Chili and Pepper Heat Scale (Scoville)

How hot is a jalapeno? Use the interactive heat picker to compare 22 real peppers and chilies, from sweet to superhot.

Every pepper has a number. From a sweet bell pepper that registers zero to a Carolina Reaper that tops two million, the Scoville scale puts the heat of a pepper into a figure you can compare. This page explains what that number means, lets you sort and filter 22 real varieties by heat in the picker below, and shows how to grow peppers that deliver on both flavor and fire.

What the Scoville scale is

The Scoville scale measures how hot a pepper is, in Scoville Heat Units (SHU). It was created in 1912 by pharmacist Wilbur Scoville, who diluted pepper extract in sugar water until a panel of tasters could no longer detect the burn. The more dilution it took, the higher the score. Today the capsaicin content is measured precisely in a lab, then expressed in the same SHU units, so the scale has stuck.

The heat itself comes from a group of compounds called capsaicinoids, the main one being capsaicin. Capsaicin is concentrated in the white pith, the placenta that holds the seeds, not in the flesh and not really in the seeds themselves. That is why removing the pith and seeds takes a lot of the heat out of a pepper. Capsaicin does not cause real tissue damage. It triggers the same nerve receptors that respond to actual heat, which is why your mouth feels like it is burning when nothing is.

One thing the number does not tell you is how a single plant will turn out. The same variety can land anywhere within its range depending on how it was grown. Heat, full sun, and a bit of water stress all push a pepper toward the hot end of its band, while a cool season and plenty of water keep it milder. The grower has real influence here, which is the fun of it.

The interactive heat picker

Here are 22 peppers and chilies you can actually grow, sorted from sweet to superhot. Filter by heat band or click a column heading to sort. The SHU figures are typical ranges; your own fruit may land higher or lower depending on the season and how you grow it.

No peppers match that heat band.

How to grow peppers for flavor and heat

Peppers are a warm-season crop and they love it hot. Get the basics right and you will pull fruit off the plants for months.

• Warmth and full sun. Peppers need a long, warm season and at least 6 to 8 hours of direct sun. They sulk in cold soil, so do not rush them out in spring. Warm conditions are also what drive capsaicin, so a hot, sunny spot gives you both a bigger crop and a hotter one.
• Start early. Start seed indoors 8 to 10 weeks before your last frost, on a warm windowsill or heat mat. Pepper seed is slow and needs warmth (around 80 to 90F) to germinate. Superhots are slowest of all, so start them earliest.
• Feeding. Work compost into the bed before planting. Once the plant starts flowering and setting fruit, switch to a potassium-rich feed, a tomato or bloom fertilizer is ideal. Go easy on nitrogen once flowering starts, or you will get a big leafy bush and little fruit. Comfrey tea is a great free, high-potassium feed.
• Stress for heat. Capsaicin is the plant's stress response, so a little hardship raises the heat. Once the fruit has set, ease back on watering and let the plants run slightly dry between drinks. Do not starve them completely, just keep them on the lean side. Hot, dry, sunny conditions produce the fieriest peppers.
• Let them ripen. A green pepper is unripe. As it ripens to red, orange or yellow it gets both sweeter and hotter and develops a fuller flavor. Picking green keeps the plant cropping; leaving fruit to color up gives you the most heat and sweetness.

Handling and using peppers

Capsaicin is potent stuff, and the hotter the pepper the more care it needs.

• Wear gloves for hot types. When prepping anything from habanero up, wear disposable gloves. Capsaicin clings to skin and you will transfer it to your eyes, lips and anywhere else for hours, no matter how well you wash. Keep your hands away from your face while you work.
• Milk, not water, for the burn. If a pepper is too hot, reach for milk, yogurt or something fatty. Capsaicin dissolves in fat and milk proteins, not in water, so water just spreads the heat around. The same goes for your hands and mouth.
• Drying and storing. Thin-walled peppers like cayenne and bird's eye dry beautifully. Thread them on string and hang them somewhere warm and airy, or use a dehydrator on low. Once they are crisp and snap cleanly, they will keep for a year or more in an airtight jar.
• Flakes and powder. Blitz dried peppers into flakes or a fine powder in a spice grinder. Do it in a ventilated spot, as the dust will catch in your throat. Homemade chili powder is worlds ahead of anything in a store jar.
• Fermenting hot sauce. A glut of ripe peppers turns into a brilliant fermented hot sauce. Pack them in a salt brine, let them ferment for a couple of weeks, then blend and bottle. See our preserving the harvest hub for the method, along with drying, freezing and canning.

When to plant peppers by zone

Peppers are frost-tender and need warmth, so timing is everything. In most of the US, start seed indoors 8 to 10 weeks before your last frost, then transplant outdoors after the last frost once nights stay above about 55F and the soil is warm.

See the live planting window for your region on the what to plant page.

Plan your peppers in the app

The heat picker above helps you decide what to grow. The app helps you grow it. When you add a pepper to your garden you choose the variety from the in-app dropdown, from a sweet bell pepper to a Carolina Reaper, and it tracks the plant from seed to harvest with reminders tuned to your region and zone. Grow a jalapeno for everyday cooking, a cayenne for drying and a superhot for sauce, and keep them all on one plan. Get started in the app.

Source: New Mexico State University Chile Pepper Institute and university extension pepper growing guidance.

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