Every hot sauce, ranked by heat
Nineteen bottles, from Frank's RedHot at 450 SHU to Blair's Ultra Death at 1,100,000. Sauces sit lower on the scale than the peppers in them, because a sauce is mostly vinegar, salt and water — Tabasco is made from a 40,000 SHU pepper and lands at 3,750.
Two families are worth telling apart. Fermented mash sauces built on cayenne or habanero taste of the pepper. Extract sauces — anything past about 100,000 SHU on a supermarket shelf — get their heat from concentrated oleoresin capsicum, and are closer to a challenge than a condiment.
| Published range | Origin | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frank's RedHot | 450 | — | Glow | Louisiana, 1920 |
| Louisiana Hot Sauce | 450 | — | Glow | New Iberia, Louisiana |
| Texas Pete | 750 | — | Glow | North Carolina |
| Valentina | 900 | — | Glow | Jalisco, Mexico |
| Cholula | 1,000 | 1K–2K | Glow | Jalisco, Mexico |
| Valentina Extra Hot | 2,100 | — | Kick | Jalisco, Mexico |
| Sriracha | 2,200 | 1K–2.5K | Kick | Si Racha, Thailand — and Irwindale, California |
| Tapatío | 3,000 | — | Burn | Los Angeles |
| Tabasco | 3,750 | 2.5K–5K | Burn | Avery Island, Louisiana, 1868 |
| Crystal | 4,000 | — | Burn | New Orleans |
| El Yucateco Green | 5,790 | — | Burn | Mérida, Mexico |
| Tabasco Habanero | 7,000 | — | Bite | Avery Island, Louisiana |
| El Yucateco Red | 9,000 | — | Bite | Mérida, Mexico |
| Crystal Extra Hot | 10,000 | — | Bite | New Orleans |
| Marie Sharp's Habanero | 15,000 | — | Sting | Belize |
| Da Bomb Beyond Insanity | 135,600 | — | Blaze | United States |
| Dave's Insanity | 180,000 | — | Blaze | United States |
| Mad Dog 357 | 357,000 | — | Inferno | Massachusetts |
| Blair's Ultra Death | 1,100,000 | — | Reaper | New Jersey |
Start at the rung you are actually on
Twelve rungs. The top one is a Carolina Reaper, whole, in front of witnesses. You do not have to want that to want rung seven.
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