The Most Overrated Hot Sauces in the World
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ShareYou may actually like them, tolerate them or plain hate them. Do you think that there's an overhyped group of spicy condiments that boggles the mind why throngs of consumers rave about but that you just don't get? Yup, me too. Below I present to you what I believe are the most overrated hot sauces in the market today.
Huy Fong Food Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce
Do a Google search for Huy Fong Food's Sriracha Sauce and you'll be deluged with dozens of results pages containing gushing accolades from food fans on forums, blog comment pages and review sites. The people love this Thai-style pepper sauce.
As much as I tried, I just couldn't get into this stuff. This one an instance where a sauce had a peculiar attribute I just couldn't put my finger on. Perhaps it was too much salt and garlic, but Sriracha had an off-putting dark and bitter horseradish-like flavor, especially in the aftertaste.
ABC Sambal Extra Pedas Extra Hot Chili Sauce is an Asian style pepper sauce I would recommend in place of Sriracha. There is no nasty horseradish taste and is smoother and mixes better with rice and noodles.
Crazy Uncle Jester's Afterburner Chocolate Sauce
I want to preface this by stating I'm an enormous fan of Jeffery Stevenson and his company, Crazy Uncle Jester's. I may not have fallen in love with everything released under that label, but I can't get enough of their Blazing Hot Mustard and Brush Fire BBQ sauce, and CUJ's Jamaican Hellfire and Select Reserve are solid condiments. All in all, Crazy Uncle Jester's knows know to whip up some very unorthodox and spicy products and still have them retain a great taste and far-reaching usability.
But then there's the little case of Crazy Uncle Jester's Afterburner Chocolate Sauce. If you would listen to all the hype I've heard and read you would figure that it would be impossible not to go ga-ga over this product. It's been lauded by my fellow chileheads Joe Levinson and Jonathan Passow on The Hot Zone Online and Chilebrown on Peppers and More. Reviewer Al "Buddah" Goldenberg awarded Afterburner his Product of the Year for 2009. It was an Every Day with Rachael Ray Magazine's Big Bite: Hot Sauce Award Winner, a 2010 Golden Chile Award Winner, a 2009 Scovie Award Winner, and a Seriouseats.com's Editors Choice award winner.
What about me? Well, at the rave recommendations by Buddah and others at last year's Weekend of Fire show, I bought a couple of jars. I had even received an additional test jar from Jeff Stevenson himself; Afterburner and other CUJ products were distributed to a few bloggers at the show for review.
When I got home, I was raring to get some Afterburner on ice cream for what I had hoped was a delicious sweet and spicy treat. I adore the combination of sweet and spicy hot - I think at some point in the future that dual concept is primed to explode in the industry and break out into the mainstream. Anyway, I opened the jar and saw what looked like was brown, runny paint, with an almost oily film covering them. As any smart hot sauce fan should know, it's always good to shake the bottle or jar before using any spicy liquid food product. I gave it a long, violent shakage, reopened the jar, gave it a few stirs and sniffed it. It simply had a bizarre, chemical-like aroma. Not the typical "hey this food has gone bad so let's throw it away" smell but a bitter aroma that was not very appetizing.
I proceeded to taste a spoonful of it. I noticed some chocolate flavor, but it compared to a watered-down Hershey's syrup, only not as sweet. And then the bitter chemical flavor kicked in. The off-putting taste wasn't nearly as bad as some pepper extracts I've had, but it still stuck out like a sore thumb enough to make this unappealing.
Thinking maybe it was a bad jar, I grabbed the Afterburner given to me at the Weekend of Fire show (at the time these freebie review products were still boxed up separately). This newer jar produced the same results - the weird, chemical flavor and odor. Am I truly an oddball for not liking this stuff?
Instead of this, I would recommend that you crave some really good, spicy chocolate syrup, check out Cow Girl Chocolate's Chocolate Dessert Sauce. It has a "to die for" rich, thick, creamy, fudge brownie-like taste and texture with an awesome, natural heat. It makes Afterburner Chocolate Sauce taste like paint by comparison (sorry, Jeff, I'm just being honest).
Tabasco® brand Pepper Sauce
Tabasco is such as easy target. They're a large company with worldwide appeal and a long, hallowed history, and it's safe to assume that any criticism I give them won't hurt them one iota. Therefore I could lob a number of verbal missiles at them with little chance of repercussion.
I do happen to respect McIllhenny Co. for all they've done for the hot sauce industry throughout the years, and without them where would we be? But their base product, Tabasco® brand Pepper Sauce, simply is a weak sauce that relies too much on vinegar and salt for its flavor instead of the wonderful taste of aged red chile tabasco peppers. It does this so much that myself and other critics have dubbed it "pepper-colored vinegar".
