Peppers of Key West is the greatest purveyor of hot sauces in these United States, and quite possibly the world.  We fill our "bricks and clicks" with bottles that have many degrees of heat:  Sweet and Tangy, Mild, Hot, Extreme, and Weapons grade.

But how hot is hot when it comes to hot sauce?  For you, our valued customer, the answer is very important.  we want you to enjoy the hot sauce that best fits your palette.  Too hot and you weep and grasp for milk.  Too mild, and you're left disappointed, wishing you'd chosen something packing more of a punch.

Your ally in these decisions is an American pharmacist from the early 1900's, Wilbur Scoville.  Born January 22nd, 1865 in Bridgeport, Connecticut and working for Parke-Davis Pharmaceuticals.  In 1912, Scoville devised a scale that measure the heat of chili peppers that are used in every bottle of hot sauce.  To receive a scoville score, the sauce is measured by a scale called the "Scoville Organoleptic Test".  This test consists of five taste testers that sample and evaluate the substance being measured (in our case - hot sauce).  Sounds like a great job if you can land it!  The testers agree on a number - the Scoville Score - that allows future consumers to know what they're getting themselves into.

The score is not perfect and quite subjective.  We think it's interesting that five people measuring peppers can disagree on how hot a pepper is.  this impacts the final score.  It's also interesting that peppers of the same variety can differ substantially in heat.  Like grapes from the same plants at the same winery product bottles that taste different, the same type of peppers do not always product the same heat in hot sauces.  Modern days have brought a more scientific and subsequently more accurate method of measuring a true Scoville Score - High Performance Liquid Chromotraghy (HPLC).  In layman's terms, the sauce is dropped onto a sponge and the speed of which the sauce descends through the sponge corresponds to the sauce's scale. 

What is Wilbur Scovilles's lesson?  Discerning hot sauce lovers should know the scoville score for peppers that suit their taste.  The green bell pepper has a scoville score of 0, while the banana pepper has a score of about 500, the chipotle pepper scores around 5,000, the cayenne 50,000 and so on, up to today's hottest pepper, the Carolina Reaper rated at 2 million SHU's

To find the hot sauce(s) that are right for you, we have partitioned our website to rate the spiciness of the sauce by level (1-10).  Check out our website and see which sauce will fit your flavor profile!!