Hot Picks
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As co-producer of the Scovie Awards, an annual spicy foods competition, Dave DeWitt has tasted a lot of hot sauces. Here, he shares some of his favorites.
Favorite Supermarket Hot Sauce: Cholula Hot Sauce This medium-heat sauce with the wooden cap is more full-flavored than many supermarket brands, which tend to have higher vinegar contents.
cholula.com
Best Louisiana-Style Hot Sauce: Ole Ray’s Get Sauced Pepper Sauce As one Scovie judge noted, “Nice solid sauce. I see pepper and I taste pepper. Long burn. Nice vinegar.”
olerayssauces.com
Best All-Natural Hot Sauce:Rising Sun Pepper Farm Apple Cinnamon Chipotle Sauce The Scovie award judges weren’t sure about this one at first, but the sweet-tart combination grew on them as they tasted the sauce.
risingsunpepperfarm.com
Best Fruity Hot Sauce: Sailor’s Swagger Pineapple Hot Sauce Pineapple, ginger, honey, and habañero chiles give this sauce a truly unique flavor.
sailorsswagger.com
Fickle Dave’s Favorite Sauce of the Moment:Panama Red Hot Sauce I’m the most fickle hot sauce fan I know, constantly changing my mind about which is the best. Right now, I cant think of a more flavorful sauce than Panama Red. It’s tasty without being outrageously hot, and it comes packaged in a handy flask for the true hot sauce addict.
panamaredhotsauce.com