Scoville Heat Units How to Read the SHU Range on a Chili Spec

What a SHU band tells you

Scoville Heat Units measure capsaicin content. Across our range the numbers run from 100 to 300 SHU on sweet paprika, through 2,000 to 4,500 SHU on Beijing Red pods, 4,000 to 20,000 SHU on Chaotian, 10,000 to 15,000 SHU on Guajillo, and up to 18,000 to 25,000 SHU on Yunnan cayenne and on our 2 mm chili rings.

Ground products carry wider bands because they are blended: crushed chili and crushed chili with seeds are both quoted at 100 to 80,000 SHU, and premium chili powder moves in published steps of 1,500, 5,000, 30,000 and 60,000 SHU.

Chaotian pods, quoted at 4,000 to 20,000 SHU. The band is wide because the variety serves both a mild retail pack and a hot sauce base.

Why powder bands are wider than pod bands

A whole pod is one variety, so its heat range is the range of that variety. A ground product can be blended to sit anywhere between a mild base and a hot component, which is why the published band looks alarming until you realise it describes what can be made rather than what will arrive.

When you order, you are buying a point in the band, not the band. Say where you want to sit and ask for it in writing on the contract.

Building a product family from one supplier

The practical value of published steps is that a mild, a medium and a hot variant of the same snack or sauce can share a colour band and a mesh while differing only in heat. That keeps the appearance constant across the range, which is usually what the brand owner actually wants.

Heat and colour are independent

It is worth repeating because it is the most common mistake in a first enquiry: a high ASTA chili is not necessarily hot, and a hot chili is not necessarily deep red. Our sweet paprika reaches the same 220 ASTA as our chili powder while sitting at a fraction of the heat.