Paprika Scoville Heat, Sweet Under 500 SHU or Hot Over 8,000

On this page

1. 1How hot is paprika, from a sweet tin to a hot one?
2. 2What pepper is paprika made from?
3. 3How does a Szeged pod become a tin of paprika?
4. 4Which protected paprikas can you buy?
5. 5What does the ASTA number on a paprika tin mean?
6. 6Which paprika cultivars do American growers plant?
7. 7How much does a spoonful of paprika give you?
8. 8Why does paprika go brown in the jar?
9. 9What do you do when a dish has too much paprika?
10. 10Can you make paprika from peppers you grow?
11. 11Which paprika should you buy for your dish?

How hot is paprika, from a sweet tin to a hot one?

A sweet tin barely registers. New Mexico State University says the chile industry accepts at most 500 SHU for a paprika-type pepper¹, and its own NuMex Sweet paprika measures 300 SHU. An average jalapeño rates about 5,000⁸, so that tin carries roughly a seventeenth of the burn, gram for gram.

Hot paprika is a different product, and you can tell from the label. Hungary's two protected paprikas sort their tins by capsaicin, and the top grades climb well past the sweet ceiling you know.

What do the Hungarian heat grades mean in Scoville units?

The specifications print capsaicin in milligrams per kilogram, which equals parts per million. Labs turn parts per million into SHU by multiplying by 16⁹, so you can work each grade out yourself. The table does that for you; treat the results as estimates, since the limits count capsaicin alone.

Official paprika grades, with each capsaicin limit worked into SHU (× 16)

Paprika	Grade	Capsaicin limit	About this many SHU
Szegedi3	Non-pungent (sweet)	up to 100 mg/kg	up to 1,600
Szegedi3	Moderately hot	100–200 mg/kg	1,600–3,200
Szegedi3	Hot	over 200 mg/kg	over 3,200
Kalocsai4	Moderately hot	30–200 mg/kg	480–3,200
Kalocsai4	Spicy	200–500 mg/kg	3,200–8,000
Kalocsai4	Hot	over 500 mg/kg	over 8,000
Pimentón de Murcia5	Extra and Primera	up to 0.003 % (30 mg/kg)	up to 480

Read the grade word on the tin: "sweet" and "hot" paprika can sit more than five times apart. A Kalocsa hot grade starts where a mild jalapeño sits, while the rules cap a Szeged sweet tin at 1,600 SHU.

MildMediumHotExtra-hotSuper-hot

Paprika500 SHUPoblano1,000–2,000 SHUJalapeño2,000–8,000 SHUCayenne25,000–50,000 SHU

01K10K100K1M3M

MildMediumHotExtra-hotSuper-hot

Log scale; bars are published ranges.¹⁸

What pepper is paprika made from?

Mild red Capsicum annuum, dried and ground. The US Food and Drug Administration defines paprika as the ground dried pod of mild capsicum², and both Hungarian specifications name the long-podded var. Longum³⁴.

So when you buy "paprika pepper", you buy a product more than a pod. NMSU's crop guide says paprika in the US is a product, not a pod type, so it can come from many types of C. annuum, and that the word simply means chile in Hungarian⁷. The NMSU Chile Pepper Institute puts it most broadly: any non-pungent chile, red at maturity, used as a spice or for color¹⁰. That is why the Spanish ñora, a small round pod, ends up in a tin with the same name as a long Hungarian one.

How does a Szeged pod become a tin of paprika?

By resting, drying and stone grinding, and the Szegedi specification sets each step. Here is the path a pod takes before it reaches your shelf, with the numbers the rules give you.

1. Plant in MaySeedlings raised from late February to early April
2. Pick in stagesEach pass takes only the ripe pods
3. Rest two weeksPost-ripening in a ventilated store
4. DryFrom about 80 % water to below 10 %
5. MillstonesThe grind warms the powder and spreads the oil
6. ConditionWater back in, up to 8–11 % moisture

³

The millstones do more than crush. As the paprika passes between them it warms up, and the warmth releases oil from the seeds and pigment from the skin, which then coat the granules and give the powder an even color³. Kalocsa caps that heat: its grinding has to stay below 80 °C⁴.

The finished powder has to pass a 0.5 mm sieve and may hold no additives³. If your supermarket tin feels gritty or looks dull, it probably skipped some of these steps.

Eater visits a Hungarian family farm in this video, so you can watch the hand picking and the turning of red pods into powder that the rules above describe.

Which protected paprikas can you buy?

Four European paprikas carry a protected name, two from Hungary and two from Spain. Each specification sets its own color floor, heat grades and drying method, so you can read a lot from the name on your tin.

The four protected European paprikas, from their official specifications

Paprika	Where	Drying	Heat grades	Color floor
Szegedi3	Szeged area, Hungary	Sacks under eaves, drying chambers or belt dryers	Sweet, moderately hot, hot	ASTA 120 at packing
Kalocsai4	Kalocsa area, across six Hungarian counties	Below 10 % moisture, surface at most 80 °C	Moderately hot, spicy, hot	ASTA 85 at best-before
Pimentón de Murcia5	Murcia and nearby towns, south-east Spain	Sun or hot air	Sweet only	ASTA 120 (Extra), 90 (Primera)
Pimentón de la Vera6	La Vera, northern Cáceres, Spain	Oak smoke for 10–15 days	Sweet, bittersweet, hot	Not compared here

The big split for your cooking is smoke. Only La Vera dries over oak fires, so only La Vera tastes of smoke; the smoked paprika entry covers that style, and the Hungarian and Spanish paprikas side by side settles which suits a goulash and which a paella. Hungarian paprika also has its own flavor words in law: the Szegedi rules describe a sweet taste reminiscent of ripe, baked butternut squash³, and the Kalocsai rules an aroma like caramelized roasted seeds⁴.

