Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA - March 27, 2011: A bottle of Huy Fong\'s Rooster brand Thai hot sauce against white background. Huy Fong\'s Sriracha hot chili sauce is An American\'s favorite hot sauce.
FOOD NEWS
Here's Where Sriracha Ranks On The Scoville Scale
By Nick Johnson
If you’re a fan of hot sauce, then you’re likely more than familiar with sriracha, a versatile sauce that’s used in a countless array of recipes. It’s a great way to add a little kick to your food, but you may be wondering just how spicy it really is when compared with other hot condiments — an answer that the Scoville scale can provide.
The Scoville scale measures the spiciness of something by assigning a numeric value (called Scoville Heat Units) to its amount of capsaicin, the chemical that makes chilis kick. Sriracha has a SHU score of 2,200, putting it close to the bottom of the spicy scale; for reference, the lowest rated hot sauces are Louisiana Hot Sauce and Frank's Red Hot, both with a SHU of 450.
Sriracha is made with red jalapeños, whose individual SHU falls somewhere between 2,000, and 8,000. With peppers like habaneros registering as high as 350,000 SHU, it’s easy to see how sriracha is relatively mild compared to the others, making it perfect for those who want a little kick without an overwhelming amount of heat.