The Absolute Best Hot Sauces in 2022 – Our bonfide and original reviews of the best five around.
Results are broken down into several categories with the Hot Sauce of the Year at the bottom.
If you love hot sauces and you’re looking for a few good recommendations, check out the best hot sauces of the year below.
Where you can get it:
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#5 – Hot Sauce of the Year’s 2022 – Fallback Sauce of the Year
It’s like getting an honorable mention.
Because, after all, it’s not this year’s best sauce, but it is a great, solid hot sauce that you should have in your stash. It’s just a little bit too spicy for most, but versatile enough to go on most dishes. It gets your attention but also has a full bodied flavor.
Pro tip: Add a dab of Secret Aardvark Habanero on top of your crème fraiche next time you get the luxury of having some with your salmon.
This award goes to a very versatile hot sauce and all around handy flavor and kick enhancer.
Why we like it:
The quality is good and the consistency is dense. It’s spicy enough to cause some pain without stealing all the flavor of your dish. But go sparingly and biter-beware; it’s not for kiddies.
#4 – Hot Sauce of the Year’s 2022 – Best of What’s Around Award
If you have to go mainstream, it’s worth the purchase.
You wouldn’t call this sauce a sell-out, but it’s a nod to, basically, the best you can get in the made-for-the-masses category. It’s hard to say if this will stay in Cholula’s product line, the odds are that it won’t forever, but it’s a pretty decent import. The flavor is pretty good and it’s surely the best Cholula flavor I’ve ever tried, but like all Cholula in the United States, it’s still riddled with artificial ingredients.
So, if you’re headed outdoors and don’t want to bring your fire (you good sauces), then this sauce can be very handy.
Otherwise, commercial hot sauces just aren’t that good — you know the ones advertised through click-bate (do it.). Unfortunately, people are being mislead into thinking those, or these… are the best hot sauces in every state in America!?! Nope. Verified and not true. The best can actually be found below.
Why we like it:
It actually has an okay flavor. Not a bad sauce to have when you need to keep your capsaicin fix going. Breakfast, lunch, or dinner — it’ll serve in a pinch.
Where you can get it:
We get absolutely no kick-backs on the links. To keep this site ad free, support us on Patreon.
Where you can get it:
We get absolutely no kick-backs on the links. To keep this site ad free, support us on Patreon.
#3 – Hot Sauce of the Year’s 2022 – Third Place – The “Rescue Sauce of the Year”
Our first third place winner is this x-factor of a hot sauce. Is it delicious? Yes, it’s really good. But is it great? The jury is still out and we’ve had some mixed reviews in our circles.
If you’ve had it, you know it’s a difficult sauce to forget. It’s flavor is huge. And of course, that has a lot to do with the distinct flavor of truffles, but also it’s impressive branding. This hot sauce just stands out; its flavor is so unique and bold that unfortunately, it’s the only thing that stands out. This is why we’re dubbing this the “Rescue Sauce of the Year” — due to its powerful flavor, it’s one of the few hot sauces we’ve ever tried that could make cardboard taste good. Seriously. Truff has a great flavor, but it’s also a very dominant flavor. So be warned, it will over-power most dishes, and it’s not really that hot (try their hotter version for best burn results). Yet, this sauce aims for the top-shelf and we think it rightfully deserves a place there. It’s especially handy when your Macgyver dinner dishes go all-wrong. Just call in this rescue sauce.
Why we like it:
The quality is high and the consistency is thick. Surely it’s infused with synthetic truffle flavor, else we suspect it would be much more expensive. But it isn’t a cheap hot sauce by any measure. Our recommendation, keep it around.
#2 – Hot Sauce of the Year’s 2022 – 2nd Place – On The Shoulders of Giants
One of the best hot sauces on the planet. It’s already famous (according to the label), so if you haven’t hear of it, you’re now officially out from under the rock. This is just a hands-down amazing hot sauce. Marie Sharp’s stands out for its quality ingredients, perfected balance of flavor and heat, and a tantalizing finely-pureed consistency. The heat is perfectly hot af, but not so hot that you lose your surroundings. Marie Sharp delivers bite, with a delicious fresh veggie-flavor up-front, and big smack-you-in-the-face sorta finish that let’s you know you’re alive. It may be a bit too much heat for some whippersnappers, but at this level is where we start to separate the kiddies from the connoisseurs.
Why we like it:
It’s exactly-perfectly balanced. A hot sauce that can stand up to any other hot sauce and hold it’s ground. Marie Sharp sets the standard for great hot sauces. It’s flavor is bold, but not overwhelming. It’s consistency is what every hot sauce should aspire to achieve, thick and light.
Where you can get it:
We get absolutely no kick-backs on the links. To keep this site ad free, support us on Patreon.
Announcing the First
Hot Sauce of the Year
#1 – Hot Sauce of the Year 2022
Without a doubt, here you have it – meet Greenstar Habenero Sauce – the 2021 Hot Sauce of the Year. The hidden jewel of the south. And by hidden, we mean this is completely exclusive to the few have had the privilege of encountering this hot sauce. And by jewel, this flavor is ground-breaking, record-shattering, leaps and bounds above the rest. Greenstar has the most amazing balance of sweet, smoky, spicy, and the freshness. There’s nothing shy about this sauce’s flavor. The ingredients are organic and you can taste the quality.
The bad news. This is small, batch hand-made craft hot sauce that can only be found at a farmer’s market in Blacksburg, Virginia. Not only that, it’s not always available and you can’t get it online. It’s a true collector’s item. But if you can get your hands on a bottle, you’re in for a treat intended for gods.
Why we like it:
There simply hasn’t been a better hot sauce to come our way. While we certainly hope that better sauces do come our way, this is the gold standard of what a hot sauce should be. Packed with spice, uniqueness, balance, and a taste that makes it irresistible.
Put it on your smoked meat, thank us later. Put it on your omelet and tell us you’ve had a better omelet and lightning will strike you.
Where you can get it:
It’s incredibly difficult to acquire; you need to know someone. Or, you need to travel down to Blacksburg, Virginia when it’s in season.
We get ours from a friend that occasionally travels through the area. You can’t order it online, unfortunately, but you might be able to reach out to the folks behind this dream sauce here:
https://blacksburgfarmersmarket.com/portfolio/greenstar-farm/
Congrats to the lovely folks behind Greenstar Habenero Sauce and thanks a ton for making a fan-freakin-tastic hotsauce!
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