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Hottest Hot Sauces

What good is hot sauce so scorching you can't even taste it?

Published May 1, 2012.

Top Pick

WinnerHeartbreaking Dawns 1498 Cauterizer

One of the first commercially available sauces made with Trinidad Scorpion Butch T peppers, this sauce packs a punch without neglecting flavor. It contains apricots, blueberries, carrots, and honey, which give it a “smoky,” “sweet,” “fruity” flavor that balances its “harsh,” “biting” heat. Tasters liked it for use on “all things meat” and warned that it’s “not deadly but not something to take lightly either.”

Heat: 8 out of 10Type of Chilie: Trinidad Scorpion Butch T pepperPrice at Time of Testing: $9.99 for 5 fl oz ($2 per oz)

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Heat: 8 out of 10Type of Chilie: Trinidad Scorpion Butch T pepperPrice at Time of Testing: $9.99 for 5 fl oz ($2 per oz)

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See Everything We Tested

What You Need to Know

Some people want their hot sauce to deliver a pleasant jolt of heat, while others want a condiment that packs tongue-searing, tear-inducing fire. For the latter camp, we mail-ordered four brands of the hottest hot sauces we could find and stocked up on milk and ice cream to have at the ready as antidotes. We also invited chef Jason Heard, who runs the legendary East Coast Grill’s famous “Hell Night” dinners in Cambridge, Mass., to join the bravest among us for a punishing taste-off, in which the sauces were sparingly dribbled over steamed rice.

These sauces mean business, but everyone agreed that they still needed to function as condiments, providing good flavor, balance, and complexity—not just heat. Such was the downfall of the bottom-ranked hot sauce—notably the only sauce to come with a warning for those with heart and respiratory problems—which offered nothing more than a painful, bitter-tasting burn. Our third-place finisher didn’t hurt nearly as much but delivered even less flavor. That’s because the clear liquid contained no chiles, just capsaicin crystals. We much preferred our second-place finisher, a classic-tasting scorcher with fruity tang. Thanks to the addition of apricot preserves, blueberries, and honey, our winning sauce made with Trinidad Scorpion Butch T peppers is fruity and smoky, but not deadly.

Everything We Tested

“Fruity” and “earthy,” with a “great balance of spice and flavor,” this sauce had a pleasant “acidic tang” that made it the most like a classic hot sauce. Made with Bhut Jolokia pepper (which held the Guinness World Record for “hottest” before the Trinidad Scorpion Butch T came along), its heat is milder than our winner’s and dissipates quickly, though it’s still “very strong.”

Heat: 7 out of 10Type of Chilie: Bhut Jolokia (ghost pepper)Price at Time of Testing: $10 for 5 fl oz ($2 per oz)

Recommended with reservations

Frostbite White Hot Sauce

While the floating crystals of pure capsaicin in this clear vinegar sauce looked intimidating, it turned out to be the “mildest” in the super-hot lineup. It offers some burn but “no flavor” aside from a slight “sour” taste, which made it seem pointless to some tasters, though others thought it would be “the perfect ingredient when all you want to add is heat.”

Heat: 6.5 out of 10Type of Chilie: NonePrice at Time of Testing: $9 for 5 fl oz ($1.80 per oz)

Not Recommended

Dave’s Gourmet Limited Edition Private Reserve Insanity Sauce

Just a scant dropperful of this sauce left even our bravest tasters in “intense,” “building pain” that lingered for several minutes. It comes with a roll of caution tape and a warning label, and we don’t recommend ingesting it the same way we don’t recommend touching a hot stove. The ingredients include passion fruit and lime juice, garlic, and onion, but our tastebuds were so blown away that we didn’t register any of those flavors, though some tasters managed to detect an “awful,” “bitter, burnt” flavor before the burning sensation set in. Many tasters noted that they wouldn’t use this sauce for anything but a “cruel prank” or a “dare.”

Heat: 11 out of 10Type of Chilie: Bhut Jolokia (ghost pepper), habanero, and tabascoPrice at Time of Testing: $36 for 5 fl oz ($7.20 per oz)

*All products reviewed by America’s Test Kitchen are independently chosen, researched, and reviewed by our editors. We buy products for testing at retail locations and do not accept unsolicited samples for testing. We list suggested sources for recommended products as a convenience to our readers but do not endorse specific retailers. When you choose to purchase our editorial recommendations from the links we provide, we may earn an affiliate commission. Prices are subject to change.

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