The peppers
Every Harmony bottle starts with a pepper chosen for its flavor, not just its Scoville rating. Click any cultivar to read origin, Scoville band, and the sauce it headlines.
Heat map
Relative heat for every pepper we grow and blend.
Harmony Hot Sauce bottles include a relative heat indicator on every label. The chart above gives you the heat range in Scoville Heat Units (SHU's) represented by the thermometer on the bottle.
The peppers we use are all much hotter than the end product. Our recipes are developed to find the perfect complementary ingredients for each unique type of pepper in a way that lets both the heat and the flavor come shining through, and in a heat range that will not cause you to spontaneously combust! Of course, there is a wide range of tolerance among those of us who enjoy hot peppers. The Relative Heat Scale gives you a quick way to understand the intensity of each product.
Meet the peppers
These are the cultivars that headline Harmony bottles today. Click through for origin, Scoville band, and the sauce each one stars.
Caribbean — Jamaica, Trinidad, and Tobago
The most aromatic pepper in the Caribbean — stone-fruit aroma, floral finish, and real heat behind it.
Peak heat
350,000 SHU
Featured in
Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico
The workhorse of the super-hot family — citrus-forward, clean heat, and endlessly versatile on the shelf.
Peak heat
350,000 SHU
Featured in
Northeast India — Assam, Nagaland, Manipur
The first chili certified above one million Scoville units — smoky, fruity, and genuinely ghostly in the back of the throat.
Peak heat
1,041,427 SHU
Featured in
South Carolina, United States — bred by Ed Currie
The record-holder. Bred specifically for maximum Scoville, but with a genuinely fruity front note before the burn takes over.
Peak heat
2,200,000 SHU
Featured in
Reference
More chilies from the Scoville chart and our knowledge base — not headline in a Harmony sauce yet.
New Mexico and California, United States / northern Mexico
The gentle workhorse of the Southwest — mild, slightly sweet, and perfect when you want flavor without a fight.
Peak heat
2,500 SHU
Featured in
Not in a Harmony sauce yet
Central Mexico — especially Xalapa region (Veracruz)
The world’s most familiar hot pepper — bright, snappy heat you can slice onto anything.
Peak heat
8,000 SHU
Featured in
Not in a Harmony sauce yet
Fresno County, California — developed in the 1950s
Jalapeño-shaped heat with a fruitier edge — red Fresnos bring color and capsaicin together.
Peak heat
10,000 SHU
Featured in
Not in a Harmony sauce yet
Sierras of Puebla and Hidalgo, Mexico
Smaller and punchier than Jalapeño — five to ten times the kick in a thinner pod.
Peak heat
25,000 SHU
Featured in
Not in a Harmony sauce yet
French Guiana / Cayenne region; now global
The archetypal “red pepper” behind supermarket hot sauce and kitchen spice jars.
Peak heat
50,000 SHU
Featured in
Not in a Harmony sauce yet
Mexico — commercialized on Avery Island, Louisiana
The namesake cultivar behind Louisiana-style vinegar pepper sauce — small, juicy, and high-yield.
Peak heat
50,000 SHU
Featured in
Not in a Harmony sauce yet
Southeast Asia — Thailand, Vietnam, Laos
Tiny red rockets — used by the handful in stir-fries, fish sauce, and curry pastes.
Peak heat
150,000 SHU
Featured in
Not in a Harmony sauce yet
Central / southern Africa — related to Habanero types
Sun-yellow chinense heat — searing and citrusy, with a reputation that matches the name.
Peak heat
325,000 SHU
Featured in
Not in a Harmony sauce yet
Caribbean basin
Deep brown skin, smoky-sweet aroma, and chinense heat that outpaces common orange Habs.
Peak heat
577,000 SHU
Featured in
Not in a Harmony sauce yet
Walnut, California — selectively bred from Habanero stock
Once the Guinness hottest — a deeper-red Habanero phenotype with brutal, sustained heat.
Peak heat
577,000 SHU
Featured in
Not in a Harmony sauce yet
Moruga region, Trinidad and Tobago
Tail-stinger pods and blistering SHU — a former record holder that still defines “superhot.”
Peak heat
1,463,700 SHU
Featured in
Not in a Harmony sauce yet
Trinidad
Chocolate-brown Trinidad superhot — fruity nose, then long, oily heat that coats the tongue.
Peak heat
1,853,000 SHU
Featured in
Not in a Harmony sauce yet
Bangladesh and northeast India
Close cousin to the ghost-pepper family — wrinkled pods and serious million-plus potential.
Peak heat
1,500,000 SHU
Featured in
Not in a Harmony sauce yet
Trinidad — stabilized by chili grower David Capiello
Grotesquely pitted, brain-like pods from the 7 Pot line — looks scary, tastes like danger.
Peak heat
1,350,000 SHU
Featured in
Not in a Harmony sauce yet
Moruga, Trinidad and Tobago
Trinidad’s scorpion-tailed monster — briefly crowned the hottest tested, still brutal today.
Peak heat
2,009,000 SHU
Featured in
Not in a Harmony sauce yet
Superhot grower selections — Bhut Jolokia × Trinidad Douglah crosses
Hybrid folklore from the ghost and douglah lines — brown pods, brutal heat, inconsistent batch to batch.
Peak heat
2,200,000 SHU
Featured in
Not in a Harmony sauce yet
From Wilbur Scoville’s 1912 dilution test to modern HPLC lab methods — and where every Harmony pepper lands on the scale.
Ready to try?
How the Scoville Scale actually works.
