Endorphins

I question the choice of sauce bottle. That's clearly sriracha, and as someone who doesn't consider themselves a hot sauce person, it's not hot, it just contains chillies. I don't think anyone who goes back for seconds after melting their face would melt their face with sriracha.

Different people have different levels of heat resistance. My dad will abort mission, if you shake the pepper shaker more than once. Obviously, he doesn't have it in him to go back for seconds. I do, but having grown up in that household, it takes a while for the same heat resistance to build up. I bought sriracha for the first time a few months ago, and you could certainly still melt my face off with it, despite me using it again and again.
- My parents think a jalapeno-based sauce will kill you, and they refuse to believe there even exists anything hotter than that.
Some people say that peperroni pizza is too hot for them.
- This mayonnaise is spicy.
Had the same thought. Kinda ruined effect for me
Yeah this isn’t even gatekeeping spiciness. He might as well be using a ketchup bottle
Their might be ghost pepper Sriracha? But yeah, normal Sriracha is a sweet pepper sauce, not a hot sauce.
I’m not too ashamed to admit that siracha will make me feel pain. I do not find the pain from spicy enjoyable tho
- I think that's the difference. Someone who does enjoy it will quickly build a tolerance to that level of spice.
  My cousin once drank from a Sriracha sauce bottle like it was a water bottle because he enjoyed the flavour that much. He regretted it when he realized that his mouth had built more tolerance than his other end, though.

if there is a sriracha sauce somewhere in the world thats actually this hot I want it, but normally its nothing like this.

Since Huy Fong completely fucked over his pepper suppliers every batch is now wildly different so you never know how spicy a bottle is going to be!
- Yea, what a dickhead. I never understand the mentality of a successful collaboration going to someones head getting them to think, let me just squeeze the supplier of this critical ingredient.
  Case study as to why you can't let a single customer monopolize your business income.
- I am constantly surprised by the variation between bottles, I thought it was just my perception!
- oh man, I had heard there were shortages, but I never knew there was drama that went as deep as it did. That was a fun read.
- Underwood Sriracha is good though!
I'm a big chili fan and can handle some decent heat, this comes closest: https://www.flyinggoosebrand.com/product/sriracha-blackout/
But it kind of defeats the point if Sriracha, for me at least, which is slightly hot garlic ketchup-like red stuff :)
- Yeah, I agree. I'm not the biggest fan of Sriracha, but the purpose isn't to be spicy. It's to add spices and flavor. You can add other stuff in addition to make things spicy. Similarly, Tabasco is a seasoning. It's technically labeled a hot sauce, but it's very mild and there for the flavor. There's plenty of other options to increase the heat. They serve different purposes.
Elijah's extreme is a really good brand
Effing hawt, and tastes pretty good
https://elijahsxtreme.com/
- looks like the brand is in some local shops. I'll check them out next shopping day
Last time I was at a firehouse subs, I noticed they had a spicy sauce rack with everything labeled from 1 to 10 in spiciness. They only had ones going up to 8 at the time, so I tried adding a little bit of the 8 to my sandwich. Sriracha was like a 5 iirc.
I think it was a linear scale though because I didn't really notice anything from the little bit I put on my sandwich. Put more on the other half and even then, it didn't leave much heat.
Yet if I eat a slice of fresh cayenne when cooking, it will burn intensely for a good 5 minutes and I know that it's only around the middle of the spice scale, which is logarithmic.
I wish humans didn't have the ego issue that results in "some products are labeled very spicy when they aren't so that fragile egos can act like they can handle more spice than they really can". I'm kinda tired of needing to calibrate every single spicy thing trying to find some good heat without worrying about whether the extreme spice warning is accurate or just playing into that ego thing. I want enjoyable heat, not burn your face off.
Though I suppose part of it might be because I don't think a single person can accurately measure the amount of heat in a variety of sauces from mild to very hot. Your own tolerance plays an important role and everything less spicy than your ideal will seem barely spicy at all and everything more will seem very spicy.
I actually ended up using sriracha as a "cooling down"-agent for when I tested some absurd butt-blazing fire-fire-pants-on-fire hot sauce.

I remember our first bottle of Sriracha lasted about two years because we thought it was so spicy. Now they are lucky to last two months and we always add something spicy to give it some kick because we find it too bland now.

EDIT: For context, when we eat Thai or Indian we ask for "thai hot" or grandma's style (the cook is the owner's grandmother). Thai hot is perfect. Grandma is trying to kill me.

