How To Fill Hot Sauce Bottles? Best 51 Answer

Fact #1: Water is the key ingredient

Next time you pick up a bottle of hot sauce, check the first or second ingredient on the back label. is it water When water is listed as one of the first ingredients, it is an indication that the manufacturer has cut corners and used powdered ingredients. The water is needed to rehydrate (or reconstitute) these ingredients.

A common example of this is Cholula Hot Sauce – first listed – water… second ingredient – “peppers” (most likely dehydrated/powdered).

A little-known fact is that water makes a chili burn feel hotter.

You know how drinking water when you’ve eaten too much chilli makes it worse? Well, the same thing happens when manufacturers add water to their chili sauces, it makes the burn hotter when they’ve actually watered down the sauce, saving them money and keeping the product going.

Water is free – it comes from the tap, so why pay for it in your hot sauce? What a rip off! And who knows what the quality of the water is in the areas/countries where the products are made.

Fact #2: Using powdered ingredients

The real problem with all that water isn’t the lack of flavor, it’s the dead, over-processed powdered ingredients being rehydrated.

Most other hot sauces use vegetable powder…

Like this “carrot”.

Or this ‘onion’.

Yummy right?

Mass-produced sauces use powdered ingredients because they:

Much cheaper to buy

easier to transport,

Easier handling on production day (just shovel in) and

Easier to store without coming off.

Powdered ingredients are a poor choice for use in hot sauces as they have less flavor and texture than in their natural state and there is a large loss in nutritional value.

One study showed that dehydrating vegetables resulted in a loss of vitamins — including a decrease of up to 94% in beta-carotene and 84% less vitamin C.

Additionally, gummies and emulsifiers must be used to help the water stick to the powdered ingredients – like xanthan gum and other gummies. This is just more unflavored crud (which is often genetically modified and can cause allergies) taking up valuable space in your hot sauce.

Manufacturers don’t have to declare the use of powdered ingredients, but now you know how to identify them. Look for water and xanthan (or other) gums and emulsifiers on the label.

Fact #3: Chemical-free hot-fill in glass vs. cold-fill in plastic with added preservatives

Sauce makers can either “hot fill” or “cold fill” their sauce.

Hot fill means the sauce is bottled and vacuum sealed at a high enough temperature (180F or 82C minimum) to kill any freeloading bacteria that may have crept in.

Cold bottled sauces are bottled at room temperature, bacteria can enter the bottle but preservatives are added to stop growth.

Hot fill is our preferred technique as it allows us to avoid using chemicals and preservatives in our sauces.

However, cold-filling is an easier and cheaper method for manufacturers because they don’t have to work with high (hazardous) temperatures and fragile glass, and the bottles don’t need to be refrigerated. For this reason, many manufacturers cold-fill their sauce and then fill it with preservatives to preserve the sauce (so it doesn’t spoil).

To find out if your sauce is bottled hot or cold, is it in a clear plastic bottle to begin with? That’s usually a pretty good indicator. But look at the ingredients list. If there is a preservative there, they are usually cold bottled.

The only plastic that can be hot filled is either solid or very opaque. It’s not particularly appetizing for use in the hot sauce industry.

Those who are curious can read more about hot filling here.

Fact #4: Preservatives – Sriracha’s Dirty Ingredients

Check the label of many mass-produced hot sauces and you’ll find some strange chemicals. Have you always been curious about what that is? Check out the list below.

potassium sorbate

Studies have shown that potassium sorbate becomes genotoxic (damaging to DNA) and causes chromosomal aberrations in vitro for some white blood cells. Additionally, anyone who consumes potassium sorbate in excess may be allergic to the substance. Reactions can include nutritional deficiencies, asthma, eczema, and upset stomach.

sodium bisulfite

Sodium bisulfate is a cosmetic additive used in wastewater treatment and many chemical processes. It is also added to large piping systems to prevent oxidative corrosion. Sriracha uses sodium bisulfite to prevent oxidation and kill microbes. On July 8, 1986, the FDA banned the use of sodium bisulfite for fresh fruits and vegetables in the United States after 13 deaths and many illnesses, mostly among asthmatics.

Huy Fong’s Sriracha uses potassium sorbate and sodium bisulfate

Not everyone gets terrible side effects from potassium sorbate or sodium bisulfate. However, anyone with functioning taste buds can tell it’s in there as it leaves a distinct aftertaste.

Fact #5: Mislabeled Food – The Loopholes

Sometimes just reading the label isn’t enough. Two-thirds of respondents in a US survey said the term “natural” means a processed food contains no artificial ingredients, GMOs, or pesticides.

