Jalapeños and chili peppers discussion

[Blademaster]

I was referring to Pure Cap, a 500K rated capsaicin extract. I believe it was the first marketed capsaicin extract. At half a million scoville, it's a good introduction to capsaicin in a purer form. Many of the substances rated higher aren't truly sauces, with many classified as resin or, as in Blair's 16 Mil Reserve, crystals.

Oh... Well, that explains that. Doesn't look like it's available offline, though. Shame, but it makes sense considering how dangerous higher ratings can be.

I tried to find the heat rating of the putaparió peppers I got from both my brother and my grandfather, but I can't find it online. I do know they're hotter than most other peppers I've tried so far... Must be somewhere around 30,000-50,000, I think.

Because I'm a sucker for useless bits of information, I did a little search and found that your putapario peppers are actually rarely harvested and VERY rarely sold commercially. They're more of a local specialty food than just another spice, which makes giving them a Scoville rating damn near impossible.

If you want to personally try to rate it, Scoville numbers correlate to how many parts water are needed to dilute the pepper's flavor enough to eliminate the burning sensation. So try this:

1. Squeeze one of those aji putapario peppers until a single drop of juice comes out.

1 drop = 1/96th of a teaspoon, and 1 teaspoon = 1/203rd of a liter. So, if you add a drop of the pepper to one liter of water, drink some of the water, and still can taste heat, the pepper has a rating of at least 1(19[203]) = ~20,000. From there, basic math and more/less water should get you an answer.

Bear in mind that this is a really nig-rigged method and the end result will be vague at best. But it'll at least tell you which neighborhood of peppers yours are closest to.