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How do you SHU?

Friends,
People are not great at putting large numbers in perspective. Take spicy food. I think most folks would agree with me that a 5,000 Scoville Heat Unit Jalapeño pepper is pretty spicy. Follow it with a Rocoto pepper at 250,000 SCUs and you’ll probably say it’s hotter, but I doubt you’d tell me it takes 50 Jalapeños to get the same burn. Now say, hypothetically, someone received a bottle of Ají Escorpión hot sauce for their birthday last month (names have been omitted to protect the guilty). Say also they were foolish enough to spread some over their meal without reading the label (you’ve tried one hot sauce, you’ve tried them all, right?). Given this particular brand is made with Trinidad Scorpion peppers and clocks in at nearly 1.5 million SCUs, that person might go running for a leftover Salt Donut and then proceed to discard the remainder of that otherwise delicious fried rice. Needless to say, it’s going to take a while to finish that birthday gift.
Happy Friday!

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