Texas Pete's Hotter Hot Sauce is my standard, along with Sambal Oelek. For a real kick, I like Mick's Ghost Pepper Jelly, and Dave's Insanity Sauce.
I like flavor not hot for it's own sake. My favorite is Cajun Chief Green Pepper Sauce. Made from immature bell peppers and other spices. Very nice flavor, just a little bit of hot. Yummy
My collection, sans the Ring of Fire that I mentioned in my first post. It was because I'm out and need more that got me to wondering what you guys like.
I'm not allowed hot sauce anymore unless I'm in a restaurant. Had an unfortunate incident where my wife said my first chili was weak....so I went a little crazy with Ghost Peppers...slept on the couch a few days. Wasn't pretty. FUNNY YES. Pretty, no.
ShopRite had Texas Pete Hotter Hot Sauce on sale for 99 cents. Had to get some and try it. Verdict - very good.
I just tried the Yucatan Sunshine Habañero Pepper sauce yesterday & I have to say it had a pretty good kick to it. However, I am not the biggest fan of predominantly 'vinegary' hot sauces, so despite the ample kick, I found it a bit too sour as a regular addition to my Mexican food 'enhancement.'
Maybe on the more exotic side: Being of Basque heritage, I have been exposed to some of the 'spicy' peppers used in the northern regions of Spain (near france) near the Pyrannees. One popular pepper used in hot sauces and/or added to soups, etc, is the Piment d'Esplette, or Espelette pepper, a traditional Basque seasoning. Usually dried & coarsely-ground, it is often used as sprinkled garnish to add kick to dishes. It is also added early on to simmering tomato sauces or red pepper purees to create a rather distinct and fairly-volatile 'hot sauce'. It is also available in pureed form that can be diluted to a desired 'sauce' consistency. I enjoy it both for the sweetness and heat, and none of the sourness vinegar hot sauces inherently have. It may not have the POW! or Scoville Scale ratings of a Ghost or even a Habeñero, ( it falls in the 4000 range, somewhere around the jalepeño and Guajillo pepper) but I find it pleasingly hot for most dishes.
.....no joke, we'd get one hot meal a day. Once, the chow hall loaded up the chow run for the day with 7 vat cans of peas. Luckily, we had a case of tomatoes from the day before, so we all had peas and tomato sandwiches. Back to pepper talk, the guy in the cube next to mine at work was growing ghost peppers......those thing have killed people.
I like El Yucateco habanero sauce. Tapatio is my each day sauce and upon occasion I use a very, very small amount of Dave's Insanity Sauce. It has a wonderful flavor but is incredibly hot. There is a brown sauce called "California Pepper Sauce" which is very tasty and quite different from the usual hot sauces. I recommend it for a change of pace.
My current favorite is Clancy's Fancy - made in Ann Arbor, MI, I'm not sure how widely available it is, but it's great on everything. Spicy without overpowering, and so sorrow hours later.
My favorite hot sauce is Sriracha, aka Rooster Sauce (there is a Rooster on the bottle). A lot of people think of it as an Asian hot sauce, but it goes well with about everything. I like it because it has a depth of flavor that other sauces don't have and it doesn't just rely on vinegar. It's got the heat, but also a little sweet, and fairly prominent garlic touch. For traditional hot sauces, I like the the whole Cholula line...Regular, Lime, and Garlic.
I love Frank's Red Hot it's the only hot sauce I use regularly. It adds flavor too not just heat. When I was younger a buddy and I would try all kinds of hot sauces most just made going to the bathroom painful! What's the point in that?
Guess I'm kinda of a wuss with hot sauces. My "go-to" is Cajun Chief Green. Mild but wonderful flavor. Not to widely distributed so I order on line. Which is kinda crazy cuz I live in SE Louisiana.
el yucateco red, green, and siracha are 3 that i always have on hand. great combo of adding heat and flavor. if you havent tried them..you wont be disappointed.
