The Absolute Hottest Hot Sauces In The World
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So you've got hot sauce in your bag, swag. You and many other households because the hot sauce market in 2018 accounted for about $700 million in sales. The Wall Street Journal says the popularity of hot sauce is "fueled by growing immigrant populations, thrill-seeking food shows, pop culture references and diners' increasing familiarity with global cuisines." From Tobasco to sriracha, it seems everywhere you go you find hot sauce sitting cozily next to bottles of ketchup and mustard. But sriracha is for amateur hour. It may be delicious, but once a hot sauce starts showing up in Cheez-Its, ice cream sundaes, Big Macs, and on the cars we drive, it's so mainstream that dripping sriracha on your food is as common as slathering it with ketchup.
Some like it hot, as in really, really hot. As in risking their health to consume it hot. As in consuming some of these hot sauces could result in "a temporarily irregular heartbeat and breathing" hot. The following hot sauces are ranked using the Scoville scale, a system that let's you know exactly how hot a particular food is. The numbers of a Scoville rating correspond with how many equal parts of sugar water would need to mixed with the offending hot sauce or pepper before you can't taste the heat at all.
In case you're wondering, it's a lot, so consider yourself warned. You definitely want to consume these at your own risk.
Predator Great White Shark Hot Sauce
There's a great term called benign masochism that you see tossed around to describe people who enjoy things like hot sauce. It's a way to get your thrills without facing any real danger. Like diving in a shark cage. Or dripping some Predator Great White Shark on your food.
For fans of this hot sauce, every week is shark week! This stuff is only 175,000 Scoville units, so even though it's very hot, the great white of hot sauce is still at the bottom of this list. On Amazon, a reviewer had this to say about how he uses Predator, "I use this stuff whenever I want to reliably adjust the heat of a dish or drink without having to dump in a gallon of sauce. It's very efficient. I'd say about 5 drops of this stuff will warm up a gallon of bloody mary mix about as much as an entire bottle of tobasco (sic) would."
This hot sauce contains vinegar, habaneros, papaya, bananas, and pineapple. No sharks were harmed in the making of this hot sauce.
Reaper Squeezins Hot Sauce
No, it's not the name of some dangerous but also cuddly chapter of the Hells Angels. Reaper Squeezins is actually a very dangerous hot sauce, which ranks in at 2.2 million Scoville.
On the PuckerButt Pepper Company product page, a reviewer by the name of Neil Gobbi had this to say -"I... am a glutton for punishment. I served not four, but six years in the US Navy. I've been married TWICE. I've owned two Saabs. Most of all, I continue to purchase Reaper Squeezins every time my bottle goes dry. My tongue has taken on a separate identity, and has been plotting to kill me, its torturous captor, in between dousings. My internal organs have taken on the consistency of a Cummins diesel radiator hose."
As with a lot of these mega hot sauces, people are adding them to things like chili and guacamoles. Keep in mind, if you ever overdo it on the drops of hot sauce you add to your recipes you can always tone down the spice level by adding a sweetener — or by not being such a big baby and shutting up and eating your salsa.
Magma Hot Sauce
Magma hails from the Buckeye State and you would think a state known for the dulcet grooves of John Legend and being home to the world's largest horseshoe crab wouldn't also be the birthplace of a hot sauce measuring 4 million Scoville, but here we are.
Magma hot sauce is a clear liquid base with oleoresin of capsicum suspended in it so it gives the appearance of a lava lamp. You are supposed to shake it up before using, and then the "lava" settles back to the bottom. Magma is 10,000 times spicier than Frank's Red Hot. The reviews on Amazon mostly claim that the sauce isn't very hot, but that could be due to the fact you need to shake it so the capsicum mixes with the vinegar before using it. One reviewer says their 7-year-old likes it. Early exposure to spicy foods can lead to having a kid who loves spicy foods, but you probably still shouldn't put this hot sauce on your toddler's Cheerios.
Blair's Mega Death Sauce with Liquid Fury
Blair's Mega Death Hot sauce with Liquid Fury is supposed to be used very sparingly, probably because it is 550,000 on the Scoville scale.
Finding out what exactly "liquid fury" means is nearly impossible, but this product does contain molasses which is said to mask the liquid fury that comes after. Whatever liquid fury is, it doesn't sound good, and this hot sauce, apparently, packs a ton of it. Blair's Mega Death Hot sauce with Liquid Fury is said to be 650 times hotter than a jalapeño. On a review for this sauce, Mark Belanger writes "Great sauce. Feels like getting shot in the tongue. Not that I ever got shot in the tongue but I imagine that's how it would feel." You can even buy special edition bottles that arrive in a little coffin box with a skull keychain. Adorable.
The End Hot Sauce
The End is one of the hot sauces that you have to sign a waiver before trying. It's ranked at 6 million Scoville units.
There are videos of people vomiting while trying it — which we wouldn't blame you for not watching. (You can even buy a T-shirt to prove how badass you are after trying it.) The End hot sauce has a wax seal on the bottle. Even the bottle looks scary.
