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If you’re wondering about the Taco Bell Diablo Sauce Scoville measurement, you are in the right place. Here, the answer is explained with a nice story behind it. In the past, Taco Bell’s Diablo Sauce was advertised to be very spicy on TV, even spicier than anything you can eat at any other restaurant. Not only is it spicy, but it’s tasty as well.
Diablo Sauce is made with a carefully mixed blend of spices, hot peppers, and of course the right juices. This sauce was the best way to alter and enhance the way you enjoyed Taco Bell. But bad and sad news, Diablo Sauce was on the market only for a limited time. So, if you’re wondering what the Taco Bell Diablo Sauce Scoville measurement is, keep reading. We promise you will like the story too!
History of Taco Bell Diablo Sauce
Production of the Diablo Sauce was discontinued after some time, banning us from having tacos without enough spiciness :(. Many Taco Bell lovers were really sad to hear the news. After this situation, people started to stock up on Diablo Sauce by buying it online, leaving warehouses empty. But this was clearly a mistake which was also realized by the Taco Bell and required a big comeback!
On the 5th of May, 2016, Taco Bell decided to put the Diablo Sauce back on the shelves. Every spicy sauce lover like me cheered after hearing the news. Taco Bell serves its customers cheap Mexican Fast Food, so you’ll have to enhance your order with very spicy sauce.
Why do we love spicy food?
Me and my brother, we’re in love with every aspect of the kitchen. When it comes to spicy foods, we’re the first in line in our circle of friends. The story behind why we love spicy food is that when we were young, we used to travel to the south-eastern region of Turkey because of our father’s job. What’s so special about the south-eastern part of Turkey is that people there eat spicy food for breakfast.
They use pepper flakes almost on everything. The most famous and consumed breakfast in that region is Liver Kebab. People literally wake up, go to a place where they can eat Liver Kebab with many hot spices. Especially in Urfa, hot pepper flakes are very famous which we also mentioned in our list of foods that start with U, people enjoy the spiciness of Turkish cuisine at every chance they can get.
So, since we are used to eating very spicy food, we thought maybe we could give the Diablo Sauce a try since everyone was speaking about it. Because me and my brother, we always say that there is no sauce that is too hot for us. Of course, we’ve had some accidents in the past where we felt dizzy because of the immense heat that pepper produced in our mouth, but that we can talk about some other time 😉
Hot Pepper Side Effects
Eating very hot peppers/spicy sauces may have serious effects and you should take responsibility and eat on your own risk. Possible side effects are sweating, loss of consciousness, vomiting, stomach pain, diarrhea, and many more. But these effects are more common in spices or peppers with a high SHU for example when compared with the Taco Bell Diablo Sauce Scoville.
What happens when you eat something spicy?
In the human mouth/tongue, there are several taste buds that can pick up different tastes like sweet, bitter, salty, sour, etc. But, maybe this is new information for you, spicy is actually not a taste. Spicy food like Taco Bell Diablo Sauce activates pain receptors in your mouth and sends signals to your brain. When these signals are interpreted by your brain, you feel the heat. Ever accidentally touched your nose or eyes after touch hot spices or peppers? They are going to burn very much if the stuff is hot enough. This is actually the reason, why spice does not only affect your mouth/tongue.
There are chemicals called “Capsaicin”, “Piperine” or “Isothiocynanate”. When one of these chemicals or some of them together touches your tongue, they make your mouth or your tongue numb for a while.
There is also a myth that says eating spicy foods kill your taste buds, this is completely wrong. Mankind has been consuming hot spices or peppers for a very long time. Some extremely hot spices or peppers may cause your taste buds to go numb, but this will last a maximum of 2 weeks, after that, you will be able to taste again. But if the SHU is as high as the Taco Bell Diablo Sauce Scoville, you should totally be okay. We also love other spicy sauces to enhance cheap Mexican food 🙂
Numbing is a defense mechanism that is activated by your body automatically, to reduce the amount of pain inflicted upon it. Therefore, do not panic and wait for it to go away.
What drinks help with spicy food?
What to drink for Hot Pepper? We can already hear you asking this question. Here are some remedies that will help with the heat caused by spicy food or hot peppers. For example, since Taco Bell Diablo Sauce Scoville is high, you can try one of the methods below.