Want a good alternative to Tabasco that's available just about anywhere in America? Try regular Cholula hot sauce - it has a richer chile pepper presence, a bit more of a kick, and still is mild enough for a lot of spice fans.
Dave's Insanity Sauce
Dave Hirschkop is one of the nicest guys in the spicy foods industry and received a well-deserved "fire-o-neer" status when he released his extract-laden Dave's Insanity Sauce upon unsuspecting masses at the 1993 National Fiery Foods Show. Back then, no one had mass-marketed a hot sauce made with extract, so Insanity was truly the hottest stuff on the planet. It helped launched a movement and pushed sauce manufacturers to create spicier hot sauces, using both natural means and with extract.
Nowadays literally hundreds of condiments are hotter, but Dave's Insanity Sauce has achieved legendary status and still remains a bestseller to this day thanks to its once record-breaking and industry-wide "yardstick by which all hot sauces are measured" reputation.
But is the sauce any good? In my opinion, not really. The bitter, nasty flavor extract is too dominating amongst the blend of tomato sauce, onions, peppers and vinegar. Dave has produced much more savory sauces in the years since Insanity's debut and they have a more balanced mixture of natural pepper heat and extract burn. Try some of Dave's other elixirs instead, such as Hurtin Habanero or Roasted Garlic, or go with an extract-based sauce made by CaJohn's or Blair's instead for blistering heat.
What Do You Think?
What's your take on what the most overrated sauces are? Any that I've failed to mention? After reading my choices, do you think I'm full of it? Give me your thoughts in the comments section below...
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Spicy Food Reviews - Hot Sauce Reviews, Hot Snacks, Hot Wings, Seasonings, BBQ Sauces, Condiments, and More
Comments
2010-02-09 14:24:49
2010-02-09 14:39:19
Try Anchor Bar sauces or better yet Cajohn's wing sauces.I believe Cajohn beat Defcon in the wing division a while back?
Good article Scott.
2010-02-09 14:45:20
I think you are spot on for the most part. The Rooster (or Cock Sauce as we jokingly call it here at the store) has a pretty decent flavor but not enough to warrant the wild love that I’ve see for it. On top of that, they add artificial sulfites to it (which I'm allergic to). What?!?!!? This is a hot sauce, not a wine. Stop it!
Going to have to completely disagree with you on Uncle Jester’s of corse. While I can't comment on the smell issue you had (due to my handicap), I can comment on the flavor. It’s so good! Where’s that jar?!?! OM NOM NOM NOM!!!
I too give McIllhenny Co respect. In fact, when I usually bash it (when having a debate with people on the subject) I, in the same sentence, usually say how much I am grateful for what the company did for the industry. I too call it “flavored vinegar”. Good call on Cholula, BTW.
Ah Dave’s sauce, a wimpy 100,000SHU, but once again, grateful for the good the product has done for the industry.
On a side note, the math on the Captcha section here is getting harder...math was never my strong suit.
2010-02-09 14:46:56
There's another one for the list. That stuff's along the line of Tobasco IMO. Nothing but vinegar.
2010-02-09 15:24:59
One I would add to the "All Vinegar" category and one in which we face issues with down south is Texas Pete. In my mind almost a carbon copy of Tabasco but with less flavor and much more vinegar and SALT! Like a vinegar flavored deer lick...
2010-02-09 17:02:41
2010-02-09 17:42:35
2010-02-09 18:24:05
2010-02-10 11:15:09
2010-02-11 19:21:32
2010-02-12 11:55:17
2010-12-15 07:52:49
It is pretty damn popular here in the UK as well but there is just something about it that makes me want to spit it back out
2011-05-14 08:20:26
I also agree with Siracha. Often seen in Asian restaurants or buffets the use is multi purpose almost to the level of ketchup. I found that when I first tried it 10-12 years ago it was new and unlike any sauce at the time. It was thicker spicy mix with garlic. We put it on everything pizza, soup, steak, fried chicken, spaghetti, etc. Now I can hardly stand that stuff. Mind you I am half Chinese and half Thai. By my heritage I should embrace this sauce. Sorry.
2011-05-14 08:29:42
taste from a 5000 gal mixing pot is at very least somewhat subjective.Srircha is huge so stay small or go big.We are al very passionate about our sauce
2011-05-14 12:09:51
My vote is Franks. It's good don't get me wrong but it's not anything special. No aged peppers, no super-heat, no exotic ingredients...but people love it.
Keep up the great work Scott!
AL
2011-05-15 11:21:01
The original Cholula is a really flavorful product, nicely packaged and marketed-the Cuervo product has lots of money behind it so essentially distribution was purchased, a luxury almost no one has, but kudos to them.
