Sirracha because it’s easy to get everywhere. I also make my own Vietnamese chilli oil.
Just want to soapbox here about the hot sauces that are sold to: 1) be as hot as possible; 2) have no flavor aside from pepper.
No one is enjoying XXX: Blow our ur Sphincter 3000 and as far as I am concerned these things are novelty items like pranks from joke shops. If the “schoville” number is factoring into your hot sauce buying decisions then I have personal beef with you and hope you step in a deep puddle next time it’s raining.
El yucateco has types with some decent heat while still being cheap. Usually if you want any kind of spice the price rises with the spice level.
The Tabasco scorpion one is pretty good heat for the cost as well
Mexico Lindo Habanero is my latest favorite.
Yellowbird Habenero
Frank’s Red Hot
CholulaAnd a great that’s hard to get: Yellow Dragon Lantern Pepper Mash (黄灯笼) from Hainan. Amazing fruity flavour and hotter than hell.
I feel basic saying Franks but it’s Franks for me 90% of the time
It’s not hard to find so you never feel bad about slathering it over anything in copious amounts.
Tastes good, but you can totally gourmand up with it without guilt. Plus, at least in the UK we don’t have the variety that I think folks in the Americas have, Frank’s is, whilst common, not Tabasco, Encona, or Reggae Reggae common.
There is a South American deli near me in Edinburgh that does amazing imported tins of salsa verde but that is literally the only place I can think of to get something non-Franks locally.
Valentina!
Marie Sharp’s, a hot sauce company out of Belize. Sooooo good.
Carrot based Habenaro sauce: although it appears they have a few versions. (Figured if I was going to search what these were I might as well share the quick results)
Yellowbird also makes a carrot based habenero sauce that’s really good!
Secret Aardvark habanero sauce is so, so good. I’ll put it on just about anything. It’s by no means the hottest sauce out there, but I’ll put its flavor up against any other sauce. I buy this stuff by the case at this point.
I knew I would find this comment here. It’s so damn good, got some in my fridge right now.
Agreed, that and yellow bird habanero are the two sauces that I need to have a supply of at all times.
Damn, thought I’d beat you to it lol
Also highly recommend the smoky aardvark if you haven’t tried that one yet. It’s not in as many stores as the original, but it’s delicious.
Gochujang and Sriracha’s version of chili garlic sauce
We are pepper sauce soul mates, lol. Those are both my go-to sauces.
Tapatío
This was my go-to for a while. I still keep this one on hand, but I recently have been defaulting to Hoff Sauce more recently. If you see it for sale, I recommend you give it a try.
I love all kinds of hot sauce (sate/sambal is my #1. Does that count as sauce? It’s more a paste). But my widespread you can find this anywhere go-to for eggs and potatoes is good ol’ Tapatio. I’ll take Valentina’s too, since it’s so similar.
Delicious sauce, but I personally wouldn’t consider that hot at all.
Valentina Extra Hot
Great choice, and cheap compared to others!
The standard valentines is close to cholula sauce for a fraction of the price.
Frank’s (extra hot buffalo, too) and Sriracha are always on hand in my house, too.
Not sure if home made is what you have in mind but for me its this https://youtu.be/-wgZ7s3YxWI
Every pepper head should know: Scoville ratings for hot-sauce are bullshit.
Most sauces simply list the Scoville number for the pepper in the sauce, and never actually get the sauce rated. This leads to people thinking they can tolerate much higher ratings than they can. And encouraging them to try stuff that will lead to a bad experience.
Queen’s Majesty has a coffee & habanero sauce that is incredibly delicious, best I’ve ever tasted
