First things first, you need to know about the Scoville Scale. Basically, it's a scale of pungency (spicy heat) in chili peppers. It lets you know how hot you can expect the food you're consuming to be, and it's measured in Scoville heat units (SHU).
Pepper X: is the current record holder for the world’s hottest chili pepper (Guinness World Records August 2023) and has an average Scoville rating of 3.18 million SHU.
Carolina Reaper Pepper: Nothing to mess with - its 1,400,000 - 2,200,000 SHU.
Ghost Pepper: Hottest pepper in the world in 2007! 855,000 - 1,041,427 SHU.
Habanero Pepper: It's getting warm in here! A little over 100,000 – 350,000 SHU.
Cayenne Pepper: Things start to heat up! They are from 30,000 - 50,000 SHU.
Chipotle Peppers: Your favorite chipotle can be anywhere from 5,000 - 8,000 SHU.
Jalapeño Peppers: These peppers clock in around 2,500 - 8,000 SHU.
