Sauce: Pain 100%


A pretty straight forward beast. Habanero mash, a bit of bulking and a pep up with capsicum powder…


While I’m not sure it’s 100% pain, it it a powerfully hot sauce. The mashed habanero gives it a lovely mellow up-front flavour, with the heat really kicking in as a follow up. It’s damn hot and damn tasty, but not one that I can use very liberally on my food without paying for it.


8/10 – If you like your sauces on the hot side, I can really recommend this one

Sauce: Pain Is Good Louisiana Hot


Ah, Spicin Foods, well done. Another triumph! For me this is a medium hot sauce, you can certainly get the habanero but it doesn’t blow my mouth up. What makes this sauce a bit special, I think, is the tomatoes and spices. It gives a very smooth base flavour with the spice dancing on top. This is one that I love with food like Tex Mex and wedges.


Pro tip: it has a bit of a tendency to separate in the bottle so remember to shake… Otherwise you end up with quite a sticky last 1/4 of the bottle which is tricky to get out!


8/10 – Yum.

Sauce: Mahi Piri Piri Hot


Picked up from the supermarket, apparently lovingly made in The Fens.


Pretty tasty sauce (garlic and lemon quite prominent, giving way to chilli) , not particularly hot, so liberally used (I think this bottle lasted about 10 days)


6/10 – Good, solid sauce but a bit unremarkable. Happy to buy again but so many others to try…

Sauce: Psycho Juice Chipotle Ghost Pepper


I don’t think it’s any secret to say that I really like the Psycho Juice range and in my opinion, this one’s another cracker.


For me, this is a complimentary sauce rather than a “drown everything in it” type. It’s pretty hot (well, it is 64% naga) and packs a flavour punch so becomes very dominant if used liberally. I think I’ve mostly dripped spots on sandwich filling, chips, roast potatoes, etc. In this way I find you get the smack of flavour and heat, but can still enjoy the tastes of the carrying food.


So.. Strong hit of smoky chipotle is first on the tongue, mellowing out a bit & then giving way to naga heat which has quite a follow-through as you might expect.


8/10 – Will buy again

Sauce: Baron Blazing Hot Sauce


I was putting together an order from an online grocer & was idly browsing when I came across this and being a hot sauce that I had not tried before, the addition of a bottle to my cart was the automatic response.

Made in St. Lucia


This makes an excellent table sauce. It’s warming without blowing your mouth up, so can be applies liberally on a sandwich (great with a bit of cheese) . Bit of sharpness (probably from the lime, now I read the ingredients list!) on the up-front flavour giving way to a medium, mellow burn with a bit of garlic richness and a long tail on the palette.


8/10 – Have already bought again!

Sauce: The Red King


I think this might be another sauce picked up from Bristol. Certainly it gets good marks for bottle design in my opinion.

The Red King


Not strictly a hot sauce this one. There’s more roast garlic in it than cayenne chillis and that’s very much reflected in the taste. It has oodles of that wonderful rich roasted garlic flavour, with a bit of sharpness from the vinegar to back it up.


7/10 – Great flavour but I generally want a bit more hear from my sauces.

Sauce: Rich’s 2020 Lockdown Livewire


What’s the best kind of chilli sauce? Free chilli sauce! A sauce hand made and gifted by a friend! This one was produced from garden grown chillis from that well known source of Scoville rated heat, Leicester.

The anonymity of this one is intriguing. And for the more observant, a batch of my own sauce being started in the background.


I liked this one (not just saying that either). Uncomplicated, punch of heat, acidic tail. One might use the phrase “does what it says on the tin” except that it neither arrived in a tin, or even had any writing on it.


Really good partner for a hash brown or to pep up a stir fry. A valiant effort by the sauce but it didn’t last 2 weeks.


10/10 – please sir, can I have some more?

Sauce: The Green


Most of the hot sauces I use are red, so this one caught my eye as being something a bit different. It’s pretty tasty; the tomatilos, lime and coriander combine nicely to give it that zesty verde taste. I was a little disappointed though. I realise that everyone’s perfect heat level is different, but I was really struggling to find any ‘hot’ in this at all. The ingredients list jalapeƱo, serrano, habanero and jolikia. I can only guess that the person crafting my batch had run out.


6/10 – Pleasant but won’t rush to buy again. Thought it a bit on the expensive side for what it was.

Sauce: Psycho Juice 70% Red Savina


Behold, the wizard of chilli sauces


I came across this sauce completely by chance; a relative asked what to get me for Christmas and I said “some interesting chilli sauces”. What I unwrapped was a selection on Psycho Juice 70%-ers and it’s safe to say that this one was the run-away favourite.


It’s a reasonably hot sauce, but like most of my favoured condiments, not overpowering. It’s pretty “up front” about it’s business and punchy. Not one of those sauces which gradually creeps up on you. Pretty flexible, too. Great with breakfast eggs, good on chips, excellent for pepping up some noodles or a sandwich. While there’s a bit of sweetness, garlic and citrus in there, this is one of those that does a really good job of putting the chilli front and centre and letting it speak for itself.


10/10 – Don’t think, get some.

Sauce: Tesco Hot Habanero


Ah, a supermarket own brand, eh?


Despite saying “Extra Hot” this one isn’t going to challenge any chilli-heads out there at 14% habanero mash. It’s a good sauce for the price, however my main beef with it is the sweetness. Tesco have used a glucose/fructose syrup as the base and the sweetness really drives through. I prefer my sauces more on the savoury side. Still, not bad for a supermarket effort!


5/10.