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It’s a historically good time to be a hot sauce fan. Not only is it easy to find a variety of big brands at your local grocery store, but there are myriad smaller producers championing bigger, spicier flavors.
I’ll admit that I have a soft spot for the mega-brands (hell will freeze over before I allow Tapatío to run out in my home), but I also love the smaller makers, fermenting their own blends of locally sourced peppers in small batches and sharing their unique tasty gems with the world.
For the hot sauce fan in your life, here’s a gift guide featuring some of the best of both worlds.
Brooklyn Delhi Guntur Sannam Hot Sauce
You may have already seen Brooklyn Delhi’s famous Tomato Achaar around the internet, including our list of the best hot sauces to buy on Amazon.
If the hot sauce lover you’re shopping for is already a fan of the Achaar, fantastic. If the Guntur Sannam Hot Sauce is their first experience with Brooklyn Delhi, just as well. With fruity, sweet, and umami notes, it features the Guntur Sannam chile pepper, sourced by Diaspora Co from a single farm in Andhra Pradesh, a state in southeastern India known for its chile-forward cuisine.
Mike’s Hot Honey Gift Set
When Mike Kurtz was studying abroad in Brazil, a small pizzeria by his apartment kept jars of honey with hot peppers for drizzling over the pizzas. Mike thought that was a great idea and started making his own hot honey. After convincing Paulie of Paulie Gee’s pizzeria in Brooklyn to let him make it for the pies, it took off.
This kit includes two squeeze bottles—one regular and one extra-hot—two mini jars, a tote bag, a recipe booklet, and a few bottle stickers.
Alternatively, if they’re a mega-fan, set them up for life (or at least a few months) with a gallon jug.
Huy Fong Sriracha Keychain Gift Pack
Thanks to a poor chile pepper harvest the past few years, the iconic sriracha brand Huy Fong has been much harder to find. At this point, even a sriracha bottle would be a lovely gift, but this gift pack takes it a step further by allowing the recipient to pre-load little (TSA-safe!) squeeze bottles with an aluminum carabiner so that they have their precious sriracha whenever they might need it.
Masienda Pura Macha Salsa Trio
If the person you’re shopping for loves hot sauce, they almost certainly already have a container or two of chili crisp in their fridge. For that “already committed to crunchy + spicy” crowd, a jar of salsa macha is just the thing. Salsa Macha, originally from Veracruz, Mexico, is traditionally made of dried chiles, garlic, nuts, and seeds, chopped and fried in oil. This set from Masienda includes three different takes: guajillo, cranberry, hazelnut, chipotle, coffee, and peanut—and guajillo, cherry, cacao nib.
Hot Ones Seasonal Trios
If you’re one of the four Americans who has never seen Hot Ones, the basic premise is: a talk show interview, but the interviewee is eating wings that grow spicier and spicier. Celebrities like Lizzo, Paul Rudd, Rachael Ray, and Neil deGrasse Tyson have appeared on the show. Each episode culminates in a “Last Dab” challenge, with a sauce at 2,000,000+ Scoville Units. Each season includes different sauces and you can help your giftee relive them with packs of the sauces featured.
Hot Ones Subscription Box
Alternatively, this subscription box will keep you stocked with hot sauces from the current season of the show, or new sauces from makers that have been featured on the show more than once. Each month’s lineup is a surprise, but it’s a great way to be the first one to taste the new flavors.
There’s also the option of buying a pack from each season. For extreme heat lovers you could even go for Hot Ones Truth or Dab, the Game.
Tapatío Gift Basket
Tapatío is a term for someone from Guadalajara, Mexico. It’s also a hot sauce, created by Guadalajara-born Jose-Luis Saavedra Sr. in 1971. It has since become one of the most popular hot sauces in America.
For those who cannot live without Tapatío, this gift basket features a 32-ounce bottle, a hat, T-shirt, mouse pad, socks, and more. It’s a terrific way to help someone restock their favorite hot sauce and let them wear their hyperfixation proudly.
Truff Variety Pack
Truffle-flavored condiments are generally a love them or hate them situation. For those who love them, it’s hard to beat Truff, made with black truffle, ripe chile peppers, and organic agave nectar. As someone who is not on the truffle train, I will say that this is much more balanced than your average truffle condiment, and the packaging makes these rather mild sauces feel very luxe (maybe that’s part of why Oprah made them one of her favorite things in 2022). This variety pack includes The Original, The Hotter, and their white truffle hot sauce.
Shaquanda’s Hot Sauce Gift Set
Shaquanda, who's featured in bring colors on the Saquanda's hot sauce labels, is the drag persona of the company's founder, Andre Springer. Springer's family comes from Barbados, and the hot sauces draw flavor inspiration from that background—ingredients like like ginger, turmeric, mustard, and lemon add plenty of aromatic, bright notes that balance the spice. Springer also finds inspiration in his upbringing in Brooklyn and his drag identity. Give the full set of flavors to a hot sauce lover who can never try enough new flavors.
Tabasco Sauce Caddy with Minis
For some purists, the one true hot sauce is Tabasco. While that’s not my position, it’s one I respect. Tabasco adds a nice kick, doesn’t skimp on flavor, and zhuzhes up a meal in only a few drops. For the Tabasco-only crowd, this pack offers up almost the complete oeuvre: Original Red, Chipotle, Green Jalapeño, Habanero, Cayenne Garlic Pepper, Sweet & Spicy, and Buffalo Style.
Sauces by Jrk Variety Pack
Led by Jamaica natives Wayne Sharpe and Kavan Burke, Miami-based restaurant Jrk! is locally renowned for its fast-casual, whole-ingredient take on Jamaican cuisine. The restaurant recently started bottling its sauces, allowing those of us outside Miami to easily incorporate those flavors into our meals/lives. The variety pack covers all the bases, with their Bonnet Hot Sauce, Jerk Sauce (for cooking jerk-style at home), and Jerk Ranch. I can’t get enough of the Bonnet Hot Sauce drizzled over a cracker with goat cheese or a steamed sweet potato.
Fat Toad Spicy Dark Chocolate Goat Milk Caramel
For spice lovers with more hot sauce than they know what to do with, here’s a spicy goat milk caramel sauce from Vermont-based Fat Toad Farm. The original award-winning Goat Milk Caramel is blended with Taza stone-ground chocolate and cayenne pepper, then hand-stirred over copper kettles for five hours. The resulting sauce is silky and rich, with the perfect sweet/savory/spicy balance. Fat Toad recommends this with bananas, pretzels, and hot chocolate, but it's also lovely drizzled over chocolate ice cream or cheese like Stilton or Gruyere or stirred into hot coffee.
