Scoville Heat Units - Chile Peppers

A scale developed by Wilbur Scoville in 1912, to measure the heat level in chiles. It was first a subjective taste test, but since, it has been refined by the use of HPLC, the unit is named in honour of its inventor. The test officially measures the pungency level of a given pepper. There are other methods, but the Scoville Scale remains the most widely used and respected. The greater the number of Scoville units, the hotter the pepper. Of course, being a natural product, the heat can vary from pepper to pepper, so this scale is just a guide. The original Scoville test asked a panel of tasters to state when an increasingly dilute solution of the pepper no longer burned the mouth. Roughly one part per million of chile 'heat' rates as 1.5 Scoville units.  Scoville Chile Heat Chart

Pepper Variety Rating Heat Level Sweet Bell Peppers; Sweet Banana; Pimento 0 Negligible Mexican Bell; Cherry; New Mexico; Anaheim; Big Jim 1 100-1,000 Scoville units Ancho; Pasilla; Espanola; Anaheim 2 1,000 - 1,500 Scoville units Sandia; Cascabel 3 1,500 - 2,500 Scoville units Jalapeno; Mirasol; Chipotle; Poblano 4 2,500 - 5,000 Scoville units Yellow Wax; Serrano 5 5,000 - 15,000 Scoville units Chile de Arbol 6 15,000 - 30,000 Scoville units Aji; Cayenne; Tabasco; Piquin 7 30,000 - 50,000 Scoville units Santaka; Chiltecpin; Thai 8 50,000 - 100,000 Scoville units Habanero; Scotch Bonnet; Bird's Eye 9 100,000 - 350,000 Scoville units Red Savina Habanero; Indian Tezpur 10 350,000 - 855,000 Scoville units Common Pepper Spray -- 2,000,000 Scoville units Police-grade Pepper Spray -- 5,300,000 Scoville units Pure capsaicin -- 16,000,000 Scoville units