Peppers: Measuring Heat with Scoville Units
Way back in 1912, an American pharmacist named Wilbur Scoville developed the Scoville Organoleptic Test to measure the heat of peppers. Today, we usually call it the Scoville scale or talk about the spiciness of a pepper based on the Scoville units it is assigned. The test measures a compound in peppers called capsaicin. The higher the number of Scoville units, the hotter the pepper!
For example, a sweet bell pepper typically scores 0 Scoville units since it contains negligible amounts of capsaicin, while a jalapeño pepper can range from 2,500 to 8,000 Scoville units. Moving up the scale, habanero peppers can reach 100,000 to 350,000 Scoville units, and extremely spicy peppers like the Carolina Reaper have been measured above 2 million Scoville units.
In our vegetable greenhouse here at Cavacini Garden Center, we arrange our peppers by Scoville units so customers can compare the varieties on offer. At the low end of the scale, we have bell and banana peppers that are close to zero Scoville units and Ghost Peppers that measure an alarming 855,000 to 1,000,000 Scoville units! Whatever your appetite for spicy peppers, stop by and check out our selection.
December 17, 2024
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