Skip to main content

Turn Up the Heat!

Can you stand the heat? Or do you run from the table when you see a bottle of sauce that can make flames appear in your mouth? For those brave enough, there are many hot sauces across the country that offer blazing satisfaction. While this isn’t a scientific poll by any means, we do want to point out some to put on your “must try” list.

Dirty Dick’s Hot Pepper Sauce

Recommended Videos

The recent claim to fame for this scorching product is that it took the 2013 First Place Screaming Mimi Award in the fruit-based at the New York City Hot Sauce Expo. Get your taste buds ready—this creation includes habanero peppers, tropical fruits (mangoes, pineapple, bananas), vinegar, brown sugar, freshly ground spices and other ingredients.

Ralph’s Righteous Habanero Sauce

Another first place winner at the NYC Hot Sauce Expo—this time in the Scorpion category is a product produced by the Mild to Wild Pepper & Herb Company in Indiana. Made “island style,” it’s providing to be a hot ticket to accent Caribbean dishes like jerk rib-eye steaks and Caribbean cornbread. It’s made up of hand selected habanero peppers and a blend of other ingredients.

Smoking Js Hot Sauce Company

A family run operation on the outskirts of Asheville, N.C., churns out a variety of hot sauces and other products that have won a huge following. They grow many of the fruits and vegetables they use in their unique flavor combinations. Everything is made in small batches here, which adds to the fresh flavor. Their offerings include hot sauce, BBQ sauce, dry rubs, fresh peppers, dried peppers and pepper purees. There’s a new item out called Smoking J’s Roasted Ghost Hot Sauce created using fiery ghost peppers.

Fire From the Mountain

Produced in Zionville, NC, a company called Fire From the Mountain turns up the heat with its own creations of hot sauces and salsas. Varieties include Chipotle Hot Sauce (flavored with homegrown smoked red jalapenos, roasted garlic and charred onions), Smoked Habanero Hot Sauce (includes homegrown Apple wood smoked habaneros and other ingredients), Chipotle Salsa (medium hot with Apple smoked chipotles), Serrano Hot Sauce (medium hot green hot sauce), and Smoked Habanero BBQ Sauce.

Digital Trends Staff
Digital Trends was founded in 2006 with a simple mission: to help readers easily understand how tech affects the way they…
Get in the romantic spirit with cocktails featuring high-end tequila
Colorful and delicious drinks for your Valentine's celebration
Prickled Pink

This Valentine's Day, the spirit of choice for cocktail fans seems to be tequila. With its increasing emphasis on high quality ingredients and traditional methods, tequila has come out of the shadows to be one of the most popular spirits for mixing in recent years, offering plenty of opportunities for experimentation with cocktails.

The brand Milagro has suggestions for romantic tequila cocktails, featuring classic romantic ingredients from Champagne to hot chocolate.
Sparkling Cristalino

Read more
Think pink for romance with this rum and rose petal cocktail
A recipe out of Louisiana for the love season
Valentine gift rose wrapped on sheet rose petals

If you're looking for something a bit different to ring in Valentine's Day, this rum and rose drink may be it. The recipe is created by Ari Ballard,  the Events Coordinator at Turning Tables, a New Orleans-based bar training program for Black and Brown hospitality professionals. It makes use of rum from Oxbow Rum Distillery, made using sugarcane grown in Pointe Coupée, Louisiana, on the banks of the Mississippi River.

As well as the rum, the Cupid Spritz incorporates the always popular additions of lemon juice for sharpness and soda water for fizz, but it's the rose petals and rose syrup that really mark this drink out as a Valentine's Day special. Rose can be a tricky ingredient to work with because of its strong floral flavor, so it is used here in just a small splash of rose syrup to give a hint of lush floral flavors without being overpowering.

Read more
Taste the flavors of love with tequila Valentine’s Day cocktails
With flavors of strawberry, coffee, and stunning rose petal ice
Casamigas Espresso Martini

Chalk up another one for the tequila celebration this Valentine's Day: the brand Casamigos has its own selection of romantic recipes to share, including a delicious and refreshing strawberry basil margarita, a twist on the ever popular espresso martini, and a drink featuring stunning rose petal ice blocks which add a gorgeous elevated note to any cocktail.
Spicy Strawberry Basil Margarita

Ingredients

Read more