I would like something with flavor and not just spicy just for spicy sake. I believe spice should never overpower the food you’re eating. I’m typically eating hot sauce with chicken, fried fish, soups/stews, and plain chips. I haven’t even had Sriracha by itself yet. But I do like Taco Bell’s sauces, but that might be different.
Hot Sauces I’ve tried, BUT willing to try again
– Tabasco Hot Sauce ~ Can’t remember which one I had at Chipotle, but that shit tasted bad and it was only a few drops I used
– Valentina Salsa Picante ~ Had a decent Spice but why is it a thick consistency? I’m probably just used to Vinegar based Hot Sauces
– Dave's Ghost Pepper Naga Jolokia Hot Sauce ~ First time having something that spicy! Very painful and uncomfortable. Had me spitting from my mouth for a few mins
– Frank’s RedHot Original Cayenne Pepper Sauce ~ I tried it in college, it was tasteless and always seemed watery
Suggestions???
by BatBeast_29
19 Comments
Anything by Queen Majesty!
Crystal. It’s not really hot but it’s my favorite Louisiana style sauce. They do make an extra hot version if you can find it where you live.
El yucateco but it’s on the thicker side.
Also Valentina is my go to I always have a bottle in the house and sometimes I’ll take it with me when I eat out lol
I know you said you didn’t care for Tabasco but you should give their new habanero variety a try. Much better flavor than the original and quite a decent kick. If you’re feeling brave try the scorpion one.
If you’re looking for milder stuff, Gringo Bandito is tasty, and not that spicy!
To explore hot sauces you are going to need to step up the heat from that. Everything at that heat level is going to be more like liquid salt with a little spice.
Start trying jalapeno based sauces first. They vary from mild to not so mild. After getting used to that, start checking out habanero sauces. There is a ton of variety with these peppers in flavor and spice levels. Once you are there, you can start exploring all sorts of varieties.
Read the ingredients and start figuring out what you like and don’t. It’ll give you a map to try new things.
You’ll see a bunch of hot sauces that keep coming up on here. Next time you go somewhere that has hot sauces, see if you recognize one and give it a try.
Secret Aardvark….. shush 🤫
Hank Sauce Herb Infused or Cilanktro (this one if you like cilantro)
This was my first hot sauce! I still use it all the time when I don’t feel like trying to choose the right hot sauce for a particular dish. Obviously not much in the way of spicy but I’ll always love that flavor.
Italian = calabrese chilli paste, Asian = Melinda’s Sriracha, or Huy Fong chilli paste, Hispanic I like Melinda’s habanero or many others, everything else like eggs, sandwiches, BBQ, I go with secret ardvark original or scorpion. Love me some matouks with island flavored dishes shrimp fish whatever.
It depends on what you are using it for.
Valentina’s is great when cooking ground beef or adding to tacos or burritos.
Franks’s Red Hot is amazing on pizza.
Tabasco is great for adding to soups, stews, and chili.
But when you have fried chicken, Louisiana can’t be beat.
Tabasco chipotle is prime time for chill spicy
Frank’s OG and xtra hot, Crystal, or Texas Pete’s for all around hot sauces. Marie Sharpe’s hot sauces are good too and they make a variety of flavors.
For MEX inspired foods, Tapatio, Cholula, and Valentina are good. Cholula also has other flavors that would work well with non-MEX foods too.
el ycateca
Heartbeat hot sauce poiriers
I admit to using different hot sauces for different dishes. But, if I could only have one, I would choose the OG, Tabasco.
Louisiana is already, in my opinion, the best of the Louisiana style sauces. I would experiment more with other styles now. My favorite and a great place to start would be Marie Sharp’s white label. Another unique one is Queen Majesty red habanero black coffee. If you want to try what I tend to think of as “West Coast style” (spicy fruit puree), Torchbearer sauces are good. To round it out, something like a Yucateco habanero would be a good one.
Try something from Marie Sharp or Torchbearer. Can’t go wrong with either company. I like Beware, Belieze Heat or Zombie Apocalypse.