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scovilles Most accurate scoville scale

H

hollan

Hello,

I'm sorry if this has been already posted, I didn't find anything.

I was wondering if any of you know of the most reliable scoville scale? There are huge differences on each website.
The most popular or the best known varieties have similar values, but those less known are completely different. for instance, Numex Twilight variety - someplace it says 30,000SHU, somewhere it says 100,000SHU and somewhere i've seen 200,000SHU.

When buying seeds, it's quite annoying when you can't be really sure what you're getting.

Thanks for your help
 
It is by no means exact science so you will never get a truly accurate scale. Pods on the same plant can have very different readings, and growing conditions/environment can have a huge impact
 
We were just debating a similar topic. I would recommend you determining what level of heat you desire (mild, med, hot, very hot, super hot) and then choosing your varieties based on that. Generally speaking, most SHU scales are in the same ballpark, although the numbers vary, (jals on the low end of the spectrum, then Habs, then some of the yellow variety of the harder hitting stuff, then the big boys). If you have questions about where a pepper lies, then post it here. Also, if you go to thehippyseedcompany.com, they do a great job lumping their pods into categories.
 
Well said! I have people ask me all time the AJI of the peppers I am growing, and I tell them what the pods that were tested came in at and that pods could be that hot but doubtful. I eat a piece of all my pods so I can warn people the extent of the heat
 
From what I have seen, only the record breakers that are submitted into the Guinness Book of Records have proper laboratory tests done on them. From what I have read and heard, having a proper SHU lab work done is expensive. So it's only done when growers want to market/trademark their strain. Other than this it's purely perceptual guaging I think. But on a totally different note, growing conditions vary and these can impact on the heat of chilli and the SHU you will get out of them. Even pods from the same bush can vary drastically in SHU. More sun, less watering, more rain etc - that kind of thing. So SHU can never be a fixed value... in my mind it will always be - or should always be based on an average... The guys wrangling for the hottest chilli label always tend to quote the Highest SHU recorded.... point in case... the Moruga is said to be over 2 million SHU... but the lowest recorded SHU from that same batch was 580,000 SHU.. - thats a difference of only 1.5 million SHU... Then for us mere mortals growing these chillies in our gardens... our results will probably never see as high SHU as we are not growing these in a controlled environment but in our back gardens... lol its a mine field...
 
That is a pretty impressive scale. I think it would be an awesome idea to get people on the site here to collaborate and come up with a scale that shows all the different types of chillies. Hmmm... food for thought.
 
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