12 Different Types of Hot Peppers That Come With Kick
All of them are ranked according to heat levels. 🥵
If you've ever bitten into a pepper only to discover it tastes like the fire of a thousand suns, you're definitely not alone. There are a lot of peppers in the world that come in different shapes, sizes, colors, flavors, and most importantly, heat levels. There are also a lot of ways to use peppers. You can roast, pickle, sauté, grill, or stuff peppers, or just eat 'em raw, and the list goes on. But before you go making jalapeño poppers with tear-inducing habaneros, it's best to learn a little about spicy peppers.
A pepper's heat level is measured on the Scoville scale. The higher the number, the hotter the pepper. Bell peppers, for example, fall at zero Scoville heat units (SHU) because they're not hot at all. Carolina Reapers, on the other hand, capture a heat so fiery they rank between 1.5 million and 2.2 million SHU—they're considered the hottest in the world! There are hundreds of more peppers like mild poblanos that Ree Drummond uses in her Lazy Chiles Rellenos, jalapeños for cowboy candy, and serrano chilis that add a kick to homemade tomatillo salsa. Then, there are the spicier peppers—the tabasco, habanero, scotch bonnet, and ghost peppers—that you've probably spied on the ingredient list of your favorite hot sauce brand. Whether you're a bonified hot head who hunts for the spiciest peppers possible or someone with a milder palate, here are different types of peppers to know, from mild to tongue-tingling.
Poblano Pepper
Scoville index: 1,000 to 1,500
Large, dark green, and only mildly spicy, poblanos are a popular pepper originating in Puebla, Mexico. (Imagine a bell pepper with a tiny kick.) Because their outer skin is tough, poblanos are generally roasted and the skin is removed before they're eaten. Once dried, they're called ancho chiles.
Anaheim Pepper
Scoville index: 500 to 2,500
Similar to poblanos, anaheim peppers are long, slender, and mild with a thick skin. They're typically eaten when green but will turn red if they're left to ripen (like most peppers will). You never know just how hot an anaheim is until you bite into it, but even the spiciest ones aren't all that hot. They can also be extremely mild.
Jalapeño Pepper
Scoville index: 2,000 to 8,000
The pepper everyone knows and hot heads adore, the jalapeño is a spicy pepper with a glossy green skin. On the Scoville index, jalapeños rank pretty low in spice, but that doesn't mean they don't pack a punch. The heat mostly comes from the seeds and membrane, so you can remove most or all of those to dial down the spice.
Fresno Chile Pepper
Scoville index: 2,500 to 10,000
Fresno chile peppers are slightly hotter than jalapeños and a little fruitier and smokier, too. Developed in and named after California's Fresno County, Fresno chiles start out green and on the milder side and grow spicier as they ripen and turn a deep red color.
Serrano Pepper
Scoville index: 10,000 to 25,000
If you love jalapeños but crave more heat, meet the serrano pepper. While their bright, fresh taste is reminiscent of jalapeños these fiery peppers are up to five times hotter. You can use them in place of jalapeños in any recipe where you don't mind a lot of spice.
Cayenne Pepper
Scoville index: 30,000 to 50,000
If you're a big fan of spice, odds are you have a jar of cayenne pepper in your pantry right this very minute. That powdery pepper substance is a lot easier to come across than these elongated, bright-red, medium-hot peppers are.
Tabasco Pepper
Scoville index: 30,000 to 50,000
Best known as the star of the vinegar-y sauce folks have been dashing on scrambled eggs for generations, the tabasco pepper is moderately spicy and surprisingly juicy. The peppers start out a bright yellow-green color and deepen into orange and red shades as they ripen.
Bird's Eye Chile
Scoville index: 50,000 to 100,000
Sometimes called Thai chiles, Bird's Eye chiles are small, thin, and daringly hot. With a fruity, peppery taste, they're commonly used in Southeast Asian cooking, but outside of that region, it can be hard to find the peppers fresh. Fear not, if you crave the spice only Bird's Eye chiles can provide, they can often be found in Asian markets dried or ground into a hot chili powder.
Scotch Bonnet Pepper
Scoville index: 100,000 to 350,ooo
The Caribbean's hot pepper of choice, this petite pick is a firecracker. These peppers are squatty with wrinkly skin and they pack a powerful punch. But in addition to being hot, they're also very subtly sweet and fruity. They're used in Caribbean pepper sauces and in jerk-style dishes.
Habanero Pepper
Scoville index: 150,000 to 575,000
You can find habaneros in a range of colors, but orange and green are most common. The orange variety are intensely hot and the green are only slightly more bearable. Aside from their heat, habaneros have a certain fruitiness that makes them an excellent addition to fruit-forward salsas and hot sauces.
Ghost Pepper
Scoville index: 1 million+
This pepper is nothing to play around with it. It's hot. Dangerously hot. Unlike some other peppers that hold their heat in the seeds and membrane, the actual flesh of this pepper packs a punch all on its own. Made into extreme hot sauces and eaten by daredevils, ghost peppers are so hot they've even been used to make pepper sprays.
Carolina Reaper Pepper
Scoville index: 1.5 million to 2.2 million
Sound the alarm! These devilishly hot peppers are considered the hottest in the world and while they're described as fruity and sweet, those flavors are inevitably overpowered by an excruciating heat that grows and lingers. The actual peppers aren't so easy to find, but the market is flooded with Carolina Reaper hot sauces for any daring hot heads to try.
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