Who Invented the Scoville Scale?

How Wilbur Scoville Measured Chili Heat

Before 1912, there was no official way to measure chili heat. You could bite into a pepper, cry, and guess — but that was about it. Enter Wilbur Scoville, a curious pharmacist who forever changed the chili world.

Scoville created the Scoville Organoleptic Test to measure pepper spiciness. His process was simple: pepper extracts were diluted in sugar water until a panel of tasters no longer felt heat. The number of dilutions became the pepper’s “Scoville Heat Units” (SHU). Mild peppers like bell peppers scored 0 SHU, jalapeños landed around 2,500–8,000 SHU, and superhots like the Carolina Reaper exploded past 1.6 million SHU.

Though modern labs now use chromatography machines for accuracy, Scoville’s spicy scale is still the universal chili language. Thanks to him, chili-heads can compare peppers like athletes compare scores.

At Wild Side Pepper Company, we like to say: Scoville gave us the numbers — but we give you the flavor. 🔥