A study suggests that people who enjoy spicy food may be more prone to alcoholism because the same reward receptors in the brain that are triggered by alcohol consumption can also be triggered by eating spicy food. Eating spicy foods releases endorphins. Endorphins make you happy and they also make you feel like you are experiencing a high. Now, that's not to say that everyone brave enough to try The End is also an alcoholic but it would take a lot of booze to get most of us to try something so spicy that you have to sign a waiver for taking a taste test. Just saying.
Bumblefoot BumbleF***ed Hot Sauce
If you are in a band you must also have a hot sauce. Because Bad Brains has one! The Flaming Lips have one named after them, too. And now Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal, the former guitarist of Guns and Roses has one too. Actually, he has six hot sauces that are "all natural, gluten free and peanut allergy safe."
Rating 6 million on the Scoville scale, this hot sauce contains habaneros, papaya, ginger and caffeine... because of course it does. He says the proceeds from the hot sauces will be going to women's health charities.
There have been some arguments about this sauce, because according to the label it has 6 million Scoville units, but an Amazon customer was quick to point out that it may actually contain 6 million Scoville extract according to some fine print on the label. Regardless, that sounds just hot enough that after you eat it you decide going on tour with Axl Rose is a pretty good idea.
The Source Hot Sauce
The Source is a very ominous sounding name. The source of what? The source of all evil? No, because according to the product description, The Source hot sauce is all about love. "Legend has it that the god of love held the Source of all energy. He was trusted with this responsibility by the other gods because his heart was filled with good." That sounds pretty cheerful for a product that contains 7.1 million Scoville and has warnings like "Do not get this hot sauce on your hands or spray it where kids or pets are playing or located! Do not consume directly. When spraying, wear safety glasses and gloves and make sure you don't get it on your body anywhere." Yikes!
The Source is a bit more expensive than other hot sauces, costing around $90 a bottle, but how can you put a price on love? The Try My Nuts product page reads "The Source Extract is not ridiculously hot. Nor is it insanely hot. It is BOTTLED NAPALM hot! It starts off fairly tame... for about half a second. You then begin to feel like your tongue has been pierced. Next it really gets bad, you inhale a gasp of air and the agony sticks itself to the back of your throat! The next 5 to 30 minutes (yes up to 30 minutes of hell!) will need to be spent with your head under the tap or chugging gallons of milk." Sounds like a fun way to spend a Monday night.
Mad Dog 357 No. 9 Plutonium Hot Sauce
Mad Dog 357 No. 9 Plutonium isn't even a sauce per se. Due to the high concentration of capsicum (60 percent!) and a terrifying Scoville rating of 9 million, Mad Dog 357 sometimes arrives to customers solidified, so you can't even use it until you warm it up to its liquid form.
There are a lot of super scary Amazon reviews on this lovely product, that read things such as "This tastes like pure hatred" and "Almost put me in the hospital. Was vomiting violently from an incredibly tiny amount." Another review says "want a much cheaper version of this? put gas in your mouth and light it and dont (sic) bother putting it out cause you cant (sic) with this stuff when you go to hell you go to hell and you learn how to deal with it." Hurray!
There are many videos on YouTube of people "pranking" their friends and loved ones by putting this substance on their foods and having their unknowing suspects consume it. With friends like those, who needs enemies? If you enjoy watching people cry and vomit, then these videos are for you.
Blair's Caldera hot sauce
Blair's Caldera Hot Sauce is extremely difficult to find because it was a limited edition item of 500 bottles, and hot sauce collectors snatched them right up. The bottle stands almost a foot tall and according to Hot Sauce Planet, it was actually three bottles in one. "The bottom bottle is 1,500,000 Scoville units, the middle bottle is 5,000,000 Scoville units, and the top bottle is approx between 10,000,000 and 13,000,000 Scoville units."
13 million Scoville, now we're talking. If by "talking" you mean having to sign a waiver before purchasing it. If you are an avid collector of things you should never actually consume, you can occasionally find bottles for sale on ebay. And if you still can't wrap your mind around exactly how hot this sauce is, one forum says that one drop of Caldera mixed with 25 gallons of vegetable oil would taste as hot as Tabasco sauce.
Blair's 16 Million Reserve hot sauce
Only 999 of these were made and according to the warning on the ChiliWorld website, and you can understand why. Their warning reads: "Should you actually attempt to make use of this product EXERCISE EXTREME CAUTION! This is not a sauce. Avoid any and all skin contact. This is a food additive and is not intended for direct consumption. We recommend it is a collector's item and should not be not consumed. Over 18's only. Keep away from children and pets. Do not consume."
This product registers 16 million Scoville. The creator of this product, Blair Lazar actually consumed this product, and told The Telegraph, "The pain was exquisite," he said. "It was like having your tongue hit with a hammer. Man, it hurt. My tongue swelled up and it hurt like hell for days."
Technically not even a hot sauce, Blair's 16 million reserve contains capsaicin particles that you can dissolve in a liquid to consume, if you know, you have a death wish. Keep in mind, according to Business Insider, ingesting capsaicin can have very adverse effects, "In severe cases, you may develop blisters in the throat, vomit, and even go into anaphylactic shock." Let's all stick with consuming hot sauce in its liquid form instead.