Sriracha Sauce caught on because of a void in the cross-over Asian market. The creator saw the trend in the 90s for added heat in the United States and created a pseudo-Vietnamese style pepper mash and marketed it as an Asian product. The color is bright red, with an acceptable flavor and when you are merely adding it to stir-fry dishes, it is the heat that creeps through, not so much the saltiness (a lot of Asian dishes contain a significant amount of salt, MSG, or soy so there is a high salt content already) and the Rooster Sauce merely adds to the saltiness. However, as a marketing/packaging POS strategy, their container, the bright green pour-spout lid and applied white printed graphics on the clear-plastic bottle stands out against the bright red sauce is pure genius. Huy Fong certainly hit the nail on the head- a real success story.
As to Tabasco Chipotle-it originated with the 1st American-made chipotle sauce, i.e., MONTEZUMA Brand Smokey Chipotle Pepper Sauce-I won't bother to explain any further-it has been documented elsewhere, but suffice it to say that all chipotle sauces made in the U.S. derived from the introduction of chipotle sauces by Montezuma (and a nod to the small Vermont distributor from many eons ago, San Angel, who imported chipotle salsa from Mexico (never made here)). The very 1st chipotle pepper sauce made is still around-the grainy Bufalo Chipotle Sauce from Mexico. All of the American made chipotle products are better than Bufalo (my opinion). El Yucateco makes a decent chipotle sauce though.
As to Tabasco-I am revising an article about the Real History of Tabasco that has stirred a lot of controversies, but cannot be disputed. However, in their defense-this is an original product that has withstood the ages and is one of the earliest surviving packaged food products still in existence. Packaged peppersauces of cayenne and bird's eye pepper sauces made and distributed primarily from Boston and New York were slightly thicker. The first Tabasco pepper sauce decoction was made by Maunsel White in New orleans the late 1850s. In 1869, Mcilhenny's Tabasco sauce made its entrance and was used to add a drop of flavor (this was an actual advertising campaign), not meant to be poured on as we do today-it was developed for its time and I think still an excellent product. Yes it is thin-but it is meant to be that way. The McIlhenny Co. had all of the3 ingredients used in the sauce available on Avery Island, which was 1 of 5 salt domes in the southeast, and where the property was originally a sugar plantation owned by Daniel Avery (Mcilhenny's father-in-law), the vinegar used was made on the peninsula. Likewise, the Tabasco chiles were grown there. Most if not all of the peppersauces developed through the early 1900s were thin-look at Trappey's, Bulliard's, Panola, Crystal, etc. Frank's RedHot came along and was a thicker product, but it was made exclusively from Cayenne peppers, not Tabasco peppers, and the thickness of the products made with cayenne was directly in proportion to the difference in density of the chiles. Frank's RedHot, by-the-way, was the original sauvce used for the Anchor Bar chicken wings, not the current Anchor Bar sauces. The Anchor Bar has done their wing creation a disservice by developing a product line/marketing strategy confusing the originality of the wing sauces. Again, nothing more than a money-grab at the expense of their place in history. They should have just stuck with the truth that Frank's was the sauce used and promoted it that way-maybe licensing special run printed bottles touting the fact that Frank's was THE original wing sauce (which is a great product also). Myth-building is a real problem for some manufacturing companies, i.e., they want their myths to obscure the truth, i.e., McIlhenny).
As to Dave's Insanity Sauce, the year it was 1st introduced at the Albuquerque Fiery foods Show, Dave created a real stir and garnered national press dressing up in a real straight-jacket in his booth and giving out toothpick-topped samples and requiring a waiver to be signed before a consumer could taste the product. I went to dinner with Dave that night at another exhibitor's restaurant "Fast Eddie's", my name for his Cajun-restaurant-Eddie was a New Orleans chef relocated in Albuquerque. I told Dave Hirschkopf that I did not understand the fascination since the product was bitter and nasty and I know I used the phrase "it sucked". Dave said it might, but that it was a hit - it was the 1st extract sauce commercially sold-and he said that he would happily sell it and take the money to the bank, which he has done very nicely since the early 90s. As to Dave's insanity Sauce, the crowds around his booth were ABSOLUTELY INSANE the entire show-I still cannot remember seeing anyone draw as much attention except maybe when Paul Prudhomme was signing autographs and selling his seasonings or the 1st time Chip Hearn first brought his "strippers" to his booth.
I will add my favorite pepper sauces to a later list. I think that would be a good and well-received blog topic-your personal 8 ("ate" as in eating...get it?) favorites. I bet the response would be over-whelming and would provide lots of interaction on this blog. I bet that you could then create a Top 25 or 50 list that would garner lots of response.
2011-05-17 06:14:11
2013-01-11 17:28:43
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