My friends told me they changed the recipe, so that might be why
- Same recipe, different suppliers because they tried to screw over their biggest pepper supplier (Underwood Farms) who now make their own brand of Sriracha. In 2022, it was hard to find the Huy Fong brand and they said it was due to draught in Mexico, but they would have had plenty of they weren't trying to cut out their original supplier who has now gone their own way.
- I believe it. I get a Sriracha like red pepper sauce at Korean market and it is significantly hotter. I would not be surprised if Sriracha may have reduced its spice level for a wider audience.
- Supplier change, but that isn't it. By 2013 Sriracha wasn't hot enough for us anymore. We used it like ketchup at that point. I think it was 2002 when we got that first bottle.
- I always did think it was a bit tame, like a slightly spicy catsup, so that makes sense... Would like to try the full heat version now
Where I live (Norway) there's 3 different bottles available, they're all exactly the same and you have to look at the ingredients to find out which one it is (chili content %)
There's one in grocery stores, it's not spicy at all.
There's a different one available for wholesale (the ones restaurants have) which has some heat.
Then there's the import one I find in Asian grocery stores which actually has some spicyness to it.
- FYI: https://www.chilisauser.no/produkt/daves-gourmet-sir-ouch-a/
  Ain't cheap though...
  The "extra hot" sriracha in the imports is good.
  I usually just go for a Korean Raman at this point. They at least live up to their label. I've also taken to making my own sauces at home with peppers from the imports.
You challenged Grandma. Grandma doesn't fight fair, and she's heard about packing heat and made it her own. You have to see it through now. Eat enough of her food and you'll be inducted into a secret order of endorphin lovers.

I like that his fork melted. That’s a nice touch.

I know someone exactly like this. Frequently complains about the burn and heartburn, and keeps doing it anyway.

Chip from Megas XRL

*) The only socially acceptable way for a man to cry. /s

After Sriracha stopped producing, I found a big ol' bottle of the sauce I had accidentally hidden behind some protein powder in my pantry. I enjoyed the hell out of it. slathered pizzas, spiced soup, made sriracha aoli for sandwiches. Just ran out the other day. The new tobasco brand just doesn't have the same balance between sweet and spicy that real sriracha does. It's a shame. I enjoyed it while it lasted, at least

I've seen original Huy Fong Sriracha on the shelves again recently, you should see if you can find it.
- I think the biggest concern is if they're still using the same chilis as before. There was some falling out between Huy Fong and its supplier over payment. Not sure if they settled it though.
Not that they need me to advertise for them, but my understanding is that there's quite a lot of flavor variety in the "Hot Ones" sauces. I do not enjoy spiciness, so I cannot comment on their quality beyond that.
The Kent Survival YouTube channel does also frequently reference the many tastes in their sauces, but again, I cannot personally comment on quality.
One of my old co-workers literally carries around an unlabeled bottle of white sauce that he claims is both flavorful and spicy. Our other erstwhile co-workers disagree and say that the spiciness overwhelms everything else, but he swears by it. I can see if he'll disclose what it is.
Regardless of whether you pursue any of my suggestions, I hope you find the balance you seek!
- As someone who loves spicy to the point of literally sweating, do NOT get The Bomb from Hot Ones. That shit is not fit for human consumption. Literally 2 drops for a plate of food is a risk. When I first got it, I put a dab on a chip and tried it directly. The head high felt like I was on actual drugs. Once in a while, I'll bust it out just to know I still feel. It's not for food though.
- If you figure out what your coworkers sauce of choice is, let me know too. I love spice, but haven't found a good staple to keep on hand.

This is so me. I absolutely love Sriracha! I find it to be just the right level of spiciness for every day food. Doesn't bother me at all. There's plenty of other hot sauces out there that are just stupid hot and aren't nearly as enjoyable

I've always believed that eating really spicy food is a form of masochism.

This is literally my dad lol

I enjoy spicy food once in a while, but I don't get why anyone would actively make it extremely hot on purpose. It doesn't enhance the taste, it actually makes the food taste less since you mainly taste the spice.

Some of us enjoy the taste of the chilis. Also a bit of enjoyment of the pain and tears
- So like, a smidge of masochism of sorts?
Once you have a high enough heat tolerance you can start to actually taste stuff, even when it's melting your face off.
Ghost peppers are fruity, with an almost cherry-like flavor. If you can handle them they're a great enhancer for candy!
It's fine if you don't get it, but for some people the spice is as important, or more important, than the flavor
- Yes, but why is it more important to you?
Piss off with that!
- Am I not allowed to not understand things?
  You could just explain why your opinion differs, so I might learn
The title already explained it. It's for the endorphin rush. Also, sometimes your food tastes like crap, and you just want to cover up the taste.
I generally don't like sauce that is only hot. I like it to have flavor, too.

💀

Pretty much.

I am trying not to make it a contest, but comics like this make it very difficult to hold back. I don't think people should eat spicy food beyond their comfort zone as some kind of show of toughness. This comic seems to be revealing in being tough for eating seconds of Sriracha though. People who have this Hot Sauce Bro mentality tend to be lightweights with inflated egos.

Not sure how you are getting that from it. This is a guy enjoying spicy food and nothing more