[CH] How Hot is Too Hot?
Shantihhh@aol.com
Thu, 14 Dec 2000 18:05:29 EST
Thought CH'ers who didn't read this would enjoy the article.
Mary-Anne
How Hot is Too Hot? Mo Hotta
Looks for the Answer
San Francisco Chronicle
(Los Angeles Times)
Wednesday, December 13,2000
Every hot sauce claims astronomical "Scoville units,"
referring to an old- fashioned and somewhat
subjective system of evaluating chile hotness.
Now the hot sauce catalog company Mo Hotta Mo
Betta is taking the issue out of the speculative
realm.
It has submitted all its hot sauces to a laboratory
for
High Performance Liquid Chromatography analysis.
The lab used by the San Luis Obispo-based
mail-order company rates Tabasco at 2,140
Scoville units, El Yucateco Habanero (green) at
8,910, Dave's Insanity Sauce at 51,000 and the
infamous Mad Dog Inferno at 89,560.
A dry mixture of ground peppers comes in at
180,000, which must be pretty close to the natural
limit.
True chile loons will just have to try Mad Dog
Inferno and its like. But, for the record, the
numerical ratings are accompanied in Mo Hotta Mo
Betta's catalog by a "thermometer" scale, which
doesn't bother to distinguish among levels over
5,000 units.
Above that level, hotness is not so much culinary as,
let's say, recreational.