My original exposure to Zhoug (or Schug, Shug, Schuug, etc, I’ve seen many spellings) was as an available topping at the Pita Pit chain, and I found the spicy and herbaceous condiment enthralling. Looking up some details it appears this style of sauce originated in Yemen, and then traveled throughout the Middle East where it…
Chili Crisp is rapidly becoming a very trendy spicy condiment these days. While I discovered it for myself with the ubiquitous Lao Gan Ma version when on a “grab some stuff that looks interesting” trip to the local Asian grocery store, there have been a huge number of artisanal and celebrity-chef backed offerings in the…
Born in St. Augustine, FL and matured into the final product in South Jersey, this brand is the result a bit of luck, some happenstance, and a lot of hard work by several friends who met in college and turned what could have remained a recipe only made and shared with friends and family to…
While not yet a staple on the shelves of American supermarkets, according to their website this is the best selling brand of chiltepin sauces in Mexico. Made proudly in Tijuana, the brand has four varieties – a classic red, a green, a black, and the subject of this review, a roasted variety. This is the…
There are local sauces, and there are sauces so local that someone from the company just drops your order off at your front door instead of bothering to go through the mail. Bells’ Peppers is a relatively new hot sauce maker which happens to be located in a driving-distance from my home, and as soon…
Recently Butterfly Bakery of Vermont released four new flavors, and being one of my favorite sauce makers, I had to order all of them to give them a try. This is the first of those new flavors for me to crack open, and though it may not be a set of flavors you’d normally associate…
While this isn’t a ‘hot sauce’ it is very spicy cocktail sauce in its own way. Containing no capsaicin, this does contain more freshly grated horseradish than any other cocktail sauce I’ve ever tried. I remember hearing about the St. Elmo Steakhouse, located in the surprisingly lovely city of Indianapolis, well over ten years ago,…
Seed Ranch is one of the craft hot sauce companies that I particularly love because of their tendency to create unique blends of flavor. This sauce is a play on a traditional Chipotle Sauce, but ends up being so much more. I’ll admit that I’m generally not a big fan of Chipotle Sauces, mainly because…
What’s better than a delicious sauce that’s also for a good cause? Taste of Immokalee is produced as part of a student entrepreneurship program in the economically disadvantaged community of Immokalee, FL. Immokalee is home to a large number of migrant farm laborers and is a major production center of tomatoes. This sauce isn’t tomato-based,…
Butterfly Bakery of Vermont is no stranger to beer hot sauce collaborations, and in fact the first sauce I ever tasted from the company, their Vienna Lager Mustard Hot Sauce, was one such example. That sauce became an instant favorite of mine, and subsequent sauces I’ve tasted from the company have not disappointed. This sauce…