I’ve never been particularly scared of sharks. I’m the type of guy who laughs during Jaws and watches the Discovery Channel’s Shark Week for the gore. Then I tried Great White Shark Predator Hot Sauce and for the first time I tasted fear– and it tasted good.

The shark on the bottle emerges from the ocean with its immense jaws open wide, rows of gleaming teeth sharpened and ready to bite. The foreboding image is an appropriate warning for the heat within. “This sauce is too hot for ‘normal’ landlubbers.” states the label ominously. “It will attack you with no warning and take a big bite out of your ass.” Continue Reading

There are several important things going on with Pappy’s Moonshine Madness ingredient wise that result in a barbecue sauce far and away above any barbecue sauce I have ever had the pleasure of tasting. First things first, though. Pappy’s little concoction may be billed as a barbecue sauce, but this sauce does double duty as a hot sauce alone, useable in any situation you might use a traditional hot sauce. It also makes a fine wing sauce.

Now let me talk about the ingredients. Pappy’s has sugar, vinegar, fresh onions and garlic, anchovies, Worcestershire sauce,  tomato sauce and tomato paste, paprika, black pepper, lemon powder, lemon juice, lemon oil, and natural hickory flavoring. Continue Reading

Let me put this sauce in perspective. The Scoville chart measures pepper heat level in units. A Jalepeno is between 2,500 and 3,500 units, Cayenne peppers are between 30,000 and 50,000 units, Habaneros and Scotch Bonnets are between 100,000 and 350,000 units, and Da Bomb Ground Zero weighs in at 234,000 Scoville units. What this means, in layman’s terms, is that this sauce, without much effort, could blister your tongue on contact.

Da Bomb Ground Zero comes in a little bottle reminiscent of an old time medicine bottle, with a big green bomb on the label. Continue Reading

Mountain Man Garlic Pepper Sauce is a traditional vinegar-based sauce with aged red peppers. The added benefit is the taste of garlic. This one is infused with it. Any garlic lover will be thrilled.

The sauce is aromatic, thin enough to pour easily (and with its fresh, garlic-infused flavor, you’ll want to be liberal), and full of pepper seeds and garlic pieces.

I tried it with hot wings first. It’s an obvious choice, and this sauce was a natural fit. There’s no need to add anything to the sauce except for a generous hunk of butter. Drop your wings into the sauce and let them lavish in it for ten or fifteen minutes. The wings tasted great with an ice-cold Irish Red beer. Continue Reading

The flaming skulls on the bottle of “Hottest Hot Sauce” take me back to the worst nightmares of my childhood. I remember waking up screaming as skeletons chased me down the street and disembodied ghouls rose from the fiery pits of hell determined to take me back with them. Thankfully this sauce is a far more pleasurable experience for my taste buds.

The label includes standard threats that this is the “hottest hot sauce” and that it will “really set your skull on fire.” As a New Englander I appreciate the use of local vernacular on the label claiming that this is a “wicked hot sauce.” Continue Reading

A lot of people know Joe Perry for the sizzling hot guitar leads he lays down in the rock band Aerosmith, but one taste of his Rock Your World Mango Peach Tango Hot sauce will give you something else to think of him for.

I’m a big fan of combining subtle sweetness with heat. Peaches and mangos, which are key ingredients in Joe Perry’s hot sauce, are ideal for this. I opened Joe Perry’s Mango Peach Tango hot sauce with high hopes. I wasn’t let down, folks.

Beginning with the aroma, I knew I was in for a treat. I held the bottle under my nose and inhaled the delicate combination balance of peaches and mangos, complimented by the distinctive smell of fresh Habanero peppers. Continue Reading

Deep in the grass, where your momma told you never to go, there lies a predator silently waiting for a victim. Fangs bared, with ample venom to make the kill the Vicious Viper Hot Sauce is ready– and hungry.

The bottle claims that is a sauce not to be messed with lightly. That “you don’t know HOT until you’ve been bitten by the Vicious Viper.” It says this is a food supplement to be taken only one drop at a time. And so I step warily into the grass, forewarned of the dangers that lie before me. I open the bottle to reveal the potent poison within.

The first whiff smells of bananas and fresh Habenero peppers. A subtle fruitiness that draws me closer, begging me to take a taste. Continue Reading

Uncle Brutha’s Hot Sauce No. 10 has three pepper ingredients, all of them superstars in their own right; Habaneros, red and green jalapenos, and Serrano chilies. Add to that a few unusual ingredients, such as beets, cress, and spinach, and you have a hot sauce blend that can definitely be called unique.

First of all, if heat is what you want, Uncle Brutha’s will make your forehead damp. The cool thing about this heat is that it doesn’t overwhelm the smoky taste of the sauce. The heat factor is about a six on a ten scale, but it’s a slow heat one that teases the tongue and gradually warms your belly.