The confusion is to be expected as there are no FDA labeling laws preventing this. The laws require there to be no artificial flavors or colors, but many other additives make it into your “natural” food. For example, MSG is a “natural” additive because it comes from “natural” sources.

What are the hot sauce makers hiding in the ingredient listed as “condiments” anyway? Beware of labels that just wrote “condiments” and didn’t list exactly what they use. “Natural Spices” is a labeling gap.

Fact #6: Food Dyes and Dyes?

Check out the color of this popular hot sauce:

Check out the green sauce – this sauce is not green because they use a special fluorescent green fresh chili pepper in their sauce. The green comes from a combination of food colors listed in their ingredients: “FD&C Yellow 5” and “FD&C Blue 1”.

Feingold lists the following possible health effects of these colors:

FD&C Blue 1: Eosinophilotactic response and chromosomal damage.

FD&C Yellow 5: allergies, thyroid tumors, lymphocytic lymphomas, chromosomal damage, triggers for asthma, urticaria (hives), hyperactivity

Mmm yum yum, chromosomal damage.

Maybe I don’t eat that with every meal.

Fact #7: Cheap and Awkward Plastics

The hot sauce industry loves plastic because it’s lighter, costs less to ship, and there are rarely broken bottles, which cost us money.

Plastic is so easy for producers. I was often pressured to put my sauce in plastic instead of glass to save money. But I’ve always refused because of the health effects of continued exposure to plastic.

One study found that leaching from PET in bottled water stored over 6 months increased by an average of 90%. Chili/Chili is acidic and will also dissolve plastic in hot sauce – many of which have a 2 year shelf life.

Although a plastic like BPA is considered “safe” for the general population, a Harvard study found that girls exposed before birth can exhibit behavior problems by the age of 3. The girls whose mothers had higher levels of BPA in their urine were more likely to be aggressive, anxious, and hyperactive.

I thought why take a risk on my health, my baby’s health or my clients? It’s in everyone’s best interest to use glass bottles, so we do. I’ve been avoiding plastic in my kitchen as much as possible lately as my growing child is at risk from endocrine disorders.

It’s not just scientific evidence of health risks that drives our decision to use glass, it’s also in the best interest of the planet. When glass breaks down, it turns back into sand. Many plastics never decompose. Our metal lids can also be easily melted down and recycled. Say no to plastic!

Bunster: Hot filled, fruit and vegetable based and in a glass bottle. Without any additional water. For a full list of our ingredients click here if you are in Australia/New Zealand or here if you are anywhere else.

Each 2-ounce bottle of Original Red Tabasco Red Sauce contains exactly 720 drops.

While competitors sell their hots in much larger bottles, Tabasco still sees the smaller one as its trademark. The privately held company says its small bottles make up about 40% of its total annual sales, which is particularly being driven by overseas growth.

“Almost all business outside of the US is 2 ounces,” says Anthony Simmons, general manager of McIlhenny Co., which has been making Tabasco for 146 years. It is exported to 165 countries and sales forecasts outside the US over the next decade are estimated to increase from 40% of total sales to half.

With an 18.3% market share, Tabasco is the top hot sauce in the US, according to an IBISWorld hot sauce report, with its closest competitor Reckitt Benckiser PLC, maker of Frank’s RedHot, at 10.3%. Both face stiff competition from smaller suppliers, most of which are sold in larger bottles.

Thanks to strong overseas sales, McIlhenny’s revenue has grown 8.1% annually, about twice the overall industry growth rate, according to the IBIS report.

Dating to 1927, the 2-ounce bottle was based on the Cologne-style cork bottle that founder Edmund McIlhenny is said to have used when he first made Tabasco sauce around 1860. (The sauce is made with ripe red peppers and salt and vinegar, and aged in oak barrels for up to three years. As a second choice, McIlhenny chose the name Tabasco, which could mean “land where the earth is hot and humid” — perfect growing conditions the special hot pepper (there’s the Tabasco pepper and the state in Mexico that also goes by that name.) The first Tabasco sauce was sold in cologne bottles because McIlhenny was able to source them quickly. (In 1869, the former banker shipped his first batch, 658 bottles, to grocers for $1 a pop. It’s been in tiny containers ever since.)

In contrast, the green-capped 17-ounce Huy Fong Siracha bottles tower over the smaller Tabasco. Crystal Hot Sauce, also made in Louisiana, is available in 3- and 12-ounce bottles. Most of Tabasco’s competitors use 5-, 8-, or 12-ounce bottles, Simmons says. They are all part of the Hot Hot Sauce business, growing on the heels of Hot Wings and the US immigrant population. In the US, sales surpassed $1 billion and grew 9% last year. For its part, Tabasco also invents different flavors of hot sauces; It’s up to seven now, with habañero being the spiciest.

