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So I did the Hot Ones Challenge...

Hyde

Matt SR
Staff member
Moderator
Social Media Team
Be careful what you buy while drinking at the bar...

For those not familiar, Hot Ones is a Youtube TV show with an amazing concept; sit down with celebrities who are asked increasing probing questions about their life and career while eating increasingly hot wings. I've always loved the cleverness and ingenuity of the show, and the premise of how to make folks vulnerable.

And so it was, while drinking with a friend after a Kings Island Winterfest visit, we became the proud owners of a Hot Ones Challenge Season 19 Sauce Box:

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I shot the video which I'll be foraging through to figure out what of it is even salvagable (lol), but I thought folks might get a kick out of our sauce review!

1. "The Classic": Chili Maple Edition - heat level description: nein - this was pretty good, and did have a fun, sweet zing to it, that I'd liken to hot honey if you've ever tried.
2. Tropiquante - heat level description: noticeable step up with a small flame - probably our least favorite, it had a lot of pineapple/tropical flavor going for it. Might be best applied to non-chicken if I'm honest, such as a steak marinade.
3. Piko Riko - heat level description: yeah we're going down a pathway, aren't we - we quite liked this one, as it was a habanero-style heat with a lot of savory umami mouth feel. If there was a daily driver sauce out of this batch, this is it.
4. Los Calientes Barbacoa - heat level description: this was our first, major heat run-in, and a doubling from the previous sauce (15k to 33k scoville) - I love barbacoa flavor, so it was a hotter edition of a classic flavor. Equally good, tasting sauce; albeit the tears started a bit here.
5. Sichuan Gold - heat level description: weirdly really hot, moreso than we thought - this is the only oil-based sauce in the batch, giving it a duck sauce-feel, something you'd get from Panda Express. It was actually quite good and a fun Asian-inspired heat.
6. Tumeric Bomb - heat level description: this mother ****er right here - you'll catch this one as the first genuine curve ball on the show, and it indeed is a very busy flavor pallet on top of the first, legit "heat", as you enter the back-half of the sauces. It's turmeric heavy, which isn't for everyone - it's definitely the funkiest of flavors, in a kinda good way?
7. Cosmic Disco - heat level description: "The disco is still going in my tummy and I don't like it" - I'll be honest, this was my favorite sauce as it actually tastes quite good, but holy smokes this is the first six digit Scoville sauce, and you notice the heat level going from something fun to play with to causing legitimate pause and process to overcome the heat. Cue the white bread and milk.
8. Da Bomb - heat level description: it indeed, is a bomb, dropped in the pit of your stomach - Yeah, this is just, the hail mary of heat. The sauce itself has a lot of heat-forward flavor, so it's just all of it, hitting, and then continuing. I think that's what makes it such a doozy - the heat doesn't stop. Even from your stomach, you just feel it.
9. Unique Garlique - heat level description: what are heat levels from here on out anyways? - technically this has a Scoville of 642,000 (insane). But the heat is a lot smoother and spread out, so you actually get garlic flavor/time to process. Definitely a better experience than Da Bomb, despite being 6x (!?) hotter.
10. The Last Dab - heat level description: I mean, for real - the only way forward is to dab - Yes, it's just, really ****ing hot, and remaining. Taking my contacts out last night, I got some in my eye, despite having washed my hands immensely and many hours have passed. If you're here, you're here to play.

In summary: I would never say I'm a "spice" guy, though I do like hot food. Our whole gang suffered and triumphed, and it was very fun. Not racing to do it again, but surprised and proud at how well we relatively did!
 

Nicky Borrill

Strata Poster
Oh no, not in the eye!!! That is the worst!

If you guys change your mind and decide you do want to do it again, but take it into really really hot territory, then you should check out Dr Burnorium’s Hot Sauce Emporium https://www.hotsauceemporium.co.uk/

Some great stuff on there, have been using them for years. The Hot One’s stuff isn’t all ‘that’ hot, great show though, he’s a great interviewer, and the challenge is great fun for none chilli heads.