Continue Reading

Hot sauces with more novelty than quality are a dime a dozen, though it can be hard to tell which is which based solely on the label of the bottle.

Take the Ghost Hot Sauce, for example. Based on the label, it seems like the sauce will actually turn me into a ghost.

In my experience, the more hyperbole that is on the hot sauce bottle, the less impressive it actually tends to be, which is why I was surprised at the incredible amount of pain this sauce is able to induce. Continue Reading

Sweet is the key word in Black Swan Sweet Cognac BBQ Sauce‘s name and in its flavor. With a short list of ingredients that include soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, orange juice, brown sugar, garlic, onions, ginger, and cognac. It’s the addition of the sweet brandy that gives this Black Swan barbecue sauce its flavor personality.

My wife and I tried this sauce on steak, ribs, and chicken wings. It worked well on each dish. My wife particularly enjoyed it on the chicken wings. I also scored points with my mother-in-law after she tried the Black Swan barbecue wings. I enjoyed each of the dishes we tried the sauce on as well, although it will never replace some of my more favorite pepper-based sauces. Continue Reading

There are just certain phrases a man never expects to hear himself utter. For me, “I’d like a little Baboon Ass, please,” certainly falls into that category of things I never wanted to hear myself say. These days, I say it often, and I say it with pride. The original Baboon Ass Habanero Hot sauce (as if there have been a lot of Baboon Asses to follow) is on my list of hot sauces to keep in stock.

From the instant you open this bottle, you’re drawn into the world of a masterfully crafted hot sauce. The enticing aroma of Habaneros hits you immediately. Continue Reading

Of all the hot pepper sauces that add carrots for sweetness and color, this just might be my favorite. Iguana XXX Habanero Pepper Sauce has a lot of heat and a lot of flavor, and one never gets sacrificed for the other. It’s fast becoming my preferred brand.

The ingredient list is headlined with the catchy – and true – phrase, “All Killer, No Filler.” Sure enough, there’s nothing here that you need to be a chemist to understand. Fresh ripe habaneros lead the list and the sauce does indeed have a fresh vegetable taste. Then comes carrots, vinegar, onions, lime juice, tomato paste, salt, and garlic. Ascorbic acid (which is simply vitamin C) is used as a preservative. All natural and good for you, too. Continue Reading

You remember that scene from Spinal Tap, where Christopher Guest’s character Nigel Tufnel is showing off his amp that goes to 11? Most amps, of course, only go to 10, but Nigel proudly states that his goes “one louder.” The joke is that the loudest is whatever the top number is, whether it’s 10 or 11; the only reason to make it 11 is to be different. And maybe just a little louder.

That’s kind of what Dave’s Gourmet has done. Its Dave’s Insanity Hot Sauce bills itself as “the hottest sauce in the universe.” So where do you go from there? You guessed it: to 11. Dave’s Ultimate Insanity Hot Sauce also bills itself as “the hottest sauce in the universe.” And guess what? It’s definitely one louder….er, hotter. Actually, it may even be two or three hotter. Continue Reading

This is one of the best barbecue sauces I’ve ever tasted. I opened the bottle and stuck my finger straight in. Fortunately, my wife doesn’t mind this behavior, and I did wash my hands first.

I tasted the Wild-Mild BBQ Sauce by itself and was impressed right away by delicate balance of sweet, smoky elements of the sauce, as well as the light application of cayenne peppers included to give it added flavor. I say “added flavor” because that’s exactly what the peppers do. There’s no real heat to this, which is the point of  the sauce, but there is flavor out of this world. Continue Reading

I should have exercised more caution. Anything that comes in a brown bottle and looks like medicine may be something to be careful about.   The ingredients fooled me, though: soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, raisins, garlic, and cinnamon. It almost sounds like A-1 Steak Sauce, minus the cinnamon.

What I underestimated in Scorpion Xtreme Hot Sauce was the potency of an ingredient I left out — chili extract. We’re not talking about chili peppers here. Continue Reading

Even though the name implies otherwise, you will definitely feel alive after even just the smallest amount of Blair’s Mega Death Hot Sauce. This is one of the hottest sauces on the market but not the spiciest for Blair’s which claims their Ultra Death is even hotter.

The bottle comes in a box and contains Blair’s signature skull keychain, which is proof positive that you survived death. The warning label proclaims, “Be warned: this sauce contains ingredients 500 times hotter than a jalapeno chile. Use sparingly. Not recommended for use without dilution.” Continue Reading

There are stereotypes and then there’s Ass Whoopin’ Redneck Sauce which features the confederate flag emblazoned on a wood patterned label. In keeping with the Dukes of Hazard theme the label is also riddled with bullet holes and written in southern drawl.