Though the tiny Tabasco bottle is his staple, McIlhenny has an even smaller bottle — one that holds just one-eighth of an ounce of Tabasco and is sold as individual servings at Marriott hotels and served to politicians and presidents on Air Force One.

This tiny bottle also has a long history. It initially served as a sampler, given away at the end of a “burlesque opera” the McIlhennys commissioned to tour the country in 1895. They told the story of a man who discovered – and loved – Tabasco. “We gave away free samples at the end of the play to promote the new sauce,” Simmons said.

The 2 ounce bottles are specially made for McIlhenny and have a tiny opening. “The bottle is difficult to make – the opening has to be an exact size” so that the drops come out just as precisely, says the CEO.

Although the 2-ounce bottle is the hottest seller, the 5-ounce size is also gaining popularity as people want more spiciness in more foods and are “upgrading” to a larger size, Simmons says. Restaurant chains are increasingly choosing larger bottles for tabletop use, but Simmons says there’s another reason: “It’s harder to steal.”

I like to reuse my old bottles and caps when they’re empty or when I buy a sauce I don’t like. I clean them thoroughly inside and out with hot water and dish soap + Clorox and give them a good rinse. Inside most plastic lids is a round piece of wax paper that seals against the jar when tightened. Can you leave that paper in and clean it with the rest of the bottle, or should you throw it away and find somewhere to buy new paper discs?

I ordered a dozen 5 ounce glass bottles from Amazon last night. They come with detachable spray discs. I like the idea of ​​dabbing my hot sauce a little squirt at a time, but I’m not sure if I want it that watery. Has anyone experimented with how thick hot sauce can be and still go through the small openings? It seems to me that if you can see any spices/condiments floating in your sauce, they would have problems with clogging. Perhaps the squeeze bottles are designed for Tabasco style sauces rather than “hot” sauces in general?

Current management added table service in the Highland Park Cafeteria. You still have to carry your own tray (unless you’re too infirm to do so like many of the guests) but then a caring person will come by and ask if you’d like a refill of iced tea and ‘can I get you some bring”. Peppersauce?”

The latter would be nonsense to a northerner, but it’s music to our southern ears. Pepper sauce isn’t Tabasco (we call it “Tabasco”) or a less legendary sauce like Crystal or Louisiana (we call it “hot sauce”). “Pepper sauce” specifically means green peppers that have been pickled in vinegar and packaged in a small bottle with a shaker top. The peppers never leave the bottle; They chunk the flavored vinegar onto cabbage, kohlrabi, black-eyed peas, and, if you’re me, fried foods like okra and chicken. The vinegar adds spiciness to a mild base flavor and the pepper adds just the right amount of spiciness.

In my family we bought every brand at Tom Thumb (usually Trappey’s) and refilled with white vinegar when the liquid ran out. After a few refills the peppers were looking pale and shriveled and it was time for a new bottle. As I sat down to write this post, it occurred to me that this is probably not a best practice; Aren’t there other ingredients that add flavor complexity to a newly opened batch? Time for the taste test!

I compared a used bottle and a brand new bottle from the same brand, Cajun Chef (which they now serve at HPC) and there is definitely a difference. The newer pepper sauce is saltier and has a vegetal musky note that’s absent from commonly used bottles. From now on, my policy is 2 refills then off.

Now to sport peppers. Last time I was at HPC, the sauce was actually “Sport Peppers”, not “Tabasco Peppers”, although it tasted the same. The chilies looked like tabascos but a bit bigger. Not surprisingly, Roadfood.com has a very long thread, spanning many years, of what is and isn’t sport peppers. It’s wonderful to see how passionate people can completely ignore solid botanical evidence in the post directly above theirs.

Various people claim that sport peppers are a/bigger Tabascos only b/Serranos c/Italian-style pepperoncinis d/a specific variety called “Capsicum annuum” or d/a variety of Capsicum annuum. At least some of these people speak their bunghole on purpose, and that’s where the sport comes in.

I’ll cast my vote for a/ and d/ and agree with the poster that says “sport” means it’s a sport or an offshoot of Tabascos versus a pepper served at a sporting event (yes, others say so). Anyone who has ever seen a hot pepper lose its heat because it was planted near a pepper plant in the garden knows how easily that can happen. And Capsicum annuum turns out to be the whole happy pepper family; They even have their own website.

Start a hot sauce business by following these 10 steps:

Plan your hot sauce business Legalize your hot sauce business Register your hot sauce business for taxes Open a commercial bank account and credit card Set up the accounting for your hot sauce business Get Get the Permits and Licenses Required for Your Hot Sauce Business Get Hot Sauce Business Insurance Define Your Hot Sauce Business Brand Build Your Hot Sauce Business Website Set Up Your Business Phone System

There is more to starting a business than just registering with the state. We’ve put together this simple guide to starting your hot sauce business. These steps will ensure your new business is well planned, properly registered and legally compliant.

