If you were to be daring enough to kiss a scorpion, this is what I imagine your mouth would feel like afterward. Scorpion Kiss by Haico’s Hot Sauce is absolutely deadly.
This hot sauce is made with a blend of Scorpion, Ghost, and Jalapeno peppers so you know it’s got sting. All that being said, Haico is a flavour master so this one also packs a flavour punch underneath its spicy surface.
Holy Hannah, The Banshee from Steel City Sauce Co. is hot! This one really had me sweating at lunch, I was not expecting this to pack the punch it did. Made with ghost peppers, you can be sure to experience some sweating when enjoying this hot sauce.
Even when opening the bottle it smells spicy, just not THAT spicy!
OG Boodoo by Lost In The Sauce (LITS) is a tomato-based hot sauce made with Scotch Bonnet, Habanero, and Jamaican peppers. I’ll be honest, I’m not a fan of tomatoes in hot sauce, I find it always tastes like spicy ketchup.
While OG Boodoo does taste like spicy ketchup, it does have a unique quality that sets it apart from other tomato-based sauces.
Straight from Texas is Yellowbird Habanero Condiment, a super tasty, straight-to-the-point hot sauce. If you’re into a spicy sauce with a simple flavour, this one is for you.
This hot sauce truly is a condiment and the squeeze bottle helps slather it on everything. I was enjoying this habanero sauce on sausages, pizza, fries (especially awesome), and even salads and veggies.
Inside the bottle you’ll find a sweet and savoury sauce with real habanero heat.
The biggest way to up your hot sauce game is to learn how to ferment hot peppers. During fermentation, tiny microorganisms break down larger compounds into more flavourful smaller compounds. Thus, producing new flavours altogether and enhancing some of the existing flavours of the hot peppers.
Fermentation may sound scary but it is in fact really easy to do.
In short, this is how to ferment hot peppers for hot sauce:
Place hot peppers in a clean mason jar or similar vessel. Create a salt brine of at least 2.5-5% salt content and pour just enough brine to cover the hot peppers. Weigh down the peppers to help keep them under the brine, sometimes they can float. Rest the jar out of direct sunlight for 1 to 2 weeks, or however long you want.
Let’s explore this process in a bit more detail. Also, there is an awesome Fermented Mango Habanero recipe at the bottom of this article so you can try fermenting at home!
I was pretty stoked to find out Salem’s Lott Scary Hot Sauce was made by a pretty well-known Canadian musician. Jeff Salem is a professional musician drummer and a pretty damn good hot sauce maker. Hallucinate the Heat is a good example of this.
This was the first time I tried Salem’s Lott hot sauce so I went with something in the middle of their heat range. This is exactly where I would place Hallucinate The Heat. It reminds me of spicy ketchup crossed with a smoky barbeque sauce.
Black Garlic Hottie is a tasty hot sauce made by Salt + Mustard. This hot sauce Is made with black garlic and habanero peppers and has a tangy taste with a mild spice level. I’ve never heard of this company before but so far I’m impressed with their hot sauce and I hope to try more soon.
If you’re a fan of black garlic or balsamic vinegar, chances are you’ll love this one.
I first discovered Coffee Hot Sauce by Saus through a Facebook ad. As a lover of hot sauce and coffee, it was a natural fit for me so I ordered a bottle.
After about a week the package finally arrived and I was excited to open it up and try coffee flavoured hot sauce for the first time. They did an excellent job at packaging up this hot sauce for shipping. So excellent in fact that I had a hard time opening the package. Nothing some scissors and a butter knife couldn’t handle.
With all the packaging now sitting on the floor I was finally able to see the bottles that I had ordered. I cracked open the white lid and took a whiff to see if I could smell any coffee. Immediately, notes of espresso and hints of the harissa spices filled the air.
I was definitely not disappointed, the flavour was as unique as the ingredients list and the spice level was pretty decent too!
Smoky Mountain Punch by Villain Sauce Co. from Brantford, Ontario. Wow!
Back when I was working in Toronto, I used to listen to Kim Mitchell’s radio show on Q107. He had this segment called “Damn I wish I wrote that! Where he would play songs that he wish he wrote.
Well, this is my “Damn I wish I made that” segment because damn I wish I made this sauce!
Smoky, spicy, flavourful, the whole 9 yards. Smoky Mountain Punch by Villain Sauce Co. is a great-tasting hot sauce made with many different types of peppers. Also, this is the first hot sauce I’ve tried that includes smoke flavour as an ingredient.
Oleoresin capsicum sounds spicy right? Capsicum is pretty similar to Capsaicin so they must be related? If you were thinking either of those questions you’d be right.
So what is Oleoresin Capsicum?
Oleoresin Capsicum (OC) is an oily extract that comes from pepper plants. The plants are finely ground and OC is formed using an organic ethanol extraction process. Oleoresin Capsicum is used in both cooking applications and as an ingredient in pepper spray.