Best Hot Sauce 2019 + Recap

 Best Hot Sauce 2019  + Recap

Now in it’s 8th year for TSAAF and a lot of changes. Yes, definitely started slow, partially because I was having sourcing issues, that is until I discovered my favorite purveyor, Burn Your Tongue, was back in action again, and Roger, the proprietor of that fine company, gave me a shot in the arm and a boot in the ass to get going again. Thanks again for the support, brother! I can’t overstate it enough, as this blog was clearly headed into me finishing up the remaining sauces and then probably into hiatus, without Roger’s boost. It helps to have someone behind you in projects like this, for sure.

I also had occasion to meet Roger in person and it was great to hang out, check out some of his new stuff and talk hot sauces and the hot sauce world at large. We have a few things on the backburner and hopefully, we’ll be able to get some pretty cool stuff in front of you for 2020. He also gave me some goodies, which is the first time (that I recall anyway) I’ve accepted anything spicy for purposes of review. Many of the sauces will be showing up in 2020, but some of the other items have already shown up on the YouTube FOH series. You can find those in the “Everything Else” playlist, available here:  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAnn6WnuE_CK6y3X2bCzZTkh3bGUyv8H1

Speaking of playlists, as I first mentioned in the Special Annoucement post a few months ago, I have since added video support on YouTube for some of the sauces, which is in this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAnn6WnuE_CLmTR1bCja2mywi-trXdAJO.

It also bears mentioning that the FOH video series is NOT limited to hot sauces only, as this blog is. Right now, I am posting sauce support videos every Sunday and the additional content as it arises (but mostly Wednesdays). I have gone through a number of subjects not appropriate for the blog, such as snacks, a few head to head battles, including an ongoing nut tournament, a review of all of the hot sauce offerings of the major Mexican fast food chain restaurants in the area (actually, that one is a bit iffy, as it could conceivably fit on the blog and those chains do have some of those sauces on grocer’s shelves now), and intend on going through some of the spicy restaurant menu offerings at some point as well. I’ve tried every single restaurant spicy item, chain or otherwise, I’ve been able to find, both where I am and when traveling, though all of them were prior to me doing the FOH series. A number of them were also prior to me discontinuing eating anything with extract, so not sure how many of those I’m going to re-do on camera. Anything comes out in chains, I’m there, but without exception, everything I’ve had at one of those, ghost pepper, reaper pepper, whatever, has been pretty tame. If there is stuff you want to see, though, let me know.  I’m having a blast filming that and hopefully you will enjoy watching as well.

I’m going to be doing some planning in the near future (right now, I have content filmed and scheduled through January), as many of the sauces on the blog are discontinued or otherwise unavailable, so the percentage of previously sauces that I’m able to do video support on is somewhat limited. I had a similar problem, in fact, when I tried to add pictures to the reviews. I want to get all the remaining SOTY winners and all of the remaining  standby sauces done and up as quickly as possible, though availability on a number of the SOTY entries is proving challenging.

2019 overall was another slow year for both posts and sauces, though slightly more active than 2018, though, as mentioned, nearly solely in back half. Once again, it was late, as in Quarter 4 late, before I got any SOTY contenders, but once I did, there were some solid entries. Before I get to that, though, a bit of housekeeping. I have moved my unopened sauces to a shelf about a yard away from the desk where I’m typing this now, where they are eyeing me and telling me to hurry up and get to them, so hopefully will be able to keep better momentum or at least more consistency. The videos are a blast, though and I love doing them, so that has proven to be great motivation.

 As usual, all sauces can be clicked to from the Table Of Contents page, which, thanks to the FOH video support, I have kept consistently updated throughout the year.

