Hello! My name is Chris and I am a lover of all things spicy! That wasnt always the case though. Back in ’09, I moved out on my own. Everything was going smoothly, except for the cooking. That definitely got off to a rocky start.
I burned food, added too much spice, too much salt, etc. But I was young and poor. I couldn’t afford to toss the food out and start again. So I started getting the food down however I could. And the secret sauce ended up being Hot Sauce!
I would COVER my food in hot sauce. Whatever it took. Eventually I started to try different hot sauces. It didn’t take me long to realize that there are many different kinds of sauces with different textures, flavors, heat levels, colors and more.
A few years later the YouTube interview show Hot Ones (Shoutout to Cameraguy Bill) was just getting its start and I was a HUGE fan. I loved the idea and seeing all of sauces that I had never tried before. I started looking up reviews online.
Eventually I would be so far down the rabbit hole that I had an idea. Hot Sauce Central started on Blogger back in 2018. I wanted to review sauces in a more detailed manner than some of the other sites that were available. Some simply focused on heat. Some just on flavor. Lets give the graphic designers some love and talk about that artwork! Let’s examine the pourability. Do I need to smack this bottle like ketchup in 1994, or does it gush out like water?
Needless to say, Blogger wasnt really doing it for me. I needed something more. I kind of took my foot off of the gas and put this site on the back burner for a few years. After a software engineering bootcamp, some experience working as web developer, I decided to bring the site back to life. This time better than ever.
I believe that the reviews have to be consistent. First off, I do not take bribes for reviews. I pay for my bottles. And if anyone sends me one to review, I make it clear that it will not alter my review in any way. Second, every review follows the same process:
- Evaluate the kind of peppers used
- Research the company
- Find the Scoville level
- Inspect the Bottle
- Open the bottle
- Pour a little out
- Smell the bottle
- Taste (just a teeny tiny bit) of the sauce
- Note the flavors and the heat
- Provide final thoughts
Regarding the heat levels used, they are based on current Scoville maximums. So a 0 is the lowest on the scale, and a 10 is the same as the 3,000,000 maximum (currently held by Pepper X). There are extracts and sprays that go above these levels, but we only focus on the physical peppers as the scale.
Just know that when you come to Hot Sauce Central, you are in good hands.