Why Our Heat Scale Only Goes to Five

Walk down a salsa aisle and you'll see them: little chili icons climbing up the label. One chili. Three. Seven. Nine. "Extra Hot" in a flame-shaped sticker.

Almost all of it is marketing.

Here is why our scale only goes to five.

A heat scale should mean something

When we say a salsa is a 3, we mean: you will notice the heat. You will not be in pain. You will eat the whole bowl.

When we say a salsa is a 5, we mean: you have committed to this. You are not snacking. You will sweat. This is the point.

There is no honest 9. A 9 on most labels is just a 5 with a different sticker, or it's a 12 that nobody enjoys, dressed up like a 9 so the brand doesn't have to admit it's a novelty.

The Scoville problem

The Scoville scale — the actual scientific measurement of capsaicin — is logarithmic and goes into the millions. A jalapeño is around 5,000. A ghost pepper is over 1,000,000. There is no smooth ramp from one to the other; once you cross a certain threshold, you're not tasting anymore, you're enduring.

Most salsa lines pretend the ramp is linear. It isn't.

Our five

• 1 — Mild. Family table. Black Bean & Corn lives here.
• 2 — Bright. Cilantro Green Olive. Heat is decoration, not the point.
• 3 — Medium. You feel it. You like it.
• 4 — Warm. Backs of the ears. Conversation slows down briefly.
• 5 — Hot. Habanero territory. You signed up for this.

That is the whole map. If you have ever wished a salsa company would just tell you the truth, this is us trying.

What we don't make

We don't make a "Death Sauce." We don't make a "Reaper Apocalypse Triple Scorpion Limited Edition." Those exist, and people enjoy them, and we are not in that business.

We make salsa that ends up on enchiladas, eggs, and chicken thighs. Five is plenty.

Browse by heat: Mild & Sweet, Medium, Hot, or Fruit.