What are Scoville rating units

Frequently we see the term Scoville used in referring to the heat of a particular chile pepper. It is a measurement of spicy heat attributed to a particular chile pepper according to its capsaicin count. Capsaicin is a chemical compound occurring naturally in chile peppers. It actually stimulates the nerve endings of the skin, primarily in your mucous membranes. The higher the Scoville rating, the hotter the pepper is going to be. The range, believe it or not, goes from a low end of 100 (pepperoncini) to about 1,000,000 (bhut jolokia from Northern India). If we go to pure capsaicin the range can be up to 15,000,000. Before buying check the rating since it might be much higher than you can tolerate. You can check the Scoville ratings on all of our peppers before purchasing.