As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
The 10 Best Hot Sauces to Try in 2022
Hot sauce is a lifestyle. Gone are the standard mild, medium, and hot varieties of chili sauce, replaced by an increasingly flavor bending, scientifically created, death-defying array of peppery sauce options that may include a strongly worded warning and a waiver.
If you’re looking for a quiet bell pepper sauce then you’ll need to look elsewhere than this list, which features some peppers from the very top of the Scoville Heat Scale (which might measure personal recklessness along with heat). But if you are looking to rival an episode of Hot Ones (I see you Idris Elba) by seeking out the best sauces combining extremes in heat and flavor, then this is the list for you.
Best Buy
1. Elijah's Xtreme Regret Hot Sauce
Look, this stuff is so hot it just falls short of melting the bottle. I sweat just thinking about it and hop on each foot, which is perfect for some of us weird fire chasing people.
Elijah’s Xtreme Regret is a serious hot sauce that’s not for the fly by night enthusiasts but fully committed heat-loving lunatics. Like I said before, this is for the type of people that watch Hot Ones for new things to try.
It’s made using Trinidad Scorpion and Carolina Reaper pepper (the world’s hottest). With Scoville Heat Units (SHU) of 800,000 and 1,600,000 respectively, they’re hectic.
Elijah’s extreme uses only the highest quality ingredients and processes for consistent potency, balancing the Regret hot sauce with garlic flavor and 50% hot peppers to provide flavor with the heat. If a Carolina Reaper pepper-based hot sauce is your idea of a bad time, then you can downgrade the heat (I mean, a little) by going with Elijah’s Extreme Ghost Pepper Hot Sauce which doesn’t go quite as hard as Xtreme Regret yet may still make you smell colors.
2. Truff Hot Sauce Variety Pack
This special triple pack contains a bottle of the classic Truff Hot Sauce, Truff Hotter Sauce, and the seasonal White Truff. Truff uses ripe red chili pepper-infused with black truffle oil and organic agave nectar from Jalisco, Mexico, that’s then tied together with a hint of Cumin spice.
Hotter Truff has a “less sweet, more heat” flavor profile, with the hot pepper aspects getting a bigger run alongside the agave (which is the principal ingredient in tequila).
The White Truff chili sauce incorporates the rare and seasonal availability of premium white truffle, which combined with the chili pepper and organic coriander results in a brighter, more cheerful bottle of sauce. It’s the perfect premium condiment pack to give the spice lover in your life.
3. Cholula Hot Sauce Variety Pack
This variety pack of the highly regarded Mexican Hot Sauce is quite simply a heat seeker’s dream. Sure, you could buy just one taste variation, but having them all on hand shows commitment to the flavor and versatility of these hot pepper and chili concoctions.
The Cholula flavors included in this six-pack of 5 oz bottles are Original, Chili-Lime, Green Pepper, Sweet Habanero, Chipotle, and Chili-Garlic. So no matter the dish you’re serving there’s room to add flavor.
The sauces range from mild to extra hot and are produced to give foods their own unique flavor without being overpowering. All Cholula Hot Sauce flavors are sugar-free, low calorie, gluten-free, vegan friendly, and Kosher.
4. Secret Aardvark Habanero Hot Sauce
Secret Aardvark Habanero Hot Sauce is made in Portland, Oregon. It’s a unique Caribbean/Tex-Mex hybrid made from habanero peppers and roasted tomatoes.
This versatile habanero sauce – you can add it to anything as a condiment or use it as a marinade – is non-GMO, vegan-friendly, gluten-free, and contains no artificial flavors or colors. Secret Aardvark is warm and sweet on the tongue initially but builds into a tremendously nuanced hot sauce taste test that can complement pizza, burgers, chicken wings, fried chicken, or any other meal you wish to add some heat to.
5. Frank's RedHot Xtra Hot Cayenne Pepper Sauce
Frank’s RedHot Xtra Hot Original Cayenne Pepper Sauce is the most popular hot sauce brand in the US. It’s crafted with select aged cayenne peppers. The heat is ratcheted up to as much as 3 times that of other sauces to challenge your taste buds. Frank’s RedHot Cayenne Pepper Sauce is dairy-free, vegetarian, Kosher, high fructose corn syrup free, and Gluten-free.
