NEW YORK — It’s not just you. Sriracha is hard to come by these days — at least for one popular brand.
People are also reading…
Hot sauce tasting: The ultimate guide to America's most popular brands
Tabasco
Type: Louisiana-style hot sauce.
Ingredients: Distilled vinegar, tabasco chiles, salt.
Edmund McIlhenny founded this classic American hot sauce company back in 1868. Unlike most Louisiana-style hot sauces that use cayenne chiles, Tabasco uses tabasco chiles. These are mixed with salt and vinegar before being aged in oak barrels for “up to three years,” according to their website. We were surprised by how much spicier Tabasco was than its competitors. It has an official count of 2,500 to 5,000 Scoville heat units. The thin sauce has a heat that lingers on the tongue for a long time. We also picked up on a slightly smoky background. Tabasco only has 35 milligrams of salt per teaspoon, which is the second least of the sample group.
'Louisiana' Hot Sauce
Type: Louisiana-style hot sauce.
Ingredients: Aged cayenne peppers, vinegar, salt.
First created in 1928, “Louisiana” Hot Sauce is much milder than Tabasco, with a heat that pops up for a second before dissipating. But it has a strong initial rush of flavor thanks to a lot of salt. In fact, at 200 milligrams per teaspoon, it takes the prize as the saltiest hot sauce we sampled. If you pour it on something very bland, “Louisiana” Hot Sauce could add a lot of flavor. But if the dish is already salty, it might be overkill.
Frank’s RedHot
Type: Louisiana-style hot sauce.
Ingredients: Aged cayenne chiles, distilled vinegar, water, salt and garlic powder.
Frank’s Redhot originated in 1920 in Louisiana, but it’s probably best known as the base of the original Buffalo wings recipe from the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York. It has a stronger vinegar kick than Louisiana, and seems slightly milder even though several websites claim that the Scoville rating is about the same. This is probably due to the addition of garlic powder, which provides a rounder, sweeter base. It’s easy to see why this sauce plays so well with chicken wings.
Crystal Hot Sauce
Type: Louisiana-style hot sauce.
Ingredients: Aged cayenne chiles, distilled vinegar, salt.
Because it uses cayenne chiles, Crystal Hot Sauce has a flavor profile close to Louisiana, albeit with a much bigger cayenne kick. The heat lingers confidently on your tongue for quite a while. Crystal also has a more prominent dark chile flavor, and a slightly subdued vinegar profile compared to Tabasco. This can oddly make it seem less spicy at first, before the chile heat begins its ascent.
Valentina Salsa Picante
Type: Mexican-style hot sauce.
Ingredients: water, puya chiles, vinegar, salt, spices, sodium benzoate.
Valentina is thick and complex, with an intriguing citrus note that comes at the end. According to a number of online sources, its Scoville heat rating is almost twice as high as Frank’s or Louisiana, yet the heat never overwhelms the other flavors. This is what we drizzle on my avocado toast at home.
Cholula Hot Sauce
Type: Mexican-style hot sauce.
Ingredients: water, chiles (arbol and piquin), salt, vinegar, garlic powder, spices and xanthan gum.
Known for its distinctive wood top, Cholula is thinner and slightly spicier than Valentina, with an official rating of 1,000 Scoville heat units. It also has a complex chile profile, thanks to the use of two kinds — arbol and piquin. With 110 milligrams of salt per teaspoon, it’s nearly twice as salty as Valentina.
Tapatío
Type: Mexican-style hot sauce.
Ingredients: water, red peppers, salt, spices, garlic, acetic acid, xanthan gum, sodium benzoate as a preservative.
In 1971 Jose-Luis Saavedra Sr. created a Mexican-style hot sauce in California called Cuervo. Four years later, it was renamed Tapatío, which is a term for someone from Guadalajara. Tapatío is thick like Valentina, but no one would ever confuse the two. After a few seconds, a genuine heat floods your tongue that eclipses even Cholula. This is the hot sauce you want if you really need to spice something up.
Huy Fong Foods Sriracha
Type: Asian-style hot sauce.
Ingredients: fresh red jalapenos, sugar, salt, garlic, acetic acid, potassium sorbate and sodium bisulfite as preservatives, xanthan gum.
Sriracha has exploded in popularity over the past several years. While the condiment originated in Thailand, the most popular brand here comes from Huy Fong Foods in California, where it’s been marketed for use in Vietnamese restaurants. You’ll recognize it as the bottle with the large rooster on it. Unlike the hot sauces mentioned above, it has a prominent sweetness that helps to temper the chile heat. So even though some claim it has a higher Scoville rating than many, it doesn’t taste like it.
