Out of the hundreds on the shelves at the deli. I don’t necessarily want the plain out hottest, I expect that would just be inedible and only useful as a chemical weapon (non of that pure cap sillines). I’m looking for something with some serious kick (I use tabasco like ketchup and cook with whole habeneros* I’m not a chilli wuss) but which is usable in actual food not just as a novelty item.
I didn’t click on your link - I have to run out the door - but I want to say that I have the exact same criteria as you: I value hot, hot sauce but whose focus on flavor, not simply machismo.
I use **El Yucoteco Green ** - habanero sauce that is a standard, big brand in Mexico. Excellent - very flavorful and not for the faint of heart…and none of this posturing, macho crap.
There was a thread within the last three months that had a link that broke down all the hot sauces based on capsicum content. The ppm of capsicum in some of these bottles, I’ve heard, are beyond what humans can register. Anyway, my favorite, Dave’s Insanity Sauce, didn’t make the list. I think the Da’ Bomb did, or one of them, based on your link. I like Dave’s because while hot, it doesn’t change the flavor of what the thing is supposed to taste like. However, the more you use, the more you sense this burning taste. It’s probably your mouth literally on fire, but it still doesn’t overpower the original taste of the food. Also, it’s slow to kick in (maybe b/c I use so little of it). There’s much hotter out there, but I don’t know at what point you stop tasting food and only taste burning flesh.
I love Blair’s Sudden Death. It is hot. Really hot, and not the kind of sauce you dash all over your food. But 5 or 6 drops in your chili or sloppy joe sauce or meatloaf or whatever adds a really great kick as well as good flavor.
I’ll second El Yucoteco, I like both the green and the red. That is one that you actually can put fairly liberally on your food and still enjoy, with a nice healthy burn and great flavor, although I tend to pretty much only use it on Mexican dishes, which we eat a lot of anyway.
Get yoursel Dave’s Insanity Sauce for the hottest thing that can be used straight from the bottle without causing instant death and still tasting nice.
I susspect the Honey Cayenne Hot Mustard is very nice, I’ve used several of the other items from the same series of sauces. But it won’t be very hot. In fact the presance of it on that list makes me think the list isn’t well researched when it comes to raw heat.
Dave’s Insanity is easily available and a great measure against other hot sauces, there are a few that are hotter, but Dave’s is the yardstick for super hot sauces.
Seriously though, do not overdo the first time you try Dave’s, if you use it like most people would use Tabasco (4 or 5 drops on a plateful of food) you will still blow your taste buds further than 4 or 5 bottles of tobasco on a plate full of food.
Dave’s Insanity has surprisingly good flavor and, of the super hot sauces, is the most edible. You will get used to it pretty quickly, though, if you’re anything like me. If you want to kick it up a notch, I think Wanza’s Wicked Temptation is pretty good, and supposedly 2 million Scoville units (Dave’s Insanity is around 50,000). To tell you the truth, once you get to Dave’s Insanity level, I don’t think there’s much differentiating the heat.
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