Total posts (including this post): 205
Total views (as of this writing): ~18,072
Total single sauce full reviews: 165
Total double sauce full reviews: 2
Total sauces full reviewed: 167
Total mini-sauce reviews: 26
Total sauces reviewed, combined: 193
Total sauces with FOH video content: 15
Total unopened sauces waiting on shelf for review: 14
Total opened sauces waiting for review: 0
Total open sauces waiting for video support: 1
Total open bottles in fridge: 12
Highest viewed review: 868 - O' Brother Chipotle-Habanero Hot Sauce
Highest viewed article, any type: 868 - O' Brother Chipotle-Habanero Hot Sauce

Current standby sauces are:

*Emeritus Everyday sauce: Trappey's Red Devil
*Emeritus Asian-style sauce: Huy Fong Chili-Garlic Sauce
*Everyday sauce (and current overall favorite): Blair’s Pure Death Sauce
*Grilling sauce: CaJohn's Bourbon-Infused Chipotle Habanero (BICH)
*Pizza sauce (as in used instead of actual pizza sauce): Boar’s Head Jalapeno Pepper Sauce
 Mexican-style sauce: ???
*Asian-style sweet sauce: Zenso Sweet Chili Sauce
 *Louisiana-style sauce: Irazu Cayenne
 Sweet-hot sauce: CaJohn's Happy Beaver

 *= Not looking for a replacement

Some changes there. Kroger has 86'ed the delightful Private Selection Shichimi Togarishi, so the Irazu is now doing double-duty there on the ramen. I don’t know that I will get another sauce just for that particular food (as usually happens, I get really, really tired of it). The Shichimi was not useful for anything else, but it was spectacular in that setting. On the Mexican front, I probably should have updated it a year or two ago, when I was first unable to get more of the sauce I had in there, but it was not a priority and I went most of last year without any contenders. I think the Arizona Peppers was something from Target, possibly, and have not been able to find it since. Sloppy, shameful housekeeping on my part. Anyway, finding a good standby sauce there is back on the table for 2020...I had some strong entries this year, but that sauce category seems to be one that I’m particular about, moreso than other sauce types...I am leaning towards the Jersey Barnfire, though...

With precious little competition, and to no surprise for those of you sharp-eyed enough to see the update to the blog TOC earlier today, the SOTY for 2019 is the Torchbearer Ultimate Annihilation sauce. I had a whole video planned out, where I was going to do me a little bit of competition, but the Ultimate Annihilation was a 9 and there was nothing else that high. Probably, longtime readers knew, as soon as I compared it to Blair’s Pure Death, one of my all-time favorite sauces, that it would be a strong contender, if not a lock outright. Torchbearer tends to make excellent sauces and I’m pleased with this entry into the Hall of Flame for 2019. This is truly a worthy and excellent sauce and even though I initially thought First Blood would be in there closer to the end, once I had the Torchbearer, that became the sauce to beat. Congratulations to the Torchbearer Sauces team!

Previous TSAAF Sauce Of The Year winners (links in Table Of Contents page):

2012: CaJohn’s Happy Beaver
2013: Blair’s Pure Death
2014: Born To Hula’s Ghost Of Ancho
2015: Voodoo Chile’s Voo Dew Honey Doo
2016: Pirate O’s Surface Of The Sun Hot Sauce
2017: Z’s Shield Maiden Hot Sauce
2018: Taco Jesus Cayenne Pepper Sauce

There is also my wine about blog, the Happy Sippin’ Companion (HSC), which has now 71 posts, 63 of which are reviews. It has drawn, to date, ~1,300 views in the 5 years it’s been active. It has been put on inactive status as of 2019, with no plans currently to resurrect it. I both got a bit wined out and also seem to be struggling with a greater influx of allergies this year, which has introduced a number of issues with former consumption items that were previously trouble-free, such as wine.

Then we have Yelp. My distribution of ratings and further metrics are available on my Yelp page, which you can click to from my widget.

As mentioned, I’m very excited for 2020. Lots more sauces to try (once I wade through and whittle down the open bottles in the refrigerator door a bit), lots more food adventures to go on with the FOH video series, which has been incredibly liberating and invigorating. We will hit the 200 mark for overall sauces reviewed next year on this blog, a benchmark which I’m very excited about and who knows, maybe even 200 full reviews outright. I’m already done a written review concurrent with an FOH addendum posting (which is my first ever 6 bottle review) and gotten into a lot more hot treats other than just the sauces, so I’m pretty eager to see what 2020 will bring for new experiences on this front. I’m hoping you’ll join me.

As always, I appreciate you dropping by. If there’s any changes to suggest or sauces you’d like to see me get to or any video ideas you may have, please drop me a line in the comment section of any of the reviews or support videos.