I first heard about Sriracha years ago through Matthew Inman, a.k.a. The Oatmeal. Then Exploding Kittens happened and while (to my knowledge) it doesn't feature the condiment, I'm sure many people checked out the rest of the artist's work.
Now that Sriracha made its way to Poland I finally managed to get a taste.
It's spicy enough to not be offensive to the average consumer, but I think The Oatmeal oversold it on its palate-burning capabilities.
I agree. It isn’t that hot, but it is a lot hotter than many.
Personally, I like hot that tastes good. Many hot sauces are pure hot. They taste like crap; only selling Scoville. I like habañero, because it has decent (and unique) flavor. I think that they may have developed a less hot variation, because I’m seeing a lot of habañero-based stuff in regular consumer space.
I agree. I love Huy Fong Sriracha, and I love Marie Sharp's carrot/lime-based Habanero sauce (I prefer the green "Mild" bottle for flavor-heat balance -- it's still quite hot to my (fairly acclimated, but not insane) palate!)
> I think that they may have developed a less hot variation, because I’m seeing a lot more habañero-based stuff in regular consumer space.
You can vary the heat by how much rib you keep in, without effecting other flavor elements notably (the heat is mostly in the rib, the rest of the flavor is mostly in the flesh), and, because flavor is often nonlinear and affected by what else is included, you can also often reduce how much of the main pepper you use to vary heat while retaining other flavors. Or, if you are trading on the name and not the actual flavor, you can just ise less of the named pepper and still trade on the name, which is fairly common.
Try akabanga (Rwandan hot sauce). Comes in little eyedropper bottles, 150000+ scovilles, plus it's delicious and also since it's an oil-based sauce the heat doesn't linger that long in your mouth.
I'm more of an allyl isothiocyanate person and I agree - hotness in and of itself isn't particularly attractive. I heard some people actually feel a more cold sensation from capsaicin which may explain why they're so fond of sauces which are essentially pepper spray.
I've only ever had a similar sensation drinking vodka - and rarely at that, which was an interesting window to how severe alcoholism must feel.
Now that Sriracha made its way to Poland I finally managed to get a taste.
It's spicy enough to not be offensive to the average consumer, but I think The Oatmeal oversold it on its palate-burning capabilities.