Hot Peppers

I was eating lunch the other day and was overhearing a conversation about peppers between two ladies. One of them said, "Habaneros are the hottest peppers in the world." This took me back a bit as I know this is not true. Sure Habaneros are spicy but the definitely are not the hottest in the world. I actually have tried Habaneros before and they are quite spicy. I remember sweating and wishing for a gallon of milk

To know what is consider the hottest pepper in the world, we must know about the capsaicin and the Scoville Scale. Capsaicin is what makes the pepper spicy. It has a very high affinity to lock onto you taste buds and won't let go. This is the reason why water won't help you if you happen to bite into a pepper. In fact it may make it worst, as it'll spread the capsaicin to the unaffected parts of your tongue. The only refuge is a fatty glass of milk where the fat will block some of the capsaicin from binding.

To measure the amount of capsaicin in the old days, the you take a pepper and dilute it with sugar water till it was no longer spicy. These days it's a bit more scientific. They actually can measure the concentration of capsaicin. The Scoville Scale is always given as a range, since many factors can affect the amount of capsaicin in a pepper. Weather, soil, and other variables can play a part on how spicy a pepper is.

Here is the list of the most common peppers you'll probably encounter, with some notable exceptions.

Bell peppers usually have a Scoville Unit of 0. That's right the sweet bell pepper is not spicy of at all. Although some people like my wife, may still claim it too spicy for her.

Ancho peppers, that you often find in recipes for the background flavor of heat is rated 1000 to 2000. These numbers may seem high but it gets more ridiculous.

Anaheim peppers that you'll also find in a lot of recipes are rated 500 to 2500.

Jalapeno peppers that you'll find everywhere is rated as 2500 to 8000. The weird part is that as a kid, I used to remember Jalapenos being much hotter. But either my taste buds has become resistant to capsaicin or they have breed the jalapenos to be a bit more tame.

Now, from this point forward, these peppers are what really can burn your tongue.

Cayenne peppers are rated as 30,000 to 50,000. Cayenne can be found in some recipes

Thai Peppers which can be found in most Thai and Asian restaurants are rated as 50,000 to 100,000. That's why sometimes if you're not careful, and you accidentally bite into a hidden one of this small peppers, it feels like a nuclear bomb went off in your mouth.

Habanero can be from 100,000 to 300,000. Pretty hot, and this is probably the most spicy pepper you'll find commonly everywhere. Another common hot pepper is the Scotch Bonet pepper which actually looks like the Habanero. It also has similar Scoville Range.

Lastly, the king of them all.

The Naga Jolokia also known as the Ghost Pepper. This bad boy has a Scoville Range of 800,000 to over 1,000,000. Let's put that into perspective. That's 125 times more potent than a Jalapeno and roughly 10 tens more spicy than a Habanero. To know the devastating effect of eating a Ghost Pepper, I suggest that you watch Man versus Food. Adam the host, had to go up against the Ghost Pepper a couple of times, and let's just say that tears are quite common in these encounters.

Follow this link and you'll see the the ghost pepper in all it's glory:

Youtube Video

There are actually hotter compounds out there, but I wouldn't worry about it since, you won't eat them and they are not technically peppers.

For a more complete Scoville Scale of all the peppers check out this site

uhotstuff.com.

Now that you're an expert in Peppers, go out and educate people.