This version of Frank’s RedHot uses a proprietary technique to create flavor consistency in the spicy sauce. The bottled hot sauce comes in a massive 1 gallon plastic jug and can be used to accompany any food that needs a sharply increased flavor profile, as a popular dipping sauce for fried chicken, or as a buffalo wing marinade.
6. Huey Fong Sambal Oelek
Sambal is an Indonesian word referring to a sauce made with chili peppers and can include a variety of secondary ingredients, such as vinegar, onion, lemon or lime juice, and garlic flavor (for starters). A fantastic part of Asian stir fry, rice, and soup dishes, Sambal Oelek is a versatile chili paste or hot sauce base, and one of my favorites.
You can utilize it when cooking your favored cuisine, as a small side dish, or make it into the sauce of your choice. The type of pepper you use – Tabasco, jalapeno, or habanero pepper for example – can create a range in heat options when you make your own Sambal Oelek, which is simple and lots of fun to innovate with.
Huey Fong also does a hot sauce bottle of Sriracha that won’t let you down – with it differing from sambal only in sugar content and sauciness.
7. “The Original” Louisiana Hot Sauce
The ingredients are simple enough – quality aged Cayenne pepper and tangy vinegar. The Original Louisiana Hot Sauce is the delicious result of a generations-old recipe using simple ingredients including carefully selected and handpicked, authentic sun-ripened cayenne peppers which are mixed with distilled vinegar and then fermented.
The benefits of fermentation include a more complex flavor in addition to a reduction in the amount of vinegar needed to acidify the sauce.
While it’s one of the least hot sauces in terms of SHU – around 450 units, it’s still got a nice kick. What makes Louisiana Hot Sauce one of the best hot sauces is that it excels at balancing heat and flavor to make a tasty dipping sauce that even reluctant heat seekers can enjoy.
8. Yellowbird Hot Sauce Variety Pack
Yellowbird takes the health food aspect of its hot sauce seriously. It’s vegan friendly, non-GMO, and gluten-free. There are only 10 calories and 1 gram of sugar per serving. Great for the health conscious.
Yellowbird flavors include:
- Blue Agave Sriracha
- Serrano peppers
- Jalapeno pepper
- Habanero hot sauce
- Ghost Pepper sauce
The five sauces are based on differing peppers and their heat while combining with tasty flavors such as caramelized onion, lime juice, garlic, carrot, cucumber, and garlic to reinforce the sauce’s flavor along with varying the heat. Two other cool aspects of the Yellowbird hot sauces are their use of squeeze bottles (so much better to layer a taco or quesadilla) and their 100% satisfaction guarantee.
9. The Good Hurt Fuego: Smoky Bourbon Hot Sauce
This smoky flavor sauce makes an ideal gift for the hot sauce lover looking for something a little bit different. The bourbon flavor really balances sweetness with smoke and allows the heat to coalesce into a great tasting sauce that’s packaged up like dynamite.
This is the type of sauce that is sound as a side condiment but excels as a barbeque marinade where all of its contrasting aspects can lend a beautifully complex flavor and taste to ribs and steaks. If smoky flavor and bourbon isn’t your thing then The Good Hurt Fuego also comes in a more traditional Cayenne Pepper flavor.
10. Alvin's Yellow Scotch Bonnet Pepper Hot Sauce
Alvin’s is a premium Hot Sauce crafted with a blend of Caribbean grown yellow scotch bonnet peppers, papaya, and island spices. While not as hot as the Carolina Reaper and Trinidad Scorpion peppers, the beautiful Scotch Bonnet still has a very tidy SHU of 6,000-10,000, which is more than enough to fireproof the roof of your mouth.
As it’s made differently from most American and Mexican style hot sauces (no water or distilled vinegar) that sauce builds consistently on the back of the palate behind the sweet flavor of papaya. If you are looking for a unique and interesting hot sauce that stands out in its production, the handmade Alvin’s is a great way to go.