My gf has apparently never been exposed to hot sauce before but it turns out she likes it, I don't know much about hot sauces in general though because i've got a severe case of Cracker Mouth. I like a little bit of spice but even slightly too much is very unpleasant, I start getting hiccups and stuff.
Anyway, just wondering what some good options to get for her to try would be. I've got some sriracha and she just went through a whole bottle of Cholula hot sauce (which according to the ingredients is the exact same as sriracha except with pequin and arbol peppers instead of jalapenos) which I'm pretty sure she prefers.
Honestly, I consider myself a hot sauce fiend, and Diablo sauce from T-Bell is near the top of my list
Secret aardvark
Tapatio
Green dragon from trader joes
Melindas if you want something really hot
Secret aardvark
Tapatio
I also recommend these two, they're my favorites at the moment
Living in Europe fucking blows because there are only two kinds of hot sauce in regular stores, you either get tabasco and its variants, or you get a meme hot sauce marketed for being mega spicy with tiger dragon buttfucker chilis in it.
Gotta go to a specialty store to just get hot sauce that is spicy and has flavor at the same time.
Though at least over here we have jars of sambal oelek chili paste in every store, so thats good for cooking, just a bit raw tasting for just putting on stuff.
Okay, hear me out, Quaker Steak & Lube Buckeye sauce with Cheyenne pepper. It's at my absolute limit for how hot a sauce can be without ceasing to be fun.
Marie Sharp's, carrot-based habanero sauces with a variety of heat levels.
Cholula is the tops
Could never get into Sriracha
I thought all hot sauces were like boring Tabasco until that delicious Cholula hit my tongue
Dexter Holland from The Offspring has a line of hot sauces called Gringo Bandito which are pretty based
dunno if it counts as a hot sauce, but reggae reggae sauce is really nice
Its worth noting that while Choluha has basically the same ingredients as Sriracha, it has different amounts. Notably, its much more vinegary, whereas Sriracha isn't noticeably vinegary, but a bit sweeter and garlicier.
But honestly, different sauces are good for different stuff. For toppings, Sriracha is good on a lot, because it doesn't have that strong of a taste, just kinda garlicly. Choluha is good, but the strong vinegar can clash with some foods (its similar to things like tabasco as well). Buffalo sauce is great imo, though it has a big amount of fat in it to make it creamy (classically, its just hot sauce+butter+vinegar). Texas Pete's hot sauce is a nice middle point between Choluha and Sriracha.
For cooking with, Chilli oil is excellent for adding no flavor other than spicy. Doubanjiang is fermented beans and chilies, and has a great savory taste from the fermentation (this is one of my favs, though like a lot of fermented foods, it can be divisive.)
Unhelpfully, my favorite hot sauce atm is the stuff made by one of my friends, but its similar to other 'raw' sauces you can find, where its just unblended (aka chunky) chilies, vinegar, garlic, and spices, like saucier sambal oelek.
Well that explained why my two favorite sauces are literally Cholula and Siracha
I rotate Frank's, Sriracha, and Tapatio in most occasions. The best I've found on pizza is Burning Bush. On eggs I prefer CaJohn's Trinidad Scorpion Puree, you only need like 3 drops of that and it adds great flavor and heat.
El Yucateco's red habanero sauce but it's hot as fuk but so delicious Valentina's Tapatio
I am addicted to habanero sauce. Two local taco places have really spicy, but not painful, flavorful sauces that I can't replicate for the life of me. Mezzetta has by far the best store bought sauces I've had, but the market that carried it discontinued it. The others I've tried from the store use way too much vinegar.
