The Silly Scoville Scale
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Eating hot peppers can be fun. Watching another person eat a pepper that is way too hot can be funny. I know this through experience, and thought I’d try to help everyone understand just how it feels to eat some of the hottest peppers in the world. Thus, I present to you, the Silly Scoville Scale.
Here, I’ll share a simple and straightforward example of each of the different levels of the heat scale known as the Scoville Scale. We’ll give you the range, the heat level, some of the common peppers in the range, and a couple examples of what it’s like to eat those peppers.
Share some of your honest experiences and tag @peppergeek so we can see!
Zero Scovilles
This is the type of pepper that just isn’t hot. Paris Hilton obviously wouldn’t like this pepper, and thus she decidedly disapproves. You can find this at your local supermarket and stuff them with cheese and meats to make up for their lack of heat. NEXT.
<2,500 Scovilles
You may detect a glimmer of heat from these peppers. The common peppers in this category are poblanos or a mild chili powder. Grandma did indeed try these once, and she barely even flinched. I also think I heard her call me a “wuss” under her breath, but I’m not 100% sure.
TLDR: Still not that hot.
2,500-10K Scovilles
Starting to warm up a bit here, but nothing scary. Jalapeños fall into this category, and you can turn those into poppers. How intimidating can a “popper” of any kind really be? Not that intimidating. I’ve had more discomfort eating too much wasabi on my sushi rolls than when eating one of these peppers.
10K – 50K Scovilles
Okay, so it’s kind of hot, whatever.. I stuck my tongue out at my mom once and she took out the tabasco sauce and made me have a little bit. I cried a little, but I was like 10. Now I’m a grown up, and I put this stuff on cheap pizza to make it taste better. I mean, it’s kind of hot…but I’m not afraid of it.
50K – 100K Scovilles
Story time! I love Thai food. The noodles, the intricate flavors, the sweet, delicious basil dishes. Yum. However, they tend to use this pepper in their food…and when you order and say that you want it “Thai Spicy,” they take that to mean that you want to eat pure fire for dinner. I learned this the hard way. So that’s what this category of Scovilles feels like. Starting to get less silly, here.
100K – 500K Scovilles
Sometimes, when you eat something, the experience is fleeting. A piece of chocolate, a scoop of ice cream. One second filled with delicious satisfaction, the next second, gone.
Not with a habanero. Good luck the next morning after you finish your cup of coffee. You’ll probably want to stock up on these before you try eating any raw scotch bonnets. Also, prepare the milk.
500K – 1M Scovilles
Did you know that capsaicin is the compound found in peppers that makes them hot? Did you know that it is most likely present to deter fungus?
Well, it has the side effect of causing small animals to spontaneously combust on contact*. These types of peppers are devilishly hot, and the pepper names start to reflect the level of torture on the palate.
*probably not true.
1-2 Million Scovilles
The ghost pepper. Sound familiar? It was once the world’s hottest pepper, and was the first pepper to measure over 1,000,000 Scoville heat units. It may have lost the throne, but it is still absurdly hot. Eating this type of pepper is most likely going to cause some crying, and the sweat you produce could make a pot of soup too spicy for grandma (who’s a wuss now?).
2 Million+ Scovilles
I have one question. Why? No no no…just…why, though?
Also, how? How does one pepper the size of a golf ball ruin a grown man’s day? The answer will likely never be found, but the Carolina reaper will do just that. Eat one of these and your day is over. Probably some of tomorrow, too.
Buy some here!!
5,000,000 Scovilles
We’ve moved beyond the hot pepper, but the silly Scoville scale doesn’t stop there. Capsaicin, the hot stuff that is in peppers, is used in high-grade pepper spray to temporarily blind people.
I don’t know what this feels like, but if I ever find out, I don’t think I’ll be worried about the pain as much as the jail time.
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Calvin
One of the original Pepper Geeks! When Calvin isn’t gardening or learning more about peppers and botany, he might be traveling new places or playing some music.
My name is Debby I’m a 67, year old grandma and at xmass my brother in law was given some scorpion pepper sauce I tried it and I had no negative reaction.i shook about a half teaspoon on my very rare tenderloin and it was great,no fire in the hole the next day either is there a big difference between brands pretty much tasted like Tabasco’s brand .I also used to eat ghost peppers with my father-in-law while visiting him im Puerto Rico with no stomach issues.ate some people just more tolerant no milk just cheese and rum.
Haha! Yes I believe each individual has their own reaction to different heat levels. However, you may have what we call an “iron stomach.” I wish I could eat all the hottest peppers without issues!