Are you exploring your options? Check out other small business ideas.

STEP 1: Plan your business

A clear plan is essential to success as an entrepreneur. It will help you grasp the ins and outs of your business and uncover some unknowns. Some important issues to consider are:

Luckily, we’ve done a lot of that research for you.

What are the costs associated with opening a hot sauce business?

A hot sauce business can be started for relatively little money. Business owners need a place to make and bottle their sauce.

However, you can keep those costs down by using your own kitchen or finding a commercial kitchen that doesn’t cost much to rent. (Owners should check with their health department for requirements for making sauces at home.)

Other start-up costs include packaging and ingredient costs. These are generally low, but business owners should take them into account when designing their sauces. Custom packaging is not usually an option for owners with limited funds. When choosing ingredients for a recipe, owners need to keep in mind that while fresh ingredients taste good, they can also be expensive. (Also, they may not be available year-round.)

What is the running cost of a hot sauce business?

The ongoing expenses of a hot sauce business include the cost of a commercial kitchen, ingredients, and supplies.

As a business grows, it may choose to have bottles prepared by a co-packer. It costs more than filling it yourself. However, most companies will not make this transition until their volume supports co-packing.

Who is the target market?

The ideal customer of a hot sauce company is someone who enjoys hot sauce and has some discretionary income. Such a customer might be interested in trying a new hot sauce and have enough money to pay for a premium sauce.

How does a hot sauce company make money?

A hot sauce company makes money by selling bottled hot sauce. Bottles can be sold individually to customers or wholesale to retailers. Some companies also offer larger bottles for hospitality businesses.

How much can you charge customers?

Many hot sauces are around $5 a bottle. Some specialties charge higher prices. However, they typically stay under $10 a bottle.

How much profit can a hot sauce company make?

Some hot sauce businesses are extremely profitable. Companies that get their sauce into national retailers can generate six- and seven-figure revenues every year.

How can you make your business more profitable?

A hot sauce company can increase sales by offering other types of sauces and products. Many companies also make barbecue sauces. Some sell company-branded T-shirts, hats, and other merchandise. The hot sauce niche has an almost cult following, so these types of products sell pretty well.

What will you name your company?

Choosing the right name is important and challenging. If you don’t have a name in mind yet, visit our How to Name a Business guide or get help brainstorming a name with our Hot Sauce Business Name Generator

If you operate a sole proprietorship, you may wish to operate under a company name other than your own. Visit our DBA Guide to learn more.

When registering a company name, we recommend researching your company name by checking the following:

Your state’s business records

Federal and state trademark records

social media platforms

Availability of web domains.

It is very important to secure your domain name before someone else does.

Find a domain Powered by GoDaddy.com now

STEP 2: Establish a legal entity

The most common forms of business are sole proprietorships, partnerships, limited liability companies (LLC) and corporations.

Forming a legal business entity such as an LLC or corporation protects you from being held personally liable if your hot sauce business is sued.

Form your LLC

Read our guide to forming your own LLC. Select your state Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming.

ZenBusiness LegalZoom ($79 + government fees)

You can form an LLC yourself and only pay the minimal state LLC fees, or hire one of the best LLC services for a small additional fee.

Recommended: You must choose a registered agent for your LLC. LLC formation packages typically include a free year of registered agent services. You can choose to engage a registered agent or act as your own.

STEP 3: Register for taxes

You must register for a variety of state and federal taxes before you can open your business.

To register for taxes, you must apply for an EIN. It’s really easy and free!

You can purchase your EIN for free through the IRS website, by fax, or by mail. If you want to learn more about EINs and their benefits for your LLC, read our article What is an EIN?.

Learn how to get an EIN with our What is an EIN guide, or find your existing EIN using our EIN locator guide.

Small Business Taxes

Depending on the company structure you choose, you may have different choices about how your company is taxed. For example, some LLCs could benefit from being taxed as an S corporation (S-Corp).

You can learn more about small business taxes in these guides:

There are certain state taxes that may apply to your business. Learn more about state sales tax and franchise taxes in our state sales tax guides.

STEP 4: Open a business bank account and credit card

Using dedicated commercial bank and credit accounts is essential to protecting personal wealth.

When your personal and business accounts are mixed, your personal assets (your home, car, and other valuables) are at risk if your business is sued. In commercial law, this is referred to as penetrating the corporate veil.

Additionally, by learning how to build business credit, you can get credit cards and other financing on your company’s behalf (instead of your own), better interest rates, higher lines of credit, and more.

