How HOT are your peppers?
Thinking about which peppers to grow next year? There are so many to choose from! If you want to be sure you’re picking your favorite flavor, there’s a great resource to help you know the pungency of chili peppers. The Scoville scale, developed by Wilbur Scoville in 1912, measures the hotness of a pepper, given in Scoville heat units (SHU). Capsaicin is the compound in peppers that produces a burning sensation. Knowing where a pepper ranks on the scale of 0 (sweet bell peppers) to 16,000,000 (pure capsaicin) you can choose ones that are best for your tongue. Take a look at the illustration at left to see how different peppers rank on the scale.
