Gemini Crow Sauce Company said:
When punk 12 year old kids approach my table and rather asking me 'how hot are my sauce?', but instead 'what are the scolville #'s for your sauce?'
Listen punk, if you know all about the term 'scolville', then I should very well assume that you already know that if I tell you the sauce contain, 'Ghost' or 'Scoropion' or 'Habanero' peppers, then you should have a pretty clear understanding of the heat level of each sauce...
stop showing off to your parents and/or friends!
punk!!
So, I had a teenager that wouldn't stop bugging me about this - and when I said "Dude, it doesn't matter - we are a Medium to Medium Hot" he got on his high-horse and said really loud to make a scene "What kind of hot sauce maker are you if you don't even know - you must be new at this".
My wife, who tends the booth with me saw the fire in my eyes... and just shook her head. She knew what was coming.
That is when I broke it down for him, on why scoville units are BS in natural sauces - particularly my sauce. I'll now write my diatribe for everyones benefit -- it went something like this (which is a variation from what I learned in food sciences):
"Well, if you really want to get technical on this - lets get technical. Capsaicin, otherwise known as methyl vanillyl nonenamide, is a lipophilic chemical; this chemical is what some people like to measure as a "Scoville" unit.
It is the physical amount of methyl vanillyl nonenamide is what is being measured when a "scoville" test is performed... the exact number coming from the mechanical measurement of the amount of ethyl vanillyl nonenamide per milliliter of a fluid sample.
But while a Scoville measurement will tell you the amount of capsaicin that exists in a product sample, it won't tell you how it will interact given the complete chemical compound and act of oxidation that occurs during injestion.
For instance, In hot sauces that use cider-vinegars as a stabilizer you first have to take into account the components that are called "sweet-bitter tasting hexose acetates". These are important as they first activate, but then nullify the taste buds and receptors in your body that detect "sour" / "metallic" tastes - which are also the same taste receptors that activate from capsaicin injestion.
On top of this first interaction of cider-vinegar, there are many other variables at play that can further keep capsaicin from interacting with those receptors.
In my sauce in particular, I aimed to inhibit and control the process through which capsaicin bonds with receptors by mixing in foods that contain strong anti-oxidants to chemically render those same receptors momentarily inert... for me that was a primary reason for the usage of Maple Syrup. It has the strong anti-oxidant properties needed to render "sour" / "metallic" taste receptors inert for a time, so you taste a dominantly sweet flavor in everything.
Therefore, if I were to pay to test my sauce - it would probably score the same on a scoville test as most any other habanero sauces -- but to most people it would not burn as intense or as long.
This is why scoville units on hot sauce are bullshit, and why you are stupid for even demanding that I have one done and proceeding to cause a scene."
Yeah... I may have had to say this statement a few times... too many times. I should just print it out and hand it to them.