Open a commercial bank account

In addition to the prerequisite for applying for business loans, opening a business bank account is:

Separates your personal wealth from your company’s assets, which is necessary for personal wealth protection.

Facilitates bookkeeping and tax returns.

Recommended: Read our Best Banks for Small Businesses report to find the best national bank or credit union.

Open 30 net accounts

Net 30 accounts are used to establish and build business credit and increase business cash flow. With a Net 30 account, companies buy goods and pay back the entire balance within 30 days.

NetMany Net 30 credit providers report to the major credit bureaus (Dun & Bradstreet, Experian Business and Equifax Business Credit). This is how companies build business credit so they can qualify for credit cards and other lines of credit.

Recommended: Read our top 30 best net providers, do them and start building business credit.

Get a business credit card

Purchasing a business credit card will help you:

Separate personal and business expenses by consolidating all of your company’s expenses in one place.

Build your company’s credit history, which can be useful later to raise funds.

Recommended: Apply for an easy-to-approve business credit card from Divvy and quickly build your business credit.

STEP 5: Set up business accounting

Keeping track of your various expenses and revenue streams is critical to understanding your organization’s financial performance. Keeping accurate and detailed accounts also greatly simplifies your annual tax return.

Make LLC accounting easy with our LLC expense cheat sheet.

STEP 6: Obtain the required permits and licenses

Failure to obtain the required permits and licenses can result in hefty fines or even the closure of your business.

Federal business license requirements

There are federal regulations about what can and cannot be added to food, sold as food, and processed with food. Attached is a Food and Drug Administration resource that describes the process of starting a food business: How to Start a Food Business

State and local business license requirements

Certain government permits and licenses may be required to operate a hot sauce business. Learn more about licensing requirements in your state by visiting the SBA’s reference to state licenses and permits.

Most businesses are required to collect sales tax on the goods or services they provide. To learn more about how sales tax affects your business, read our small business sales tax article.

Information on local licenses and permits:

Check with the regulatory office in your town, city or district

Get support from one of the local associations listed in the US Small Business Association’s Directory of Local Business Resources.

occupancy certificate

A hot sauce shop is generally operated from a shop window. Businesses operating from a physical location typically require a Certificate of Occupancy (CO). A CO certifies that all building codes, zoning laws, and government regulations have been met.

If you want to rent a location:

The landlord is generally responsible for obtaining a CO.

Before leasing, confirm that your landlord has or can obtain a valid CO that applies to a hot sauce business.

After a major renovation, a new CO often needs to be issued. If your place of business is being renovated prior to opening, it is recommended that you include a note on your lease agreement that rent payments will not begin until a valid CO is issued.

If you are planning to buy or build a site:

You are responsible for obtaining a valid CO from a local government agency.

Check all building codes and zoning codes for your business location to ensure your hot sauce business meets the requirements and can receive a CO.

food regulations

When selling food you need a permit from a local health department. All companies that offer food must pass a health check. Tips for a good health check

Disclaimer

To avoid liability and possible lawsuits, hot sauce companies with extremely hot sauces like Pepper Palace’s “Flashbang” sauce should have their customers sign waivers.

STEP 7: Get business insurance

Just like with licenses and permits, your business needs insurance to operate safely and lawfully. Business liability insurance protects the financial well-being of your company in the event of damage.

There are different types of insurance policies created for different types of businesses with different risks. If you’re unsure of the types of risks your business might face, start with general liability insurance. This is the most common coverage small businesses need, so it’s a great place to start your business.

Find out more about general liability insurance.

Another notable insurance policy that many businesses require is workers’ compensation insurance. If your company will have employees, there’s a good chance your state will require you to have workers’ compensation insurance.

Recommended: Find out what business insurance costs for your hot sauce business. Business insurance for

Hot Sauce Shop

STEP 8: Define your brand

Your brand is what your company stands for and how your company is perceived by the public. A strong brand helps your company stand out from the competition.

If you’re not feeling confident designing your small business logo, check out our beginner’s design guides. We will give you helpful tips and advice on how to create the best unique logo for your business.

Recommended: Get a logo with Truic’s free logo maker, no email or signup required, or use a premium logo maker.

If you already have a logo, you can also add it to a QR code with our free QR code generator. Choose from 13 QR code types to create a code for your business cards and publications or to raise awareness for your new website.

How to Promote and Market a Hot Sauce Business

A hot sauce’s appearance is what determines whether customers will take it off a retailer’s shelf. Therefore, it is important to think about all aspects of a hot sauce’s appearance. Everything from the color of the sauce to the size and shape of the bottle should be considered. The design of the label is also important.

