If you’re a “Hot Ones” connoisseur like me or simply crave spice in everything you eat, look no further. New York City is home to many niches, including hot sauce. New Yorkers throughout the five boroughs have dedicated themselves to developing their own spicy condiments, many of which are relatively accessible to NYU students at Heatonist Outpost, a local hot sauce store in Chelsea Market.
If the dining hall food and its palpable lack of flavor are finally wearing on you, here is my ranking of five locally sourced hot sauces to help spice up your meals.
5. Hell’s Kitchen’s Westside Red Hot Sauce | $12
Hell’s Kitchen’s Westside Red Hot Sauce brings together the flavors of sriracha and Louisiana-style hot sauce. This award-winning flavor is unique for its incorporation of raspberries and blue agave nectar, which make for an extremely sweet sauce with fruity and tangy overtones. The heat from the Fresno and red habanero peppers is very manageable — practically nonexistent — for the taste buds, but I remain ambivalent as to whether or not the sauce’s sweet and salty components work well together. What’s missing is that foundational sense of umami, which would have helped round out the sauce’s sweetness and allow it to definitively stand out on its own. As a result, Westside Red would shine on foods that are already heavy with umami, such as frozen dumplings from H Mart or the noodles at the Palladium dining hall’s Chinese food station.
4. Brooklyn Delhi’s Ghost Pepper Hot Sauce | $12
Making its debut on “Hot Ones” during season 20, this hot sauce struggles to bring the heat, leaning saltier. But this lack is fortunately compensated for by its rich flavor. Both its aroma and taste are dark, smokey and earthy from the sauce’s savory blend of tomato, tamarind and bhüt jolokia — a variety of pepper native to northeast India, also known as the ghost pepper. The handcrafted masala mix brings further warmth to the sauce’s complex palette. Incorporate it into your cooking by drizzling it onto eggs, preferably fried, or seasoning dishes containing meat, potatoes and curry flavors.
3. Shaquanda’s Hot Pepper Sauce’s Banjee Ranch | $10
It might be inaccurate to call Shaquanda’s Banjee Ranch a hot sauce, but semantics matter little when confronted with such a unique flavor and an even cooler backstory. Shaquanda Coco Mulatta is the drag persona of Andre Springer, who launched his first hot sauce in 2014 at Bushwig, a drag and music festival in Brooklyn. This plant-based ranch could be described as an earthier version of spinach artichoke dip, with herby notes of dill and chive coalescing with the smokiness of Sivathei chilis, black pepper and ground sesame seeds. The sauce lingers savory in the mouth, satisfyingly elevating any fresh salad or sandwich that is heavy with raw greens and vegetables. As Shaquanda said, “You don’t have to be royal to be the Queen of your kitchen!” — you just need this sauce to start.
2. Little Dick’s Ghost Pepper Pear Hot Sauce | $12
I would have never thought of incorporating pear into a hot sauce, but Little Dick’s has done so in a way that is innovative and delicious. The heat of this sauce pleasantly warms the mouth and throat, but what stands out is the sweetness of pear working in tandem with the notes of autumn spices, including cinnamon, ginger, allspice and yellow mustard seed. As fall slowly comes to a close, think about picking up Little Dick’s to top a salad or your Thanksgiving leftovers.
1. Queen Majesty Hot Sauce’s Jalapeño, Tequila & Lime Hot Sauce | $15
Queen Majesty’s Jalapeño, Tequila & Lime Hot Sauce takes the top spot for its unprecedented taste. Developed in Queens, the hot sauce begins citrusy from the lime juice, leading bright and zesty before mellowing out into an umami-rich aftertaste from the jalapeños and garlic cloves. Its spiciness is not one to directly attack and inflame the tongue, instead creating a slower build. Queen Majesty’s is almost adjacent to a vinaigrette, requiring a dish that incorporates lots of herbs and fresh ingredients that wouldn’t overpower the sauce’s subtleties of flavor. All of Queen Majesty’s hot sauces are vegan, kosher and gluten-free, so don’t be afraid to buy a bottle to spice up a sweetgreen or CAVA bowl or your homemade salads and tacos.
Contact Julia Kim at [email protected].