The sauce has the consistency of cream and smells like slightly sweet buffalo wings. Even though the bottle claims it to be “some hot shit y’all,” and its first ingredient is habenero peppers, I wasn’t convinced that this was dangerous stuff. The confederacy lost the Civil War, how strong could this sauce be right? Continue Reading

A deep reddish brown sauce in a bottle with an angry looking iguana smoking a cigar and wearing a military uniform must yield an interesting product, right? The tagline reads “Smoky, Savory, & Sort’a Hot”. Is it smoky? Yes. Is it savory? A little. Is it hot? No. Well, my grandma might think it is hot, but she also thinks that bell peppers offer a ‘kick’, so I’m not taking her advice on this one.

The first smell of the Iguana Smoky Chipotle Pepper Sauce makes you smell it again. What is that smell? A few more sniffs reveal hints of a Worcestershire-sauce type smell (methinks it could be the ‘artificial smoke flavoring’ listed in the ingredients). Overtones of oregano are also discernable. Continue Reading

Ashley Foods, makers of award-winning sauces and extracts, introduce the latest addition that’s sure to win over the fiery souls of super hot sauce aficionados everywhere. 357 Mad Dog Silver Collector’s Edition is an all-natural sauce, carefully crafted with 6,000,000 Scoville Pepper Extract, to create blistering heat that hits the 750,000 Scoville Units mark. At 20% hotter than the regular Mad Dog Collector’s Edition, this sauce is a must-have addition for heat seekers who want “the world’s hottest sauce”.

The question of which hot sauce delivers the most heat has been a source of fiery debate among chili-heads for years. Number one with a bullet. Made with 6,000,000 Scoville Pepper Extract. That’s the 357 Mad Dog Silver Collectors Edition packing 750,000 sizzlin’ Scoville units, along with the heavy weight crown of the Worlds Hottest Hot Sauce ever made. Continue Reading

The label on the fire ant juice hot sauce bottle transports you into a scene from a 1950’s sci-fi  flick, portraying a hapless victim & an eight foot fire ant. It might not be a bad idea to keep your local national guard unit and/or haz-mat crew on speed dial, just in case. . .

Ever sat your posterior down on what looked like a nice soft mound of earth in say, south carolina or thereabouts?  You may have soon received a less than hospitable welcome from the local inhabitants ! ! !  An example of the above  mentioned inhabitant is glued to the neck of each bottle of fire ant juice, presumably  to make for easier identification by any first responders or your next of kin, if necessary. Continue Reading

When I was a kid my friends and I used to play a game where we would go into a bathroom, turn off the lights, and chant “Bloody Mary” three times in front of a mirror, testing the legend that a ghastly image would appear in the reflection. Nothing ever happened, and as it turns out the fear was far more potent than the outcome.

“Another Bloody Day in Paradise Hot Sauce” has a similar affect on my taste buds. I want it to scare the crap out of me, but it ends up causing little more than a slow building burn. Continue Reading

Although the label does feature a skull surrounded by fire, compared to most other hot sauces, the design comes off as that of a no-frills sauce that is not interested in overselling itself. Full disclosure: Blair’s Pure Death Hot Sauce comes with a free dangling skull key chain, which is one of the easiest ways to get a positive review from me.

That being said, the smell gives off an acidic, tomatoey essence despite completely lacking the fruit. Instead, the sauce contains Habanero Chili Pods, Naga Jolokia, Vinegar and Hawaiian red salt. Continue Reading

Ashley Foods, maker of 357 Mad Dog collectors hot sauce, “World’s hottest hot sauce” responds to demands for a volcanic wing sauce with 357 Extreme Wing sauce, “World’s hottest wing sauce”. Not for Lily-livered chickens! It possesses EXTREME HEAT from Hell but also EXTREME TASTE, an orgasm for your mouth that will wing you to Heaven, with dynamic Chipotle Chile peppers, smooooth butter flavour, mellow beer buds, aged red peppers and garlic. The explosive heat and fireball of flavour produce monster taste, real taste – not that vinegar-y bite in common wing sauces. The ingredients are fresh, natural and preservative-free. Continue Reading

Bee Sting Mango Passion Pepper Sauce is accurate in placing the two fruits in the sauce’s name before the pepper, as you enjoy the fruity sweetness before you ever get to the extremely mild burn of the habaneros, which account for such a small portion of the sauce that they are listed ninth on the ingredient list.

Based on the label, all I can assume is that a deranged bee was used in the creation of this sauce, which might have made the sauce more interesting. Continue Reading

Blair’s Death Sauce would not ordinarily appear to have anything to do with children. How could incredibly hot sauces make a significant difference for needy kids? Well, Blair Lazar, the creative founder of Blair’s Sauces and Snacks, has found a way to simultaneously spread the heat and create beautiful smiles.

Lazar proudly announces the launch of his all-new, next generation, series of collectible “2am” and “3am” Reserve Bottles. Fifty percent of all proceeds are generously being donated to SmileTrain (www.smiletrain.org), the world’s largest cleft lip and cleft palate charities, and one of Lazar’s favorite causes. Continue Reading