scoville Scale Poster?I would love to print some to handout at our annual Hot Sauce Festival.
Kevin King
Oxford NC
http://www.nchotsaucecontest.com
Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says
Kevin, sorry, I don't have a hi-res version of it. Good luck!
Robert Jiminski says
I would love to buy seeds for these peppers, but I can't find any. Where can I get these?
Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says
Robert, check out my "Chili Pepper Plants and Seeds Resources" Page to find sellers. Good luck!
Ralsei & Cyanide says
Pure capsaicin is probably enough for a death potion at it's finest (I DONT WANNA KILL)
Erik says
I just finished laboratory testing, and our batch reached 2,398,587 Scoville Heat Units. A lot of variables play into the concentration of capsaicin in Capsicum Chinese "Carolina Reaper". That is why any good test has many, many tests involved. Outliers are everywhere. Hope this helps.
Thomas Hurley says
We actually had a batch of Coolapenos (hybrid) grown and bedded with some Cayenne peppers, they came out hotter than the Jalapenos did. Growing conditions surely must change the heat level for any kind of pepper I would think.
Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says
Thomas, yes, growing conditions are a huge factor.
Mike L. says
Even the Carolina Reaper has a minimum capsaicin content, and I believe that measurement on the Scoville scale is 1,400,000. So it could be possible that two peppers juxtaposed where even a Butch T Trinidad Scorpion is hotter than a Carolina Reaper specimen.
Michael Hultquist - Chili Pepper Madness says
There are ranges with many peppers, sometimes very large ranges, particularly with the superhots. The heat can be affected greatly by growing conditions and other variables.