Scoville

Scoville refers to the Scoville scale, a widely used system for measuring the pungency or heat of chili peppers and other spicy foods. The scale is named after American pharmacist Wilbur Scoville, who introduced it in 1912. It assigns heat values in Scoville Heat Units (SHU), reflecting the amount of dilution required for a heat sensation to be detectable.

The original method, the Scoville Organoleptic Test, used human tasters who evaluated diluted pepper extracts in sugar water. The heat level was determined by the dilution factor at which the panel could no longer detect spiciness; higher SHU indicated hotter peppers. Because this approach relies on subjective taste, later methods have sought more objective measurements.

Modern measurements often use high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to quantify capsaicinoids, the chemical compounds responsible for chili heat. SHU can then be estimated from capsaicinoid concentrations, providing a more reproducible value, though there is still variability in reporting across laboratories and products.

Pepper heat varies widely. Bell peppers typically rate around 0 SHU. Jalapeños commonly range from 2,500 to 8,000 SHU, cayenne from 30,000 to 50,000 SHU, and habanero from 100,000 to 350,000 SHU. Extremely hot varieties, such as ghost peppers and Carolina Reapers, can exceed 1,000,000 SHU, with some cultivars reported near 2,200,000 SHU.

The Scoville scale remains a standard reference in culinary, agricultural, and consumer contexts, though it has limitations related to subjectivity and nonlinearity, and modern practice increasingly incorporates objective chemical analyses of capsaicinoids.