There’s nothing like hot sauce to give your food pizzaz, so we set out on a mission to round up some of the best bottles to get your pulse up and palate tingling. This isn’t a list of the “Top 10 Hottest Melt-Your-Face-Off Sauces,” nor is it a competition. We went looking for balance: sauces that leave you neither yawning nor crying for your mother. We sought out something delicious, the flavor of which overrides the burn begging you to stop.
These are the ones that delivered.
Meet the Panel
I am a glutton for punishment and love to try the local liquid fire. My extensive travels have gotten me into some hot messes: from a serving of tteokbokki, Korean rice cakes, in what apparently was a gallon of lava, to a whole Thai pepper hidden in the folds of a mushroom that sent me into a fit of hiccups—bad enough to compel my dinner companions to ask if they should call for medical assistance.
