Chilli Varieties
There are thousands and thousands of chilli varieties, and they all belong to the same genus ‘Capsicum’, which originates from the southern United states and the continent of South America.
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They are thought to have been cultivated in South America, where they are known as Aji’s, since 3,000BC.
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There are over twenty species of Capsicum, of which there are five, which are commonly grown: annuum, baccatum, chinense, frutescens and pubescens. Peru is the country with the greatest diversity of cultivated chillies, as all five species are widely available to buy at market.
The Scoville Scale
The Scoville scale is a measurement of the pungency (spiciness) of peppers and other hot foods. The scale is based on the concentration of capsaicin, an active component of chilli peppers that produces a burning sensation when it touches your tongue or skin.
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Pharmacist Wilbur Scoville created the scale in 1912. In Scoville’s method, capsaicin from a specific pepper was added to increasingly larger amounts of sugar-water until a majority of tasters could no longer detect the heat.
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How much or how little dilution was needed to render the capsaicin tasteless decided the pepper’s number of Scoville Heat Units (SHU), which decided where it falls on the Scoville scale. Though newer and more accurate methods are used to determine these numbers today, the scale itself remains the same.
What’s the Hottest Pepper on the Scoville Scale?
Pepper X, bred by the Ed Currie, the breeder of the famous Caroline Reaper, became the hottest pepper in the world in 2023, according to the scale and Guinness World Records, with about 2.7 million SHU. For reference, pure capsaicin has a Scoville rating of 16 million SHU and most pepper sprays are between 500,00 and 2,000,00 SHU.
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Here’s how every day peppers compare to Pepper X:
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Bell: 0 SHU
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Poblano: 3,000 SHU
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Jalapeno: 8,000 SHU
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Cayenne: 50,000 SHU
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Scotch Bonnet 350,000 SHU
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Sadly, Pepper X seeds have not been made available for sale. Although you can buy Pepper X sauces from Ed’s Pucker Butt Chili company.
How is pepper heat measured today?
The degree of pungency of a chili is determined today by means of modern high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). This method recognises the capsaicin responsible for the pungency and determines the concentration reliably.
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The American Spice Trade Association (ASTA) uses the HPLC figure and then assigns an ASTA Pungency Unit as a measurement of the heat detected. These units are then converted into SHU - 1 ASTA unit is equal to 15 Scoville units.
