Now I don’t want to waste any hot sauce lover’s time here so I want to give you the low-down on the type of spicy I like.
I’m the person that, if I know the person well enough when they have me for dinner, I’ll ask for hot sauce to smother their perfectly good, delicious meal with. I don’t want to offend of course, so if we aren’t tight or I know it’s not appropriate, I won’t ask for it. But I’m always thinking about which hot sauce would complement the meal. As a baseline, I would put Cholula on almost anything and be happy. It’s not the spiciest but is often a common household item that has a decent enough flavor to usually not offend most types of food. I like Sriracha in very specific scenarios, on certain Asian cuisines and rice bowls, but not on much else. (I could never get on the sriracha on pizza or mac & cheese train. Nope, never.) I can usually tell if I’m going to like a fresh salsa just by looking at it (no pale tomatoes, giant chunks of onion, or sweet marinara looking cytoplasm please). I love green hot sauces and salsa. Green tomatillo sauces are the first ones I grab at a Mexican food stand. OveralI I like a solid vinegar base balanced by flavor, a decent level of spiciness that doesn’t overpower flavor, and minimal sweetness.
Rating Scale
I rate hot sauce on a scale from 1-5 in two categories, heat and flavor.
I then give an overall rating. *Note this overall rating is not an average. It is a reflection of how much I like the hot sauce. (ie. While a hot sauce may score high in heat, I might not like that level of heat with that particular flavor. Therefore the overall rating may be lower than the average.)
Spicy Dog 