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This is Highly Recommend, a column dedicated to what people in the food industry are obsessed with eating, drinking, and buying right now.
It’s barely an exaggeration to say I haven’t eaten a meal without hot sauce since 1991—and I was born in 1991. I put it on everything, but there’s one complicating factor: I’m a total wimp when it comes to heat. And it’s doubly embarrassing considering I’m a South Asian woman and come from a line of spice lovers. While Tabasco, Cholula, Brooklyn Delhi, and Crystal all have spots on my kitchen shelf, for years I’ve been desperate to find a hot sauce that won’t overwhelm my sweat glands and digestive system. Happily and finally, I’ve found one with just the right balance of assertive flavor and mild spice: 95% Sauce.
95% Sauce has a striking balance of heat and tang, sweetness and spice, smoke and tingle. The first release is called Batch 13, named to recognize the preceding 12 failed attempts at perfecting the sauce. This sweet, peppery sauce derives its complex flavor from Fresno pepper, Thai chiles, habanero, mango, and pineapple with a heat that is present without causing my mouth to schvitz. I’ve gone through five bottles without much trouble (or forehead wipes), and it has quickly become my go-to condiment, bringing pizazz and flavor to salmon tacos, corn salad, and weekend brunch strata.
As Bon Appétit’s creative director, I’m always on the lookout for other like-minded folks who pair their love of art with food. The founder of 95% Sauce, Timbuk “TK” Atakora, is a Brooklyn-based photographer whose work I was introduced to through friends years before he launched his hot sauce brand. I was initially surprised when I learned he had traded in his job as staff photographer at Rap Genius for the food world, but his creative skills are apparent in the promotion and branding of 95%. Developing recipes, like developing photos, requires a discerning sensibility and sophisticated taste, and Atakora possesses both in spades. For this, my mouth and stomach are extremely grateful.