By pancakenap in Hot Sauce — Dec 27, 2024

Hot Sauce Reviews: Year-End Summary

Thanks for joining me for this roundup!

Key Points

Entry Level Hot Sauce Aficionado: Became interested in hot sauce around April of this year and has been exploring different brands, flavours, and heat levels.
- Aspiring Pepper Cultivator: Interested in growing own peppers and eventually making hot sauce.
- Hot Sauce Review Methodology: Structured approach to reviewing hot sauce, including noting purchase statistics, sensory observations, and data analysis.
- Future Exploration: Narrow pepper repertoire featured this year. Aiming to try more hot sauces beyond habanero-based sauces.
Total Spending: $543.08 for the year, averaging $54.31 per basket.
- Price Range: Least expensive at $6, most expensive at $26, averaging $12.09 per bottle. Under $10 are considered inexpensive, while $20+ is expensive.
Best Rated: Dawson’s Original Hot Sauce is the favourite, Torchbearer Garlic Reaper Hot Sauce is a game-changer, and Marie Sharp’s Beware Hot Sauce is the third place.

Introduction

Around April of this year, I became hot sauce aware. I’d always liked hot sauce, but I wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about it.

This year, I started noticing the variety of hot sauces available, the different flavours, and the heat levels. It’s been really cool exploring mainstream brands, testing the heat they offer, and appreciating the subtle flavour nuances.

Along this journey, I discovered Ed Currie and his contributions to pepper breeding. That led me into the world of pepper enthusiasts who breed for unique flavours and heat profiles. Since this blog touches on plants you can cultivate or buy as products, hot sauce fits perfectly into the scope.

Grow Your Own

I’ve got my first pepper plant finished now, though I’ve done a terrible job (see picture below). I’m looking forward to improving next year with the cool seeds I’ve purchased this year. My goal is to eventually finish a plant properly and start making my own hot sauces.

In the meantime, I’ve been diving into store-bought sauces, and that’s what this post is all about.

Hot Sauce Reviews

Like my cannabis reviews, I use a structured approach for hot sauce. I note purchase stats in a spreadsheet and add sensory observations as I use each sauce. I then calculate variances and averages using a data-visualization program and display reviews in the context of sensory experience vs. price (compared to the moving average of my purchases).

I’m still writing detailed reviews of the hot sauces I’ve tried this year, but I thought it was a good time for a year-end summary. In this post, I’ll go over my spending, purchasing habits, favourite sauces, and top recommendations.

Region

I’m based in Canada, so all prices are in CAD and reflect buying hot sauce here. I suspect hot sauce gets both cheaper and better the further south you go—but this is where I start.

Main Dish

Scrambled eggs and potatoes are my go-to dishes for testing hot sauces. I don’t rank sauces solely on how they work with this dish; if they don’t work here, I move to a dish where they shine and rate them there.

Let’s dive in!

Total Spending

Hot sauce spending totalled $543.08 for the year. Since April, I’ve spent an average of $54.31 per month. My maximum expenditure was $104 (likely to get free shipping from a vendor), and my lowest purchase was $5.99, probably from Amazon.

Spending shown daily (blue) and by running sum (orange).

Spending by Brand and Vendor

Dawson’s Hot Sauce (Hamilton, Ontario) dominated my spending, both as a brand and a vendor. I first encountered them at Lucifer’s House of Heat, but I’ve since ordered directly from Dawson’s.

Relative spending by brand (top) and vendor (bottom). Total spent was $543.08.

Here’s the top four brands I spent the most on this year:

1. Dawson’s Hot Sauce

2. Queen Majesty

3. Maritime Madness

4. Torchbearer

For vendors, I used Dawson’s, Lucifer’s House of Heat, Maritime Madness, and Amazon.

Price Per Bottle

Looking at bottle prices by vendor, there’s some overlap. Buying directly from Dawson’s is cheaper than buying through a distributor—no surprise there. Maritime Madness and Amazon also offer lower prices.

Retail price per single bottle of hot sauce purchased by vendor and brand. Prices in CAD before tax.

The least expensive hot sauce I purchased was $6, while the most expensive was $26. On average, I paid $12.09 per bottle.

Price Per mL

Here’s a breakdown of bottle prices by volume, showing how each sauce compares to the average price per milliliter. More expensive sauces extend further right, while cheaper ones extend further left.

• Least expensive (by volume): Melinda’s Ghost Pepper Black Truffle Hot Sauce, followed by Maritime Madness sauces.

• Most expensive (by volume): Torchbearer, Dawson’s (via third-party vendors), and Queen Majesty, nearing 40% above average.

Variance from the average price per mL of all hot sauces purchased in 2024.

Dawson’s averages out, while Marie Sharp’s (from Amazon) is 10% cheaper than the average. As much as I dislike buying hot sauce from Amazon, they’re quick, cheap, and quality (depending on what you buy).

Qualitative Ratings

I rate hot sauces on a scale of 1 to 10 based purely on taste. While I’m untrained and have no business reviewing hot sauces (like with cannabis), here’s what I’ve got:

• Favorite: Dawson’s Original Hot Sauce. It has a good level of heat, great taste, and long-term appeal. It’s neither cheap nor overly expensive.

• Game-Changer: Torchbearer Garlic Reaper Hot Sauce. This one got me into hot sauces. It’s expensive but worth it.

• Third Place: Marie Sharp’s Beware Hot Sauce. Excellent heat with a flowery habanero taste.

Other highlights:

• Mike Jack’s Eats Heat Tropical Fury (Dawson’s-produced) hits fast and fades quickly but has great garlic and tropical fruit notes.

• Marie Sharp’s Scorpion Hot Sauce: Earthy and flavourful.

Subjective rating out of 10 for all hot sauces purchased and rated in 2024.

Beyond the top five:

• Queen Majesty Red Habanero & Black Coffee and Scotch Bonnet & Ginger: Unique but less versatile.

• Maritime Madness Mustard Pickle: Great for sandwiches and sausage.

Ratings by Value

I clustered hot sauces by value (qualitative rating vs. variance from avg price per mL):

Clustered scatterplot of rating (out of 10) and variance from average price per mL of hot sauce offerings.

1. Cluster 1 - Must have: Best rated, near-average price.

2. Cluster 2 - Good value : Good rated sauces that cost a bit more.

3. Cluster 3 - Unicorns: High-rated but expensive

4. Cluster 4 - Avoid: Low-rated, cheap sauces.

Final Thoughts

Been a good year with lots of new flavours!

I love Canadian and habanero-based sauces, but next year, I aim to broaden my palate beyond habaneros.

Hot sauces under $10 are “cheap,” while $25+ is “expensive." I found little correlation between bottled price and qualitative rating.

Thanks for reading! I tried to grow a jalapeño plant outside this year. Here’s a picture of the peppers I yielded—gotta start somewhere, but I’m excited to improve and have more to talk about next year. See you then.