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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle

Why is the Scoville scale for rating the heat of chillies so complicated?

Carolina Reaper (Capsicum chinense)
Hot stuff ... the Carolina reaper (scores over 3 million on the Scoville scale. Photograph: Alamy

Why is the Scoville scale for rating the potency of chillies and peppers so darn convoluted? Wouldn’t it be much easier to understand if it was a simple score out of 100 – or even 10?

Phil Goodland, Crowborough, East Sussex

Post your answers – and new questions – below or email them to nq@theguardian.com

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