Spicy foods have become a welcoming staple in many diets around the globe.
With different flavors infusing a myriad of spices, hot sauce is quite the chameleon when it comes to how it is produced around the world. One thing can be sure we share with the rest of the world -the hotter the better!
Mexico does have some authentic spicy dishes, but unlike other parts of the world, their hot sauce is created based more on flavor than on heat.
The chipotle pepper is a common pepper used in hot sauces in Mexico and boasts an intense and rich flavor for such foods as Chicken Tinga.
The United Kingdom has a reputation for bland, boring food, but surprisingly the UK is home to two of the hottest chili peppers in the world - the Naga Viper and the Infinity chili. This makes for the production of some of the hottest hot sauces in the world, keeping their notoriously flavorless foods hot and exciting!
Sipping pretty cocktails by the ocean in the Caribbean may taste better while noshing on some of their native fare like Jamaican Jerk Chicken. Habanero and Scotch Bonnet (sweet-flavored pepper) are the most widely used peppers in the Caribbean which can make for some pretty spicy hot sauce.
Thailand is home to the infamous Sriracha sauce. Most dishes in Thailand tend to use the actual red chili pepper, but when it comes to the hot sauce they prefer a sweet chili sauce used for dipping.
In China, hot sauce is more like a hot chili paste, but also the Chinese incorporate chili oil into most of their meals which is made from dried chilis.
Africa is a large continent that is diverse especially when it comes to hot sauce. A more commonly used hot sauce is called Harissa which is made from not only red birds eye chili peppers but a wide variety of fragrant spices like cumin and coriander.
In America, hot sauces are bottled in a wide variety of flavors, but the most common peppers used are cayenne, chipotle, habanero, and jalapeño peppers. For a quintessential American hot sauce try Mad Dog 357 Sriracha Hot Sauce made with Red Jalapeño puree, aged Cayenne peppers, distilled vinegar, salt, natural sugar, Carolina Reaper peppers and garlic.