How to get customers to come back

A hot sauce company can be distinguished by specializing in a particular type of hot sauce. For example, a company might offer a hot sauce that:

gimmick

from regional ingredients

all natural or organic

low sodium

ethnically inspired

Still not sure what kind of business you want to start? Check out the latest small business trends for inspiration.

STEP 9: Build your business website

After defining your brand and creating your logo, the next step is to create a website for your business.

While building a website is an essential step, some may fear that it is out of their reach due to their lack of website building experience. While this may have been a valid fear in 2015, web technology has made tremendous strides in recent years that are making life for small business owners a lot easier.

Here are the top reasons why you shouldn’t delay building your website:

All reputable companies have websites – period. The size or industry of your business doesn’t matter when it comes to getting your business online.

– Point. The size or industry of your business doesn’t matter when it comes to getting your business online. Social media accounts like Facebook Pages or LinkedIn company profiles are not a substitute for your own company website.

that you own. Website builder tools like GoDaddy’s website builder have made creating a simple website extremely easy. You don’t have to hire a web developer or designer to create a website you can be proud of.

With our website building guides, the process is easy and painless and shouldn’t take more than 2-3 hours.

Recommended: Get started with our recommended website builder today, or check out our top website builder rating.

Other popular website builders are: WordPress, WIX, Weebly, Squarespace and Shopify.

STEP 10: Set up your business phone system

Setting up a phone for your business is one of the best ways to keep your personal and business lives separate and private. That’s not the only benefit; It also helps you automate your business more, gives your business legitimacy, and makes it easier for potential customers to find and contact you.

There are many services available to entrepreneurs who want to set up a business phone system. We reviewed the top companies and ranked them on price, features, and ease of use. Check out our review of the best business phone systems of 2022 to find the best phone service for your small business.

Recommended Business Phone Service: Phone.com Phone.com is our top choice for small business phone numbers because of all the features it offers for small businesses and its fair prices.

Start a Hot Sauce Business in Your State

Your friends rave when you break out your homemade hot sauce. It’s clearly a winner, a perfect blend that hits all the right notes (Wilbur Scoville would be proud!) in your choice of chilies, acids, flavors and salts. And they keep saying you should sell it – a thought you’ve had a lot lately too. But you’re also wondering, where exactly do you start?

When you start a business, there is a lot to sort out. Accounting and cash flow, employees and management, production and sales, advertising and marketing, and (particularly) packaging. Luckily, we know a lot about the latter and can help you sort through your options.

Here are 7 hot sauce packaging materials you need to boost your business.

Choose the perfect hot sauce bottle.

Many mass-produced hot sauce brands use plastic bottles. It’s a cost-cutting measure that allows them to adopt the cold-fill technique (dosing the sauce into the bottle once it’s cooled) to save on equipment and employee protection. This also exposes the sauce to bacteria and spoilage, so it’s pumped full of chemicals and preservatives (which many claim alter the flavor).

In addition, chili is acidic and can dissolve plastic in the hot sauce. Who wants a little PET plastic to spice up their hot sauce? We don’t and certainly not you. In principle, do not use plastic.

Opt for glass bottles instead. They can handle the hot-fill technique (dosing the sauce at high temperature so bacteria don’t develop or preservatives are needed) and don’t release chemicals into the sauce. They’re more expensive to source, bottle, and ship, but they’re a better choice for your premium hot sauce.

From there, it’s a matter of what bottle shape and size you prefer. The general recommendation is to use round bottles rather than square ones so there are fewer places for the sauce to clump or dry out.

Design custom labels for the perfect bottle.

You’ve got the sauce (both the flavor and the personality!), you’ve got the bottle and now you need the label. If you’ve created your own logo or found a good graphic designer to develop one, creating an eye-catching hot sauce bottle branding label won’t be difficult.

All you need are your colors, graphics, and ingredient list to get started. But don’t be afraid to add something appropriate that will enhance the label and contribute to your brand’s story. Personality is never a bad idea on a packaging label – and your future customers will love your hot sauce even more for it.

If you don’t have access to a graphic designer or expensive design programs, you’ve come to the right place at our Custom Shop. Custom labels are easy to create using the free online packaging design tools you can find there. Upload your own artwork, try out the (also free!) stock art gallery, choose a background color, add text and quickly rearrange elements as you see fit.

With 6 styles and multiple sizes to choose from, you’ll be creating the perfect custom label in no time.

Invest in bottle labeling machines to save time, money and nerves.

Now comes one of the most time-consuming steps in using hot sauce packaging supplies – applying your newly printed custom labels. Sure, it’s a simple act that can be done by hand, but it’s a repetitive motion that tires employees and hurts your productivity (and your margins).

