Pace® Picante 'Hot" sauce----------------42
<<-used as a reference
California mild------------------------50 (d)
Joe E. Parker--------------------------53 (f)
Chilaca or Mexican Negro---------------72 (f)
Sweet Wrinkled Old Man-----------------90 (f)
Bhavnagari-----------------------------92 (f)
Cherry Large Hot----------------------125 (f)
Espanhola-----------------------------131 (f)
New Mexico Improved-------------------166 (f)
Fresno--------------------------------178 (f)
Crystal® Pure Louisiana Hot Sauce-----222
<<-used as a reference
Jalapeno "M"--------------------------238 (f)
Numex Big Jim-------------------------238 (f)
Chimayo-------------------------------370 (f)
Manzano/Rocoto Orange-----------------500 (f)
Barker--------------------------------580 (f)
Manzano/Rocoto Red--------------------600 (f)
Cayenne Long Slim---------------------625 (f)
Jalapeño Early------------------------700 (f)
Uncle Steve's Louisiana Hot Sauce------769 <<-used
as a reference
Manzano/Rocoto Yellow-----------------840 (f)
Aji Yellow--------------------------1,000 (d)
Santa Fe Grande---------------------1,120 (f)
Jalapeño Craig's Grande-------------1,230 (f)
Puya--------------------------------1,250 (d)
Serrano-----------------------------1,250 (f)
McIlhenny's Tabasco® Hot Sauce-------1,250
<<-used as a reference
Guajillo----------------------------1,300 (f)
Aji Rojo----------------------------1,500 (d)
Cascabel----------------------------1,600 (d)
Dagger pod (x235)-------------------2,000 (d)
Squash Red 5 in 1-------------------3,333 (f)
Squash Jamaican Red-----------------5,000 (f)
Habanero Chocolate------------------6,000 (f)
Klinger"s Florida Grove-------------7,000 (d)
Hawaiian Volcano--------------------7,600 (d)
De Arbol----------------------------8,000 (d)
Onza Rojo---------------------------8,000 (d)
Tabasco----------------------------10,000 (f)
Red Savina® former
Worlds Records*-------10,000 (f)<<only
for reference
Naga Morich---------------------------14,285 (f)<for
reference
Habanero Orange Craig's Triple-Hot 15,384 (f)
Habanero White Bullet®-------------16,000 (d)
Japones----------------------------16,000 (d)
Scotch Bonnet Tobago Red-----------17,141 (f)
Scotch Bonnet Fatali---------------17,582 (f)
Zimbabwe Bird----------------------19,500 (d)
Pequin-----------------------------20,000 (d)
Habanero Mustard-------------------23,076 (f)
Scotch Bonnet Nelson's Jam.Yel-----31,000 (f)
Bhut Jolokia Smooth Craig's strain-35,000 (d)
Dave's Ultimate Insanity Sauce-----50,000 <---used
as a reference
Bhut Jolokia X Cross Craig's-------60,000 (d)
Sadabahar--------------------------60,000 (d)
Bhut Jolokia Rough Craig's strain--60,000 (d)
Tepín
(seeds removed)-world's hottest 20,000-64,000(d)
Copyright © 1984-2011 by Craig C. Dremann
*NOTE about the Bhut Jolokia
, the Red Savina® and the Trinidad Scorpion.: The Bhut Jolokia or Ghost Pepper used
to be the Guinness World Record holder, listed as the world's
hottest pepper for about five or six years. And previously, the
Red Savina, which is a PVP (patented) pepper, and the name Red
Savina® is a registered U.S. Trademark, for a red habanero
type of pepper, formerly held the Guinness World's Hottest record
for a while .
When we grew the Red Savina® and tested the fresh ripe fruit, it only rated 10,000 on our scale, and we have tested fresh ripe fruit of the Bhut Jolokia or ghost pepper from different sources, and the heat levels in that pepper are very wide ranging, from about 7,000-25,000 for the fresh fruit. Our strain of the Bhut Jolokia has been tested at HS; 35,000 for the dried fruit.
The Trinidad Scorpion has been listed by Guinness as the new world's hottest pepper in 2011, but its heat level has not been stabilized yet, so strains are still extremely variable as to their heat levels. The Naga Morich, which is a strain of the Ghost pepper, also has the potential to become one of the world's hottest peppers, but also needs a lot of work in stabilizing the heat levels.
The good qualities that all of the Bhut Jolokias, Naga Morich and Trinidad Scorpion pepper have that is different than most other peppers, is the thin layer of almost pure capscisin that is on the surface of the inner walls of the pepper pods, like a painted layer of glisening oil. That means, if you hit that concentrated inner wall, it can be like a hotness bomb going off in your mouth.
Future searches for the world's hottest pepper, should be confined to the New World, because all the peppers on the planet, originated from the plants originally growing in Central and South America.
You are always going to find the world's hottest pepper somewhere in the area of their origins, with the native peoples in the Americas.
There's probably 50,000-60,000
different pepper varieties world-wide, and if you include variations
in the different heat levels of individual varieties (Jalapeños
for example), perhaps as many as 100,000. Only a few thousand
of the peppers of the world have been described, and nobody has
accurately tested any significant numbers of all those hundred-thousand
peppers, for their heat levels.
"Craig
Dremann's Scale"--different
than the "Scoville" Scale?
There's
a huge amount of controversy about pepper hotness, so in 1984
I invented an easy method to test a pepper's heat level, to get
a fast and accurate way to measure pepper heat levels.
To test a pepper using the Scoville units, you have to spend several
hundred dollars to have a laboratory test the heat of a single
pepper.
