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Chili and Paprika Buying Guides
Six guides covering the figures that decide a chili purchase: ASTA colour, Scoville heat, mesh size, seed content, format and variety.
ASTA Colour Explained What 100 to 260 Means on a Chili Spec
ASTA is the number that decides whether your product looks the same as last quarter. Here is how to read the band on a chili or paprika specification.
Read the guide →Scoville Heat Units How to Read the SHU Range on a Chili Spec
Why a chili specification quotes a SHU band rather than a single figure, and how to choose the right point in the band for your product.
Read the guide →Mesh Size in Chili and Paprika Powder and What Changes
40, 60, 80, 100 or 120 mesh changes dispersion, appearance, dosing and caking. A short guide to choosing the right one.
Read the guide →Whole Pods Crushed Threads or Powder Choosing a Chili Format
The same Beijing Red pod ships in five formats. Which one is right depends on whether you mill in house and whether the chili should be seen.
Read the guide →Seed Content in Crushed Chili 25 30 or 40 Percent and Seedless
Seed percentage changes the colour, the texture and the cost of a crushed chili or crushed paprika. How to decide which one you need.
Read the guide →Chinese Chili Varieties for Export Puya Chaotian Cayenne and Jinta
Four varieties, four heat bands and four different uses. What each Chinese export chili is actually for.
Read the guide →About These Guides
Why publish buying guides at all?
Because most enquiries arrive with the colour and the heat described in words. These six guides explain the numbers so the specification can be written before the first email.
Are these guides about your products specifically?
They are about the figures that appear on our product pages, which are the same figures any chili supplier should be quoting.
Can you help us write a specification?
Yes. Send whatever you have, even if it is only a photograph of the product you want to match, and we will tell you which numbers are missing.
Do you have technical documents as well?
MSDS sheets for four grades download directly from the Downloads page, no form.
Who writes these?
They are written from our own product specifications and from what buyers actually ask us during quotation.
Still Not Sure What to Specify
Send a sample photograph or a competitor spec sheet and we will tell you what the missing numbers are.