How much heat can you handle? Some of these scorchers may surprise you. Our hot pepper sauce is full of chilli heat, but can you guess which chilli? Find out below.
First let’s break down the Scoville Scale. The Scoville Scale is named after its creator Wilbur Scoville a pharmacist, who in 1912 created a method to measure capsaicin (the chemical in hot peppers that’s responsible for blowing your socks off).
Now lets get stuck into some hot stuff. We’ll kick things off with the internationally loved Jalapeño pepper.
SHU (Scoville Heat Units): 3,500 – 8,000
Use: Jalapeño peppers are the most commonly used in mainstream food in both restaurants and retail products. The flesh of this fiery fruit has a mild flavour close to a green bell pepper, which can be enjoyed before the searing heat sets in.
History: The Jalapeño pepper originates in Mexico and is named after the town Xalapa (Jalapa), Veracruz, where it was traditionally cultivated. The preparation and cultivation is important with many peppers, including the Jalapeño pepper, as it effects whether the heat level will be mild or scorching.
SHU (Scoville Heat Units): 30,000 – 50,000
Use: The Cayenne pepper is another popular spice and is used in many cuisines and products. Cayenne peppers are also known as the Tabasco pepper because they’re used in Tabasco sauce products.
History: Also originating in Mexico they’re a cultivar of Capsicum annuum and related to bell peppers, Jalapeño, paprika and others.
Bird’s Eye Chilli Pepper
SHU (Scoville Heat Units): 50,000 – 100,000
Use: This is a small but powerful chilli, we love it so much we use it in our Hot Diggidy Dog sauce, no wonder we’re so hot.
History: With origins in Mexico this chilli is now mainly cultivated in Southeast Asia. A chilli with many names, here it’s known as the Bird’s Eye Chilli Pepper because birds eat this variety of chilli, our feathered friends clearly have good taste in super hot chillies.
Bhut Jolokia Pepper (Ghost Pepper)
SHU (Scoville Heat Units): 855,000 – 1,463,700
Use: We’re taking a big leap up the heat scale. You can use this hybrid pepper to heat up your curry, or you can wolf them down in a five-chilli burger just like Alan Richman in Man vs Food. The Ghost chilli has been used in a number of challenges throughout the programmes history with hilarious and gruesome outcomes.
History: Grown in the Indian states of Assam, Nagaland and Manipur, this chilli pepper is a blazing 400 times hotter than Tabasco sauce. The Indian name given to this volcanic pepper literally translates to ‘ghost chilli’.
Trinidad Moruga Scorpion Pepper
SHU (Scoville Heat Units): 1,500,000 – 2,000,000
Use: At the top of the scale we’ve got this supremely hot beauty, add it to your food if you dare, you can’t go further up the heat scale unless you add a drop of pure capsaicin in your food – and you don’t want to do that!
History: The New Mexico State University’s Chilli Pepper Institute has identified the Trinidad Scorpion Moruga Blend as the hottest chilli pepper as of February 2012. This blend has a tender fruit-like flavour, which makes it a sweet-hot combination, but be warned it’s a deceiving pleasantness as the heat builds and builds, and builds some more giving it a nasty sting.
Flamin’eck – There’s something even hotter!
There is actually something even hotter than all of these peppers, but it doesn’t come in any hot chilli sauce, it comes in a can. The Scoville Scale places US police-grade pepper spray at around 5.3million SHU – more than five times the intensity of the hottest natural pepper, the Bhut Jolokia (Ghost Pepper). You definitely don’t want to get any of that in your eyes.
We think we’ll stick with our feathery, winged counterparts and enjoy the Bird’s Eye chilli so we can relish in the tastiness and heat of our hot chilli sauce.
How hot do you think you can go, are you a Jalapeño pepper or a scorcher like the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion pepper? If you’ve tried any of these proper hot chillies we want to hear from you.