So, I made a batch of chili yesterday and thought I’d include a dash of hot sauce, just for a little effect. Unfortunately, this is the hot sauce I chose to use:
From the label: “This sauce is the hottest on Earth! Pure habanero pepper enhanced wtih habanero infused flavor creates a sauce measured at 234,000 Scoville units. Wicked beyond belief.”
For some reason, I decided not to investigate what a Scoville Unit was before shaking some of the sauce into the chili — big mistake.
A Scoville Unit is a heat unit developed by pharmacist Wilbur Scoville in 1912 to measure the heat sensation we get from eating red peppers due to the presence of the capsaicin chemical (the capsaicin chemical is responsible for the pepper’s heat). The test has been tweaked and modified since Scoville first developed it, but it’s still called a Scoville Unit in honor of the pharmacist.
The Jalapeno pepper typically ranges from 2,500 to 5,000 Scoville Units, while the more fiery Habanero pepper ranges from 100,000 to 300,000 — Da Bomb Ground Zero hot sauce is ranked at 230,000 Scoville Units, so . . . ouch! That’s a lot of hot!
But after doing some research, Da Bomb’s claims to be the hottest sauce on Earth are highly exaggerated. There are hot sauces that chart up into the millions of Scoville Heat Units, which seems like a recipe for spontaneous combustion to me, but maniacal hot-sauce devotees think nothing of cranking up the furnace to temperatures that would roast the devil on his own pitchfork.
For example, some of the hottest sauces on the market are Blaire’s Death Sauces, which consistently rank in the millions on the Scoville Heat Unit scale, with a couple of them clocking up past the ten million mark.
*shudder*
Video clip below of a serious hot sauce fan testing a heaping tablespoon of Blaire’s Jersey Death Sauce, which ranks at 1,100,000 Scovilles. He only seems the slightest bit phased at first (where it would have knocked me flat on the floor), but as time goes on, he becomes red-faced and uncomfortable while exhibiting some difficulty speaking and swallowing:
“Oops!”
Kids, don’t try this at home!
