Tostitos Toppers Fire Roasted Red Chili Pepper Sauce

This is a solid hot sauce. It was a little bit smoky, maybe, which is a taste of the forbidden (i.e. am I allergic to this?!?!). Very dark color. Decently spicy. OK for eggs, and I haven't tried it on anything else. 

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Tabasco Original Red Hot Sauce

What a very cute and small bottle of hot sauce! The good news is, their website makes clear that this contains no nuts. The bad news is, I do not like this hot sauce. The good news is, it was a very small bottle! While I do really like the Victoria's Hot Sauce I've been pouring on quesadillas all year, this is very different in terms of flavor. Less bright, less tomato-y, less sweet? More burnt. Also, it really was hot (spicy) compared to what I'm used to! Maybe it's just a familiarity thing. In any case, I did not like this on my taco.

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 4/10

La Victoria Salsa Brava (Hot)

I needed a little flavor in my egg + tortilla "burritos", and this was just the thing! I really wanted a safe, non-allergy-y hot sauce that tasted great and I got one here, which was super lucky because I just picked a random one on Amazon. This is hot, but not in a painful or vinegar-y way (although I swallowed a little down the wrong tube and that was hell, but a rare incident hopefully). It tastes just like tomato, hot pepper, and breakfast burrito. Awesome stuff.

Overall

Cost: 7/10 (2.50$ish)

Taste: 8/10

Sweet Baby Ray's Hot Sauce

This was good! Not as good as their BBQ sauce, obviously, but for a sauce not loaded with sugar, it was really nice. It went on chicken and veg nicely, and was hot but not super hot, just a standard hot-wing type sauce.

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 6/10

Dave's Gourmet - Ginger Citrus Creamy Hot Sauce

I was hovering between rating this a 4 and a 5, but because I really only ate it on raw veggies (brocco/cauli) I rounded up. They recommend trying this with chips (?!) and I think I should try it on some chicken, my go-to sauce sponge. I just haven't gotten around to it yet. Anyway, this is "creamy" but also vegan, so you know it's gonna be a little bit funky. I found it to be quite hot/spicy, with a vinegary flavor. It got to be a little too much for me after a short while, not in terms of heat but just in terms of the flavor. I guess the combo of vinegar/cumin(warning for nut allergy people?)/hot pepper isn't my favorite. I will say I emailed the company to ask if this was safe for me, since they also sell nuts, and they said that basically the nuts were a separate line and I'd be fine. I wasn't super convinced but at least they answered me quickly, and indeed I didn't die, so I guess the story checks out.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 5/10

Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce

Look, is Sriracha overrated? In my view, yes - or at least it was when I was in college, it seems like the hype may have died down. But that doesn't mean it's not good. It's a spicy chili sauce, a little bit sweet, a little bit salt/vinegar/garlicy too, but mainly you just taste chilis. I like it on sandwiches, or even with scrambled egg and pepper (new discovery!) or even mixed with mayo (shocking discovery). Not a big fan of it on pasta or rice dishes, even "asian" ones. Used to get it on my Roots bowls (veg/grain bowls) which added a nice kick of heat but also seemed to give me terrible stomach cramps. So I guess moderation is key. It doesn't seem that hot to me when I'm eating it, but after I'm done I always get a bit sniffly and mouth-burny. In a good way, though. Probably good if you have a cold! I think this is also called Rooster sauce but that's silly, it's not made of rooster.

Overall
Cost: 7/10
Taste: 6/10

Nando's Peri-Peri Sauce (Medium)

 Well, well, well. I got this in a Degustabox and I was pretty excited, because everyone loves Nando's but I've never gone since I know they serve nuts. (I've heard they're quite good about allergens if you inform them, but it seems quite the hassle for some chicken). Anyway, excited to try this sauce, I bought an entire chicken, dumped it on there, and heated it up. It was pretty good. Spicy but not very spicy (it is medium, after all), a bit creamy, and overall a nice taste that's a little more unique than a garden variety hot sauce. This bottle isn't actually that much sauce, since I used it in like 2 weeks or ~4 chickens! My favorite is one chicken breast grilled in this on 2 small potato buns. Livin' the dream.




Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 7/10