Dairy Products
This is actually the best magical remedy. A sip of cold milk or a spoon of cold yogurt will take away some of the heat caused by the pepper. There is a protein called “casein” which is rich in dairy products, it helps break up the “capsaicin” in your mouth, therefore soothing the heat in your mouth. Milk is the best solution out there to soothe the heat caused by hot spices. This results in repelling, which means the casein binds with capsaicin in your mouth, preventing them from heating up your mouth or tongue.
Starchy Foods
The second one is Starch. If you want to consume starch in an edible way, you can get your hands on some fluffy bread or rice. It forms up a natural barrier between the heat causing protein “capsaicin” and your mouth, absorbing some of the heat in the process.
Potatoes are also high in starch, therefore it is also logical to consume some potatoes. Just keep in mind to boil them enough otherwise it might cause irritations in your body or you can even get poisoned. About the rice, you can eat boiled rice immediately and this is will as an absorbent buffer. Just do not drink coke or acidic beverages. Since Taco Bell Diablo Sauce Scoville is high, you can try this method to soothe the pain.
Tomatoes and Lemons
The third and the last method on our list is Tomatoes and Lemons. You may be surprised, we know. But actually, it is based on pure science. The nature of the ingredient “capsaicin” is acidic. When it is combined with alkaline foods, they react and neutralize each other. So, if you want to give it a try, chop some tomatoes and start eating them. If you have tomato juice at home, you can gargle using it. It will provide instant relief.
Testing the Taco Bell Diablo Sauce Scoville
Therefore, we decided to go to Taco Bell to taste this delicious and so-called hot sauce. We ordered three tacos in total. Two with the Diablo Sauce, one without the Diablo Sauce. My brother is more tolerant to hot spices than me, so I thought that ordering that one without the Diablo Sauce could be my savior. The plan was to put that non-hot taco aside as an emergency taco, in case we feel nauseated we were going to eat that taco. Then we started eating the tacos simultaneously.
How hot is the Taco Bell Diablo Sauce?
How many Scoville is Taco Bell Diablo Sauce? Taco Bell Diablo Sauce Scoville is around 350.000 SHUs. It is actually not that hot. There are many more hot peppers or sauces out there, including the Flashbang Hot Sauce. The hottest pepper in the world Carolina Reaper ranks at about 2,200,200 SHUs. SHU is the unit for measuring the spiciness of the food. SHU means Scoville Heat Units. Diablo Sauce is made of aji panca, chili peppers, and chipotles. It must sound spicy to you, right? We also thought so, until we gave it a try.
Is Taco Bell Diablo sauce hot?
After we started eating the Tacos with the Diablo Sauce, we kept eating waiting for the mouthful burn of the sauce. Then we finished them. It was nothing when compared to the hot peppers we’ve eaten in Turkey. Do not get me wrong, the sauce was very tasty and had a vinegar flavor in it. My brother said, “The taste is amazing and tastes especially good on a cheap taco. Actually, the Taco Bell Diablo Sauce Scoville is high.
But if you want me to be honest, we are not here to test how tasty this sauce is. We are here to rate how hot is it, and I can say that it is not that hot.” So, if you are wondering and asking Is Taco Bell Diablo sauce hot? It is not that hot, but definitely worth a try. Is Diablo sauce hotter than fire? definitely not!
That was actually a disappointment for us because we went there to get burnt! 🙂
Afterward, we have decided to go big this time. My brother bought a Flashbang Hot Sauce and we were wondering if that would do the trick to make us cry like little kids. And it did, but we will talk about that in another post.
Conclusion
All in all, Diablo Sauce is a very tasty sauce that goes very good with a cheap Taco. However, this post was about the Taco Bell Diablo Sauce Scoville, so we can say that it is not that hot. However, it might still be hot for people, that do not usually eat spicy food. So, it is up to the consumer actually. We really recommend trying the Diablo Sauce, be sure to get your hands on some or try to ask some Diablo Sauce while you are ordering a taco from the Taco Bell.
This is Berk from the JarKitchen Team. I am a Mechatronics Engineer and I like cooking in my spare time. By bringing my engineering background into the business, product reviews are a specialty for me. During my travels across Europe, I have learned/tested many recipes and now I plan to bring them to you here!
