Hot Sauce Scoville Scale Explained: What Does It Mean?
The Scoville scale measures capsaicin concentration in chili peppers and hot sauces, recorded in Scoville Heat Units (SHU). The range stretches from 0 SHU for a bell pepper to 16,000,000 SHU for pure capsaicin. On the shelf, that means roughly 450 SHU for Frank's RedHot Hot Sauce at the mild end and 9,000,000 SHU for Mad Dog 357 Plutonium No.9 Hot Sauce at the extreme end.Most of the time, you're standing in the hot sauce aisle, scanning labels, and there it is: a number followed by "SHU." One bottle reads 450. Another reads 135,000. A third just says "5 flames" with no number at all. What do those figures actually tell you about the heat inside?In this article, we will covers what the Scoville scale is and who created it, how it applies to hot sauce specifically, where the most popular brands rank, where CHIN-SU products sit on the scale, and how to choose a sauce based on heat level. From there, you’ll know how spicy your hot sauce is and how to adjust your choice accordingly.Let's start with the basics of the scale itself.
