There are some mighty big numbers on the Scoville scale. It ranges from zero to the millions. Each number is known as a Scoville heat unit, but what does that mean? What are Scoville heat units exactly, and why can some of the hottest hot peppers account for millions of them? Let’s break down the might of this tiny number.
What are Scoville heat units?
For something whose count can become so big, the answer is really quite simple. Scoville heat units (often shortened to SHU) are simply a measurement of sugar water. The Scoville Organoleptic Test measures chili heat by figuring out how much sugar water needs to be diluted into a chili pepper mash to get to where you no longer feel the heat at all.
It’s all done in equal parts. For instance, say you have a teaspoon of jalapeño pepper. How many teaspoons of sugar water do you need to dilute into it until you can’t taste any heat whatsoever? That’s the test. And the answer is your Scoville heat units.
So a cup of mashed jalapeño labeled 2,500 to 8,000 Scoville heat units would take anywhere from 2,500 to 8,000 cups of sugar water to dilute it to zero heat. That range is because chili peppers of the same type vary in heat depending on growth factors like soil, water received, and the region in which it grew. They also range due to how long a pepper has aged on the vine. For instance, a young green jalapeño will probably be at the bottom of its range, while a red jalapeño (aged to maturity) will tend to be at the upper-end.
A new test: HPLC
Back in the day, there were taste testers that were needed to complete this test, not a job any of us would want with today’s hottest peppers in the world. But today, a new test is used: high-performance liquid chromatography (or HPLC), which measures the amount of capsaicin in the pepper itself to define the heat. Scientists actually take their results from this test and then convert them back into Scoville heat units.
Scoville heat units are simple math, but once you understand them, you really can see how potent the upper tier of hot peppers really is. A cup of wicked hot Carolina Reaper mash would take upwards of 2,200,000 cups of sugar water to dilute to zero heat. That’s a serious amount of spiciness.
Must-read related posts
- What Is The Scoville Scale? Learn more about the primary system for measuring chili pepper heat.
- The Hot Pepper List: We profile over 150 chilies. Search them by name, heat level, flavor, and more.
- Does Cooking Peppers Make Them Hotter? What’s the fact and fiction here?
