Rather than resurrect one of the decade-old threads, I’m starting a new one for discussing hot sauce.
I looked up the Scoville units for these three hot sauces:
Why is it that the Yucatan Sunshine, which has the highest Scoville units, tastes milder than the other two? And yes, I do apply them all quite liberally.
I’ve not tried the Yucatan.
A recent (~10 years) trend is dumping significant sugar into commercial hot sauce recipes. Which doesn’t change the Scoville readings, but softens the percieved heat. A lot.
You might check the ingredient list for sugar & sugar analogs.
No sugar.
Can’t do habanero. 
I like a good hot sauce. Seems like I had a thread a couple months ago about hot sauce.
Right now I’m using a Korean spicy garlic sauce. That is really good. Can’t think of the brand. It’s not fancy. Great on noodles.
I like heat and garlic together.
I always watch the carbs and added sugars.
Personal tastes vary, but I’ll disagree with @Johnny_L.A. For me, Yucatan is one of my favorite cheap and cheerful hot sauce brands - there are tons of better options, but not at that price point.
And I absolutely taste the heat in their scotch bonnet and habanero sauces. While for Tapatio and tabasco I don’t register any heat other than the “burn” of vinegar. Which may be a part of it - some people associate hot sauces with the sharp vinegar tang instead of the more lingering capsicum burn. Or our tastes could just be different.
@LSLGuy is also correct, adding sugar often offsets the initial heat quite a bit - which is why I add fruit to my homemade habanero hot sauces, and plenty of the commercial ones have more added sugar than I like, unless I’m buying one for the sweet and savory, like a lot of honey based hotsauce.
The ‘sharp vinegar tang’ is the signature of three-ingredient Louisiana-style hot sauces. Tabasco is totally different from Tapatio or Yucatan Sunshine or Frank’s. (And they’re all different from sriracha. Different sauces for different foods.)
Sure, that’s why I included the whole “different people, different tastes” thing. But you’re right, I should have been more specific in my earlier post. It would have been better phrased as “While for Tapatio and tabasco I don’t register any heat other than the “burn” of vinegar in the Tabasco”.
Sloppy writing on my part. But pretty much for any hot sauce out there, if the first ingredient is water, vinegar, or tomatoes, I’m not likely to notice the heat. And for quite a few habanero hot sauces, it leads with carrots (giving it body, color and sugar) and it really mutes the heat for me.
Of course, I’m a outlier on heat preferences due to my regional training, so I don’t presume to speak for everyone.
But giving a concrete example, I’ve pulled out a bottle of Yellow Bird “Plum Reaper Hot Sauce”. Sure it’s got Carolina Reaper peppers, but the ingredients are as follows:
Distilled Vinegar, Carrots, Plums, Organic Cane Sugar, Garlic, Red Miso Paste, Carolina Reaper Peppers, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Ginger, Salt.
Tasty as heck, but given the proportions and sugar content (sugar + fruit), it’s comparatively mild. It does have heat, don’t get me wrong, but shows that different proportions of ingredients has a lot more effect than just the heat of the peppers.
For a basic habanero sauce w no frills, I’m a fan of Yucateca brand. One green raw sauce, one red smoked sauce. Similar (significant) heat but very different flavor overtones. And zero BS or sugar.
Never mind. Inadvertent dupe post.
The sharp vinegar tang is why we like Louisiana Hot sauce on greens and catfish.
I put the hot allover my catfish. Them hush puppies are good in the sauce too.
But, yeah. To each his own.
If you like habanero, and my Texas sister does, go for it.
She makes her own hot sauce with peppers she grows. My god, Satan would not eat it. It is brutal.
Huh. I thought I had ‘other’ hot sauces. (At hand, I have Tabasco and Trappey’s Louisiana sauces, Tapatio, Yucatan Sunshine, Sriracha, and Frank’s Original.) I thought I had a couple of novelty brands in the cupboard, but I could only find Alien Ambush Cayenne Pepper sauce. It looks like your basic Louisiana-style. [NB: Alien Ambush appears to be out of business.]
My personal favorite at the moment is Yellow Bird habanero sauce. Great flavor, but not sure how widely available it is right now. It has just the right amount of kick for me. According to the interwebs, it comes in at about 15,580 to 54,530 Scoville Heat Units.
The softness in Yucatan is probably from the habs. They have a citrusy flavor I adore, and it seems to mellow the heat some.
Seconding Yellow Bird. Their Blue Agave sriracha is my go-to for Asian dishes.
Secret Aardvark sauces can’t be beat, if you can find them.
I still use Sriracha on a lot of different dishes, but my recent favorite is from Belize, Marie Sharp’s habanero sauce. It’s carrot based, which gives it a unique flavor. Very, very hot, as well. I love it.
I have no idea how to make hot sauce from peppers, but if your sister can make it from peppers that she grows, then you might suggest that she try growing “Burning Bush” peppers. This is a variety of habanero peppers. Just as hot, but with a touch of sweetness.
I grow them every year. They freeze well, and if you only use them in things like chili and stews and the like, they’re great at adding some zip to the dish. I’d like to try a sauce from them; a hot sauce made from them might be somewhat more versatile.
Criminally easy
1 cup of vinegar
1 tblsp sugar
1 tblsp salt
Drop of oil.
Pack the cleaned peppers in a pint jar.
Heat vinegar and spices. When hot pour over peppers. Put in the rear of your fridge for a week or so.
Use the liquid as hot sauce. If you dare eat the pepper.
Thanks, @Beckdawrek . I may just give it a try sometime. Some of my frozen peppers are the size of golf balls, others are the size of marbles. Sounds like the sauce would give me the flavour, but on a consistent basis, like a teaspoon per pot, for example.
Those measurements are for one pint jar.
Gotcha, thanks. I’ve got a few of those hanging around, thanks to a friend who would gift me a few jars of her homemade pickles every Christmas.
I came here to praise a Portland company I backed on Kickstarter a few years ago, which makes a strawberry-basil-Carolina Reaper hot sauce that’s intended for use as an ice cream topping.
However, upon trying to go to their website so I could link it for y’all, they’ve apparently gone out of business.
RIP 2 Angry Cats.