A Brief History of the Scoville Scale
In 1912, a pharmacist named Wilbur Scoville created a new scale to measure the heat in peppers while working at the Parke-Davis pharmaceutical company. He developed what was officially called the "Scoville Organoleptic Test", now called the Scoville Scale to measure capsaicin (heat) in peppers.[1][2]
Scoville's original method involved diluting pepper extract with sugar water until a panel of five testers could no longer detect any heat. The number of dilutions required became known as "Scoville Heat Units" (SHU).[3] For example, if a pepper extract needed to be diluted 50,000 times before the heat became undetectable, it would be rated at 50,000 SHU.[4]
By the 1980s, scientists replaced human tasters with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), making measurements more objective and accurate.[5] This method determines the concentration of capsaicinoids and converts the results to Scoville Heat Units by multiplying the parts-per-million by 16.[6]
Today's scale ranges from bell peppers at 0 SHU to extremely hot varietals like the Carolina Reaper and Pepper X exceeding 3 million SHU. Three million SHUs is officially hot AF. The Scoville Scale remains the standard reference for chile pepper heat in both culinary applications and scientific research.[7]
Understanding Scoville Heat Units
The Scoville Heat Unit (SHU) measurement directly reflects the dilution factor necessary to neutralize a pepper's heat. For example, a Red Savina habanero rated at 575,000 SHU would need to be diluted 575,000 times before the capsaicin becomes undetectable to human taste buds. This means one drop of Red Savina extract would need to be mixed with 575,000 drops of sugar water before the heat sensation disappears.[8]
For comparison, a jalapeño pepper (2,500-8,000 SHU) might only require 8,000 drops of sugar water to neutralize, making it approximately 70 times milder than a Red Savina habanero. This dilution-based scale provides both culinary professionals and consumers with a standardized way to understand and communicate the relative intensity of different peppers.[9]