Happy thursday, folks. Today, we’re back for round three of my Hot Ones-style line-up.
Because, given the popularity of the show, I feel like it’s worth making an annual tradition out of. Especially when importing some of their actual sauces can be quite the struggle.
So here I am, yet again, to provide you with a more brit-friendly alternative, comprised entirely of sauces that are available in the UK. Sauces that I have featured on this very site and know will make for the most enjoyable and entertaining of challenges.
You can read all about last year’s choices in my previous post but, this year, I’m going to be refreshing most of the line-up, oncemore. So, as with the last time, read on to see which old sauces have stayed, what new ones have made my list and why I’ve made the decisions that I have.
Or watch 📽️ my YouTube videos 📽️ to see me tackle a line-up of real Hot Ones sauces.
Now last year, I said that the Screaming Chimp’s Vic’s Ol’ Smokey would make the perfect mild first wing and I still stick by that. It’s a delicious, slightly sweet, smoke-tinged number with a delightful assortment of indian spices that isn’t going anywhere.
Unlike sauce number two.
Prior to today, I had the Cornish Chilli Co.’s Red Snapper as my second sauce and it was, indeed, a good fit. Sadly for it, though, times have changed and the host of Hot Ones has finally discovered matcha.
This smooth, creamy, powdered green tea made for a wonderful addition to the Chilli Alchemist’s zingy, asian inspired, green jalapeño sauce – Their Philosopher’s Dew. One that will, in turn, be an equally good fit for my second spot.
The company who made it may no longer exist but the product is still alive and well under Grim Reaper Foods. Plus, I’d say that it’s just a little hotter than what it’s replacing.
Hotter still, though, as you might expect it to be, is number three. My representation of Wiltshire Chilli Farm.
But their mango sauce is, if I’m honest, still a three on heat. It’s not so much stronger than the Dew that it warrants a higher number but it’s the low end of what I’d call hot, rather than a high medium. The heat difference should still be noticeable and, if not, it’s certainly different in flavour.
An onion-heavy, curried mango sauce that’s more than good enough to warrant inclusion on that flavour alone.
And so, I’m afraid, we have a little bit of a jump to sauce four. A spot which has been held by the Smoke Potion Magnum Opus for two years running. Yet its reign ends here.
Good as that sauce is, I like to keep my line-up varied and only ever feature a company twice if one of their sauces is in the extract section at the end. I can’t give the Chilli Alchemist a second spot in first half so, instead, we turn to Grim Reaper Foods‘ own range for a replacement. And, this time, we feature the slightly stronger and far less sweet, yet definitely no less smoky, The Raven. As eaten, in 📽️ one of my videos 📽️, by James McKenzie.
Which means that I now have a high four and a half in the number four spot, leaving me reaching for something hotter than your average ghost pepper product to follow. A mere five won’t do but I don’t want to go too far too fast, either. I’m thinking a five point five and, of the sauces that I’ve rated such, the FBI’s Ballbreaker is still the best suited to chicken.
It’s making a return in this third line-up.
So, being another whole number up on my scale, the Psycho Juice Roasted Garlic Ghost is still a perfect fit for the wing that follows.
And sure, I thought about mixing things up with East Cost Chilli Co‘s reaper teriyaki sauce but then wing seven couldn’t be the carolina. Which would be a real travesty, given how utterly astounding Hot Face’s 📽️ Reaper Extreme 📽️ was on my nuggets.
Yet, strong as that reaper and extract blend is, we can go hotter still and we can do it naturally, with the recently updated version of Burning Desire Foods‘ Critical Mass. A sauce that blends an up and coming potential world record pepper with mango and passionfruit to provide more than just the highest heat that I’ve ever had from a natural sauce.
It has unique flavour, too, making it a real shoo-in for this year’s eighth in the line-up. So what extract sauces top it?
Well, once again, the original Dragon’s Blood from Chilli Pepper Pete is a solid choice for our first foray beyond nature’s limits and, if I’m honest, I see no reason to remove the last of my old assortment, either.
Wiltshire Chilli Farm’s 🔥 God Slayer 🔥 is still the tenth and final spot in my british Hot Ones challenge, with a reputation that really precedes it. Here’s how the full ten look together:
#1 – Screaming Chimp‘s Vic’s Ol’ Smokey (1.5/11)
#2 – The Chilli Alchemist‘s Philosopher’s Dew (3/11)
#3 – Wiltshire Chilli Farm’s Mango Chilli Sauce (3/11)
#4 – Grim Reaper Foods‘ The Raven (4.5/11)
#5 – The Chilli Pepper Company‘s FBI’s Ballbreaker (5.5/11)
#6 – Doctor Burnorium’s Psycho Juice Roasted Garlic Ghost (6.5/11)
#7 – Hot Face Sauces’ 📽️ Reaper Extreme Chilli Sauce 📽️ (8.5/11)
#8 – Burning Desire Foods‘ Critical Mass (11/11)
#9 – Chilli Pepper Pete‘s Dragon’s Blood original (14/11)
#10 – Wiltshire Chilli Farm’s 🔥 God Slayer 🔥 (36/11)
That’s the line-up for this year, though do give last year’s post a read if you want to know why I’ve chosen the final two sauces. I can think of no better UK alternative to what’s seen on the real Hot Ones interview show and, this year, not a single one is an import. They’re all made on british soil.
Spicefreak 