On the other hand,
Craig Dremann's Hotness Scale™ can be done at home in the
kitchen, with a gram scale, a blender, and a graduated baby's
eyedropper (in cc) in about 10-15 minutes.
The numbers are different between the two scales. You will see fantastically high
Scoville claims published, but those numbers are nearly
impossible to confirm unless you want to spend $300 per pepper
to test them at a laboratory.
What makes Craig
Dremann's scale numbers so much better, is that they relate
to something that is real---they mean that if you take a single
ounce of a particular pepper, how many ounces of salsa will that
make hot?
Plus, you can confirm Craig Dremann's Hotness Scale numbers yourself
in your own kitchen at almost no cost, in 10-15 minutes.
>>>Free download for doing your own Dremann Scale tests<<<
Why
does Craig's Scale use "d" and "f" next to
the numbers?
If you
look at any Scoville unit claims for any pepper, why is there
never any indication of at what stage was the pepper tested?
---Was the pepper fresh-green, fresh red-ripe, or dried?
The general rule on pepper hotness is that when it is fresh green,
it is only one-third as hot as a red-ripe pepper of the same kind.
Then, the dried pepper is generally 2-10 times hotter than the
fresh red-ripe pepper of the same variety.
Keep
the seeds in, or remove the seeds before testing?
Anyone
testing pepper hotness can further manipulate any hotness numbers,
by either leaving in the seeds, or removing them prior to testing.
Seeds have no hotness inside of them, so other than a tiny bit on the seed surface---removing seeds will generally make a pepper hotter. However, when we test peppers, we always keep the seeds in so we are always testing whole peppers.
Our information
on the step-by-step process on how you can do your own 15-minute
Craig's Hotness Testing can be downloaded FREE HERE.
Seeds listed
on this Hotness Scale page can be ordered from Redwood City Seed Co.
Visit us on our home page by clicking: http://www.ecoseeds.com/peppers.html
Questions
and Answers about the Dremann Scale
Question: Why does the Tepin pepper heat level on the Dremann Scale, vary from 20,000 to 64,000?
Answer: The heat levels of the Tepin pepper varies for several reasons:
a.) This variety is NOT CULTIVATED yet---Tepins are only harvest from wild plant growing in the desert mountains of northern Mexico, and they are unirrigated, uncultivated and never fertilized--a wild-crafted product. So the heat levels will vary from year to year, based on the climate.
b) Frequest DROUGHTS -- The area of the Southwest and Northern Mexico, over the last decade has been experiencing moderate to severe drought, and if the tepin pepper plants do not get rainfall in the summer when pods are forming, their yields and heat levels are low. You can see the latest drought picture at http://www.drought.unl.edu/dm/monitor.html in Arizona
c.) Wild plants are NEVER FERTILIZED -- The wild tepin plants have never been fertilized over the thousands of years, in the areas they have been harvest. Test fertilizing some of the wild Tepins with bone meal, which gave the plants both calcium and phosphorus, greatly improved the quality of the pods.
d.) Tepin has NEVER BEEN SELECTED FOR UNIFORMITY -- Since the Tepins have never been cultivated, therefore, have never been selected for uniformity, either to their size or their heat levels. That would seem to be a breeding issue for the future, if this variety is ever put into cultivation.
Question: Since the Tepin pepper seeds where removed for the Dremann Hotness test, are seeds removed from all the peppers tested, using the Dremann Scale?
Answer: No, I don't remove the seeds for all tests, but noted that the Tepin heat level was conducted with the seeds removed, since the dried Tepin flakes we offer, are sold that way, with the seeds removed.
Question: Why are the Dremann Scale numbers inconsistent with other published results including those based on HPLC?
Answer: The Dremann Hotness Scale numbers can only be compared with any other test results, whether HPLC or otherwise--only if we cut the very same pepper in half the long-way, and the Dremann Scale is compared with the other method.
There's going to be variations in the
numbers for several reasons, like the dozens of VARIETIES of jalapeños,
of serranos, and hundreds of varieties of orange habanero, red
scotch bonnets, etc.
Growing conditions have a big influence on the ultimate heat level
of a pepper. Where the peppers are grown, and how much the plants
are watered, fertilized, etc. has a huge influence what heat levels
result.
I've personally tasted hot peppers, and when they were grown in foggy, cool coastal summer conditions, the pods never developed any heat at all.
What our Dremann Hotness Scale numbers reflect, are the heat levels we obtained, when we tested the particular strains of each of those peppers that our company sells seed of.
Question: How is the Dremann Scale more useful for home gardeners, than the Scoville numbers?
Answer: The Dremann Scale offers over the old Scoville Units, that is very helpful for the home gardener, for pepper selectors and breeders, and even for the professionals in the seed trade or in the food processing business?
In ten minutes, using a gram scale, a blender, and a graduated baby eye-dropper, anyone can get an accurate number to evaluate the heat level of any pepper, and save hundreds to thousands of dollars per test session.
Scoville scale testing is limited to only a few wealthy people, or universities that have the equipment---whereas the Dremann Hotness Test is available with anyone with a tongue that can still taste the heat of a pepper.
The real advantage of the Dremann Hotness method, is that it allows the home gardener to select which are the hottest varieties for selection or reproduction.
Anyone could go through 100 different pepper from their back yard, and for no money, take a sample of fruit from each plant, and conduct the Dremann Scale Hotness test, and get an accurate evaluation of their relative heat levels.
"Always trust your tongue to taste reality, and NEVER let the machines, or the guys in lab coats, do it for you."--CD
Sincerely, Craig C. Dremann, Redwood City Seed Company (650) 325-7333