It might seem this way to a "non aficionado" of the fire, but it's much more complicated than that. Some of the sauces in the old days (like Dave's Insanity Special Edition for example) used the essence of habaneros to produce the super heat, but couldn't fit in much extra flavor because there just wasn't much room left. These sauces were noted for being instantly hot, rather than the slow build up to the fire that a real chili head craves. (It was considered lower class in the chili world, pleb if you will...)

The newer peppers (think Bhut Jolokia, etc.) are designed to give the required kick while still leaving enough room that the sauce can be packed with flavor. I use both Bhut Jolokia wing and barbecue sauces, because they have the quality (slow to build, but very long lasting) burn and the requisite flavor that a more normal gourmet (someone who doesn't have an addiction to the pain, lol) requires.

Cholula is straight garbage. Do not understand the love for that sauce. No heat. No flavor.

I second Marie Sharp's. The Belizean Heat sauce at 350k Scovilles is very tasty and packs a punch. I can't get enough of it. But it's still "mild" enough that I can use it very liberally on anything.

Grabbed an orange pulp habanero sauce from them recently. It's ok. Not spicy enough for me. They have much better sauces IMO.

Lol at saying cholula = no heat no flavor.

that would be horrible! I bought a couple super giant bottles at some ghetto grocery in El Paso a while back, so havent bought a new one recently. Im scared now

The tabasco habanero is pretty good.

I was reading this thread and my friend sent me a picture of this. Never had it.

squash,

Awesome thread. I'm kind of embarrassed now that my current hot sauce lineup is exactly "Tabasco, Cholula, Tapatio, Sriracha."

Tons of stuff in this thread sounds awesome, starting with that Bee Sting sauce. Looking forward to upping my hot sauce game.

This stuff is amazing. But you can't overdo it or it will ruin your meal. For a whole dish, I dip the tip of a fork in for just a dot of sauce.

This is a pretty good example of what NOT to try if you're just getting into hot sauces. I don't claim to have a high tolerance but this stuff is brutal imo.

Also, even though tabasco is pretty tame for most of you, it's not as easy to make as you might think:

making tabasco

How many Scoville units?

I put some habaneros in my burger...and the burger was finished while I was still hungry. So yeah I just kept eating habaneros .

So apparently when pickling peppers you need to heat it up -- I did not know this. I just decided that I had so many empty jars of banana and jalapeno pepper pickling juice that I'd get some habaneros and dunk them in there. After I already jarred them is when I bothered to google the process (lol).

So I put one jar in my hot water dispenser to try to heat it up that way. After about an hour I wanted to try it...and damn was it spicy. The juice was still hot, the peppers were warm, and I don't know if that was the reason, but it contributed to one of the weirdest spicy experiences. My whole body was sweating, I got a mild headache, and it was damn spicy.

Eating them after it cooled down resulted in normal spiciness. Does heating up hot sauces give them some sort of strange reaction?

tldr; heated up pickled habaneros, way crazier than normal

+1 im a big fan of the hab tabasco. great flavor and a decent heat

Nando's extremely hot sauce is my favourite. My kitchen is literally full of Nando's sauce and McDonalds sweet and sour sauce.

One of my biggest pet peeves is the whole "I love eating habaneros whole/I put a ton of (insert ridiculous hot sauce) on everything" shtick. Don't get me wrong, I like hot sauce as much as the next person in the right applications, but that **** is annoying.

Please expand on how amazing this is if you can't put more than a tip of a forks worth in an entire dish without ruining it? You're obviously getting no flavor, so why not use something you can actually use a normal amount of and taste?

I bought a bottle of Lee Kum Kee siracha at costco and threw almost the whole thing away because it is gross.

Website I use says 3/5 "flames". User reviews and a youtube review I watched say hardly any heat at all.

With the other Bee Sting I typically add a couple dashes of a straight habanero sauce to add more heat and balance the honey sweetness.

Bee Sting isn't as versatile as the ones you listed but when you find something it compliments well, you yearn for it.

The peri-peri sauce I posted from African Rhino is highly acclaimed and versatile. I think the Nando's sauce others talk about uses peri-peri. It seems most people prefer it in a marinade or basting on an open flame, but has nice complex flavor.

listing ingredients is a nice touch, gonna try that rhino one and the anal one, tho that one seems like it will be very hot given the first ingredient

They have this at California tortilla and at a hot sauce store in new Orleans. Never tried it for obvious reasons. California tortilla is highly recommended for great food and the wall of hot sauces. Fairly common to borrow some hot sauce bottles for home use to say the least

Hot sauce marketing is fairly quirky and vague at best. This sauce isn't nearly as hot as its name suggests. If you like mustard and heat reviews of this suggest it's worth a shot. Main 2 ingredients are scotch bonnet and mustard. 3/5 flames.

I went through a stage of trying to see what the hottest sauce I could handle. I did get close to my goal of eating prison pepper spray with out flinching but I then became more interested in flavors rather than heat.

Any suggestions for sauces that concentrate on complex flavors rather than just heat?

GOAT

trappey's red devil is best imo. not that hot obv, but fine flavor. just beats out cholula.

Thread,

I love cholula. Especially the chili garlic version. Is there a sauce like cholula but more awesome?