The Scoville Scale is a measurement of the capsaicin concentration in a chile pepper. It is measured in Scoville Heat Units. The higher the number, the hotter the pepper.
CAROLINA REAPER- 2,200,000 SHU (SCOVILLE HEAT UNITS)
TRINIDAD MORUGA SCORPION – 2,009,231 SHU
TRINIDAD CHOCOLATE 7 POT – 1,853,396 SHU
TRINIDAD SCORPION BUTCH T – 1,463,700 SHU
TRINIDAD SCORPION 7 POT – 1,291,800 SHU
TRINIDAD BARRACKPORE – 1,200,000 SHU
BHUT JOLOKIA (Ghost Chile) – 1,041,800 SHU
JAY’S PEACH GHOST SCORPION – 900,000 SHU
JAY’S RED GHOST SCORPION – 800,000 SHU
RED SAVINA HABANERO – 577,000 SHU >
ORANGE HABANERO – 350,000 SHU
AFRICAN BIRD’S EYE – 190,000 SHU
JALAPENO PEPPER – 2,500 SHU
BELL PEPPER – 2,500 SHU
In 1912, Wilbur Scoville devised a method to rate the heat in a chile pepper diluting an alcohol based extract until human tasters no longer taste the heat. The amount of dilution translates to the Scoville Scale. Today another method is used; high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Scientists can determine how many parts per million of heat-causing alkaloids are present in a chile pepper and multiply that number by 16 to get the chile pepper’s Scoville Rating.