A better option is to invest in entry level automation. A bottle labeling machine improves basically every aspect of this packaging process. Labels are stored neatly and securely in one place, they’re easily peeled from their liner by the machine, and they’re applied much faster (and with greater placement accuracy). And depending on the model chosen, they can accommodate bottles with different sizes and wall types (e.g. flat or rounded sides) and even offer conveyor production for multi-bottle applications.

Bottle labeling machines can be found in the Gadgets category.

Stick to corrugated boxes for shipping your spicy creation.

Protection and transportation is another important part of the packaging process. Stick with corrugated boxes – they’re a tried and trusted option for packaging hot sauce. Just choose the size that fits the height of your bottles and the number of bottles you want to pack inside. You should also consider some form of void filling, and we’ll get to that in a moment.

But first, boxes are a great opportunity to add some branding and personality to your shipments. All you need to dress up a standard kraft box is a custom label or a few strips of custom printed tape. These simple splashes of graphics and color go a long way in establishing the look and reputation of your brand new hot sauce brand.

You don’t have to stop there either. Custom branded boxes – printed with whatever graphics, colors and text you see fit – are a stunning packaging option. You’ll make sure everyone who watches your shows knows exactly what’s inside and will be green with envy (or should we say red from the unforgettable burn of your hot sauce?). You can even play with the type of box you use – imagine being able to ship your hot sauce bottles individually in fully printed front closure mailers.

Speaking of unforgettable, branded or printed packaging is the perfect start for an unpacking experience that your customers will not soon forget. All it takes to truly complete the experience are some strategic interior void-filling decisions.

Use kraft paper for weighing and padding.

We’ll start with a simple option for ready-to-use hot sauce packaging materials: kraft paper. You can use bubble wrap, of course, but it doesn’t go quite as well with the other packaging options (paper-based, earthy, eco-conscious). Also, the tactile experience of rummaging around in a mass of noisy, heavily crumpled and balled up paper is quite unlike simply using a bubble pillow (which is still amazing to pop!).

If you’re looking to step up your inside-fill game a little more, there’s another option you’ll love.

Add custom tissue paper to speed things up a bit.

Imagine a translucent sheet of super soft and smooth paper. Now cover it with a pattern that shows your logo and brand colors. Looks great, doesn’t it? You experience what your customers become when they unwrap your hot sauce bottle for the first time.

Custom tissue paper adds a unique and expensive feel to your packaging. Because what is wrapped in paper and feels so delicate and pleasant must be valuable and important. And your hot sauce certainly is. Best of all, it’s incredibly easy to create.

With the Custom Shop’s free online tissue paper design tool, all you have to do is upload your logo (or any solid color, no gradient graphic you’d like to use), choose a pattern, and choose your colors (you can use up to two – one for the background, one for the patterned logo). From there, make rotation and size changes to your pattern until you like what you see. Then click Checkout.

Once you’ve got your new stack of custom tissue paper in your hands, you can wrap bows around your hot sauce bottles (don’t forget a custom label to secure the bows!) or create soft, crumpled nests to stuff them in to weigh. Your customers will love it and you won’t regret it.

Finish it all off with custom packing tape.

Each box needs tape to seal and secure. So why not take the opportunity to add some extra branding to your packaging? What you do with the tape is up to you, but you won’t go wrong if you let taste, intent, or even financial choices guide you.

Previously we mentioned using custom tape to seal a plain brown box and that needs to be repeated here. The largest online store in the world (you know exactly who we’re talking about) often does this with their packaging and it’s been incredibly successful for them. So there is no doubt that it will work for you.

Even if you choose fully printed custom boxes, you still have the choice of tape. You can create an excellent contrast to these printed graphics by using strips of plain brown or white masking tape. Or you can choose a complementary color that isn’t on your packaging and flood your custom tape with it instead. You know the look you’re going for, so trust yourself.

And once you’re ready to design your very own tape, visit the Custom Shop and use the free online design tools you’ll find there. As with every custom option out there, you can upload graphics, add colors, use text, and tweak things until it’s exactly how you want it. We can’t wait to see what you create.

Building a hot sauce brand takes work, but if you’ve gotten this far, you probably have what it takes to go the rest of the way. And when it comes to developing your packaging strategy, this list of hot sauce packaging materials will get you off to a great start. No matter what you choose, be sure to have fun with it and enjoy yourself. And share some hot sauce samples with us too!

Hot sauce makes everything better. When you learn to make your own hot sauce, you can control the heat—resulting in a hot sauce that adds bold flavor without the sour, melty burn you expect from store-bought hot sauces.

There’s a lot to consider when making your own homemade hot sauce. In this post, I’ll give you a very easy homemade hot sauce recipe, along with a few suggested variations so you can really customize it and make it your own!