The wider family of peppers behind those tins lives in the Hungarian peppers and Spanish peppers lists.

What does the ASTA number on a paprika tin mean?

It scores the red. The American Spice Trade Association method measures extractable color, and NMSU says the industry expresses chile color in ASTA units¹². A higher number means more pigment per spoonful, so less powder turns your sauce the same red.

Color is what you pay for, and the rules guard it. US labels may list paprika simply as "spice and coloring" unless they name it¹³, and the FDA allows it to color foods generally without batch certification². NMSU lists sausages, cheeses and fruit gelatins among the foods it colors⁷, which is why you meet paprika in places that never taste of pepper.

Which paprika cultivars do American growers plant?

New Mexico breeds most of them, and each release has a measured heat and color. If you grow paprika for your own powder, these are the figures to pick by.

NMSU paprika cultivars with their published heat and color

Cultivar	Released	Heat	Color
NuMex R Naky	1985	260–760 SHU	188 ASTA
NuMex Conquistador	1989	Under 10 ppm capsaicinoids (no heat)	Not given
NuMex Sweet	1990	300 SHU	157 ASTA
NuMex Garnet	2004	160 SHU	303 ASTA
NuMex R. Vince Hernandez	2015	Under the 500 SHU industry limit	250 ASTA average

Seed catalogs also sell Alma, Fehér Özön, Paprika Supreme and Elephant Ears as paprika peppers. We found no primary source with heat or color figures for any of them, so they get no numbers here; treat a packet's claim as the seller's word until a trial backs it.

Hungary's protected paprikas name their own seed lists. Szeged allows 19 state-recognised varieties, from Bíbor to Zuhatag, three of them marked hot³, and Kalocsa allows 17⁴.

How much does a spoonful of paprika give you?

A little color chemistry for you, not a meal. FoodData Central lists ground paprika per 100 g; you'll rarely use more than a few grams, so we scaled the figures to 5 g, about a heaped spoonful, as an estimate.

Those carotenoids are the same pigments the ASTA score measures. FoodData Central also lists 18,900 µg of lutein and zeaxanthin per 100 g¹⁴, which is where the red and orange tones in your tin come from.

Why does paprika go brown in the jar?

Heat, light and time break down the red pigment, and ground paprika loses it faster than whole pods. NMSU's postharvest guide spells out each cause¹²:

A browned tin still tastes of paprika, just weaker. Use a little more of it in a stew where color matters less, and buy fresh for a dish where the red is the point.

What do you do when a dish has too much paprika?

Sweet paprika rarely makes your dish too hot; the usual problem you'll taste is a bitter or dusty taste and a color that turned rust-brown. Hot paprika is the one that can overshoot the heat. These kitchen fixes are our practical suggestions, not tested rules:

1. 1

   Taste for which problem you have

   Burning heat means a hot grade went in; a bitter, dusty edge means too much powder or a scorched pan.

2. 2

   Make the pot bigger

   Add more of the base (stock, tomato, beans or cream) so the same paprika spreads through more food.

3. 3

   Balance the bitterness

   A spoonful of sour cream, a squeeze of lemon or a pinch of sugar softens a bitter, dusty taste.

4. 4

   Next time, add it to warm oil off the heat

   The Szegedi rules show why oil matters: grinding warms the powder so its oil and pigment coat every grain. Stir paprika into warm fat away from the flame so it colors the oil without scorching.³

For cooking, pick the tin by what you want: Szegedi or Murcia sweet for color and a roasted pepper taste, a Kalocsa spicy grade when you want a gentle burn, and La Vera when the recipe asks for smoke. If your recipe says chili powder, that is a blend rather than a single pepper; the paprika and chili powder comparison shows what changes when you swap one for the other.

Can you make paprika from peppers you grow?

Yes, if you pick a mild red pod and dry it hard. NMSU's commercial method dries the fruit to 4 to 6 % moisture, grinds it, then brings it back up to 8 to 11 %⁷, the same window the Hungarian rules aim for. Your home version follows that order:

• Pick a low-heat red pod. A NuMex Sweet or Garnet from the cultivar table gives you a sweet tin; a hot pod gives you a hot one, whatever you call it.
• Pick only fully red fruit. Paprika's value is color, and NMSU puts high red color first⁷; a half-green pod dries brown.
• Dry until the pods snap. Traditionally growers spread the fruit on roofs or on the ground in the sun¹²; you can use a dehydrator or a low oven instead.
• Grind small batches. Ground chile loses color faster than whole pods¹², so you keep the dried pods whole and grind a jar at a time.

The full method, with temperatures and times for an oven or a dehydrator, is in the homemade paprika guide.

Which paprika should you buy for your dish?

Match the tin to the job, since sweet, hot and smoked paprika do different work in your pan:

• Goulash or chicken paprikash: a Hungarian sweet grade for color and roasted pepper taste, with a spoonful of a moderately hot grade if your family likes a little burn.
• Deviled eggs, potato salad or a dusting on hummus: any sweet paprika; you want the red on top, not heat.
• Paella, chorizo-style sausage or a smoky stew: La Vera, the only one of the four dried over oak smoke⁶.
• A dish you want hot without changing its color: a Kalocsa spicy or hot grade, which can pass 8,000 SHU by our worked figures⁴.

If you're out of paprika or want more heat, start with the paprika swap list, which gives amounts for each option.

Before you reach for the red jar beside it, check paprika against cayenne. Cayenne runs 25,000 to 50,000 SHU⁸, so a pinch of it replaces a spoonful of your sweet paprika.