I’m a fan of mildly spicy or hot food, such as guacamole, salsa, and chips, but I’ve never tried a jalapeno. That’s probably the first thing that comes to mind when people think of hot peppers, but really, there are many more peppers beyond the heat strength of the jalapeno.
So how do you measure the hotness of peppers? You could just have a bunch of people eat them and rank them, but that wouldn’t be very accurate. So, in 1912, a guy named William Scoville came up with a way to rank the heat of peppers and other spicy foods. Named after him, the Scoville scale is measured in SHUs (Scoville Heat Units). SHU is based on the concentration of capsinoids, which capsiacion is the main ingredient, which is to blame for the spiciness in foods. The jalapeno’s SHU is only 2,500-8,000, which might sound like a lot, but not nearly as much as some of the world’s hottest peppers, in which the jalapeno compared to them, as the website Pepperscale describes, as being mild to moderate. Here are some of those hot peppers.
5. The Scorpion Pepper
100 times hotter than a jalapeno
1.2 million SHU
Previous Guinness World Record for hottest pepper
Named for the scorpion-like stinger
Photo Link:
4. 7-Pot Primo
Nearly 300 times hotter than a jalapeno
1,473,480 SHU
Has a long, skinny “tail”
Created by horticulturist Troy Primeaux
Photo Link:
3. 7-Pot Douglah
Around 600 times hotter than a jalapeno
Around 1,853,986 SHU
Known as one of the hottest peppers with best flavor
The hottest pepper you can find that isn’t red
Photo Link:
2. Trinidad Moruga Scorpion
2 million SHU
People who’ve tasted it say it doesn’t seem so bad, and it builds heat
They grow all year, except in freezing weather
Has sweet-hot flavor
Photo Link:
1. Carolina Reaper
2, 200,000 SHU
Has fruity flavor until the heat kicks in
It starts as a slow burn, then grows intensely
People who eat it are shown vomiting and crying
A guy set a Guinness World record for eating only three
A company sells a Carolina Reaper chip, with only one chip in it- that’s all people can handle
At most 880 times hotter than a jalapeno
Photo Link:
How you react to eating a Carolina Reaper or hot pepper:
2 seconds: The first bite is sweeter and sometimes fruity. But your teeth pull away the inside membrane of the pepper, where it holds the seeds and most of the capsinoids, the things that make peppers spicy (see first paragraph).
7 seconds: You begin to feel the heat, because the capsaicin activates the receptors that your body uses to detect heat.
15 seconds: You will have swallowed or begin swallowing, and the pepper travels down your throat, through your esophagus, and into your stomach, which all these organs contain the heat receptors, so you’ll feel the pain in places you aren’t used to.
20 seconds: Your throat probably will tighten, and your receptors will mobilize a protein, which makes you make more saliva to cool you down.
35 seconds: Your neck, cheeks, and forehead begin to sweat.
1 minute: The pain is horrid, and people will try to find something to drink. Dairy, like milk or yogurt, is better because water only moves around the heat molecules. Milk has a protein that knocks the capsinoid off the receptors. Experts recommend non-fat milk.
1 minute, 30 seconds: Your nose will begin to run, another result of the receptors.
2 minutes: You’ve entered the peak of the pain, which will last for about 4-5 more minutes.
2 minutes, 30 seconds: Some people feel lightheaded, and/or if they might pass out.
10 minutes: You’ve been through most of the pain, but your mouth feels burned, like you’ve eaten something really hot, temperature-wise.
20 minutes: You’re through the pain. Some people feel stomach cramping a couple hours later.
So, maybe you might think differently about the jalapeno now? But remember, new peppers are found or created/bred a lot, and unofficially, there might be a new winner of the hottest pepper, Pepper X, bred by the same guy who made the Carolina Reaper. Supposedly, Pepper X has 3.18 million SHU, but this remains unconfirmed by Guinness World Records 2019. But the Carolina Reaper still takes first, as the hottest pepper in the world? If you had the chance, would YOU try something as hot as the Carolina Reaper?