But if you do buy some of the extracts, the 9M + Scoville unit ones, then obviously handle them with care, and be careful. I’ve seen people floored by dabbing just the point of a cocktail stick!!!
 
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Indy

Hyper Poster
Oh man. I really enjoy Hot Ones and have been increasingly interested in doing this very thing, but the price of the set always makes me pause, especially knowing that I'm unlikely to use half of the sauces beyond the challenge. I'd love to say that your review firmly steers me away, but strangely it doesn't; it only adds to the morbid curiosity. Is it weird to say that I'm a little jealous of the suffering?

I'll be super interested to see the video if it gets put together! It's only a matter of time before I bite the bullet and go for it as well.
 

Hyde

Matt SR
Staff member
Moderator
Social Media Team
Oh man. I really enjoy Hot Ones and have been increasingly interested in doing this very thing, but the price of the set always makes me pause, especially knowing that I'm unlikely to use half of the sauces beyond the challenge. I'd love to say that your review firmly steers me away, but strangely it doesn't; it only adds to the morbid curiosity. Is it weird to say that I'm a little jealous of the suffering?

I'll be super interested to see the video if it gets put together! It's only a matter of time before I bite the bullet and go for it as well.
If I'm honest - drinking 3 beers before hand makes the $120 price tag more palatable. Likewise, we were just curious of "how bad is it really?" and tapped my wife and another friend to partake. 😅
 
Haha I love this. I've tried both Da Bomb and the Last Dab, and even for me (I consider myself a hot sauce fanatic and can eat habaneros like someone would eat an apple), they didn't feel great in my mouth. You guys should go to Pepper Palace if you haven't already been and eat the ones you have to sign waivers for! I ended up on the floor in the corner of a store sweating profusely after having one, so that was a one and done because I was certain I was having a heart attack. Didn't feel bad in the mouth, but pretty much stopped my heart as it went down.

If you're ever in California, try Howlin' Rays if you haven't. That **** is seriously no joke. I couldn't finish my sandwich (I took about three bites and then progressively finished it throughout the next two or three days).
 

MountedShooter

Mega Poster
If you are ever at Carowinds, PuckerButt Pepper Company is just a short drive away. They are the creators of the Carolina Reaper and Pepper X, the two hottest peppers available. You can purchase many of the hot sauces they make as well as Carolina Reaper pepper plant seeds at their store or their online shop.
 

RcTmix

Mega Poster
“Hot Ones” is great! I’m pretty sure they have had a sauce from PuckerButt on the show in a previous season. Don’t really forget a name like that, do you?

Edit: Unique Garlique is from puckerbutt, so there we go.
 

Nicky Borrill

Strata Poster
“Hot Ones” is great! I’m pretty sure they have had a sauce from PuckerButt on the show in a previous season. Don’t really forget a name like that, do you?

Edit: Unique Garlique is from puckerbutt, so there we go.
Ed Currie's Puckerbutt have featured a few times, they had the Uniquie Garlic in season 19, they had their Extra Mean Green sauce in season 17 and they had their chocolate plague in season 9.

They change each season, they had a Wiltshire Chill Farms sauce in season 9.

Wiltshire chilli farms make one of my favourite sauces ever, their Mango Chilli sauce is delicious. Although it wasn't this one featured on the show, because it's not really that hot at all, instead they featured their Trinidad Scorpion sauce.

For a coaster link, Wiltshire Chilli have had a stall at Alton Towers Christmas Market for each of the last few years, with their entire selection there to try and buy.
 

JackFish

Mega Poster
Sound like you had a ball @Hyde! I've always loved the way da bomb tastes, but the stomach trouble is almost never worth it. The sauce in your eyes is never fun and as a fellow contact wearer, I know how bad that can feel.
 
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