Hot Pepper Scale and Scoville Heat Units

How hot are your peppers? This is a frequent question we get here at Adaptive seeds. So we put together a quick reference guide to help answer the question.

 

In 2024 we grew out every single one of our hot peppers. It was the first time we had looked at them all side by side by side by side (x 22!)…. And Wow! We learned so much! A single pant of our Adaptive Early Thai pepper yielded 331 fruit (total weight, 1.89 lbs)! The Gabi Hot Wax seemed to have ripened ALL of its fruit by 9/19, but when we went back a month later, 12 more fruit had set! Across all types, the average yield per plant was 1.9 lbs, but Aji Crystal blew the others out of the water with 5.69 lbs from one plant!

We’re still in the process of interpreting our yield data but we’re happy to announce that the Scoville Data is Ready! This is the scientific rating of heat level for hot peppers. There were some more surprises here, and we’ve entered the lab results into a handy chart for reference – you can find it below. Limón Lightning won top honors as our hottest pepper. Sugar Rush Peach came in second hottest, but was not even half as hot as Limón.

We have integrated “Expected Scoville Range” information into each hot pepper product description and still have “Medium Hot,” “Hot,” and “Very Hot,” etc. descriptors in the product headers for context.

It’s important to note that heat level in peppers can vary from one location to another, and one season to another – as well as from plant to plant, and sometimes even from fruit to fruit! Our results should be thought of more as a guideline than a guarantee.

Adaptive Seeds Hot Pepper Scoville (SHU) Chart pdf