Uploaded May 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 hours ago
Spicy peppers allow us to be creative and adventurous with our food. They prevent us from eating bland meals. They also serve several purposes in cooking such as adding flavor or aroma to enhance our taste buds with a kick of heat. But how spicy can peppers really get? Some peppers are grown organically while others are genetically engineered. Whatever the case may be, some of these peppers could get extremely hot! So today, we will be taking a look at some of the hottest peppers in the world!
If you look at the back of a bottle of hot sauce, you may find its spiciness measured in Scoville Heat Units. This is the standard unit for measuring levels of spiciness. American pharmacist Wilbur Scoville invented the Scoville scale in 1912. Scoville created the scale by way of his Scoville Organoleptic Test, which he used to measure a pepper's heat level. The scale measures the amount of capsaicin which is the chemical compound that causes spicy heat in a pepper and assigns it a number rating in Scoville Heat Units (SHUs). Just to put it in perspective, bell peppers come in at 0 SHU, and the regular peppers that we all can enjoy from time to time range anywhere between 0 to 50,000 SHU. Now, that we know how the measuring system works, let’s look at the hottest peppers in the world!
Spicy peppers allow us to be creative and adventurous with our food. They prevent us from eating bland meals. They also serve several purposes in cooking such as adding flavor or aroma to enhance our taste buds with a kick of heat. But how spicy can peppers really get? Some peppers are grown organically while others are genetically engineered. Whatever the case may be, some of these peppers could get extremely hot! So today, we will be taking a look at some of the hottest peppers in the world!
If you look at the back of a bottle of hot sauce, you may find its spiciness measured in Scoville Heat Units. This is the standard unit for measuring levels of spiciness. American pharmacist Wilbur Scoville invented the Scoville scale in 1912. Scoville created the scale by way of his Scoville Organoleptic Test, which he used to measure a pepper's heat level. The scale measures the amount of capsaicin which is the chemical compound that causes spicy heat in a pepper and assigns it a number rating in Scoville Heat Units (SHUs). Just to put it in perspective, bell peppers come in at 0 SHU, and the regular peppers that we all can enjoy from time to time range anywhere between 0 to 50,000 SHU. Now, that we know how the measuring system works, let’s look at the hottest peppers in the world!