This easy homemade hot sauce recipe is super versatile and easy to make. It contains enough vinegar to have a shelf-stable pH (for home use), but not so much vinegar that it overrides the sauce’s rich, bright, fresh peppery flavors.

And if you don’t mind making a pH stable hot sauce, I’ve included tips below on how to safely reduce the amount of vinegar.

Once you have a bottle of your own homemade hot sauce, try serving it with pepper fried eggs, stale bay fries, or my one avocado guacamole. You can even use it to make my Spicy Goldfish Crackers!

Why I like this recipe

Okay, historically, hot sauce wasn’t my thing. I don’t like spicy food. You know, I prefer to actually taste my food rather than cry while tipping milk glasses to prevent blisters from forming in my mouth.

When Jimmy decided to make his own hot sauces, I got interested in the process but was kind of disappointed that I wasn’t reaping any of the rewards.

But that homemade hot sauce? I really like this hot sauce. And not just because it’s easy to control the temperature. It’s all about the taste of the sauce, not so much about burning your face.

I asked Jimmy to write down his hot sauce recipe so I could share it with you and today is your lucky day! He gave me all his best tips, tricks and advice. So let’s dive in.

What Jimmy says

I think hot sauce makes everything taste better. It’s my favorite condiment when I’m overwhelmed by my cooking.

Bland scrambled eggs? Dab some of that sour fresh hot sauce on these bad boys! Tacos not seasoned enough? Hide that shame with some cholula! Had a bad day and can’t be bothered to take care of dinner? Put on your sweatpants and drown that boxed mac-and-cheese in the good hot stuff like the kings you are.

There are enough good hot sauces out there that you rightly assume you don’t need to make your own. I understand this logic. But that kind of thinking is for a fool. And you’re not a jerk, you’re a goddamn rock star.

A rock star about to make his own hot sauce.

Why you should make your own hot sauce

The first reason to make homemade hot sauce is for acidity. Acid is essential for a hot sauce. It keeps it fresh (in the right amounts, but more on that later), and it’s also a big part of what makes hot sauces “zing.”

You know that feeling in the corners of your mouth when you suck on sour candy? This is acid. That’s the thing.

When acidity is well balanced in a hot sauce, it contributes to the overall flavor. If it’s not balanced, as in many store-bought hot sauces, the acidity of the vinegar will overpower the flavor of the sauce. It shows up as a separate, completely unpleasant burn rather than a flavor enhancer.

The second reason to make your own hot sauce is freshness.

Bottled hot sauces are exposed to light most of the day and can sit on shelves for weeks if not months, and who knows how long they’ve been in storage before that. Time and exposure to light are the death of taste.

Fresh hot sauce doesn’t taste like store-bought one. Once you’ve eaten it fresh, it’s really hard to want to go back (although Jimmy makes an exception for cholula because “this hot sauce was created by the gods”).

Notes on ingredients

Here are the ingredients you need to make this easy homemade hot sauce. Fresno peppers can be hard to find depending on the season, but everything else should be readily available at most grocery stores. And you can always use other types of peppers instead of Fresnos (I’ve recommended a few below).

See the recipe card at the end for quantities.

Hot Red Peppers – You can use any Fresno pepper, any Cayenne pepper, any Habanero pepper, or a mix of red peppers to create a hot sauce with a more complex flavor and a range of heat levels. The hotter the pepper and the more of it you use, the hotter your hot sauce will be. Jimmy often uses mostly smoky, slightly fruity Fresno peppers (2,500 – 10,000 Scoville), but adds a few Scotch Bonnets or Habaneros (100,000 – 350,000 Scoville each) and a red bell pepper to balance that heat. It’s really up to you! You can even use green peppers like poblanos, serranos, or jalapeños. Just don’t mix red and green peppers in one batch or you’ll end up with a muddy brown hot sauce.

– You can use any Fresno peppers, any Cayenne peppers, any Habanero peppers, or a mix of red peppers to create a hot sauce with a more complex flavor and a range of heat levels. The hotter the pepper and the more of it you use, the hotter your hot sauce will be. Jimmy often uses mostly smoky, slightly fruity Fresno peppers (2,500 – 10,000 Scoville), but adds a few Scotch Bonnets or Habaneros (100,000 – 350,000 Scoville each) and a red bell pepper to balance that heat. It’s really up to you! You can even use green peppers like poblanos, serranos, or jalapeños. Just don’t mix red and green peppers in one batch or you’ll end up with a muddy brown hot sauce. Shallot – A medium sized shallot (two onions) goes just fine here.

– A medium sized shallot (two onions) is right here. Garlic – Big, fat cloves of garlic!

– Big, fat cloves of garlic! Peppercorns – Whole black peppercorns like you get for your pepper grinder.

– Whole black peppercorns like the ones you get for your pepper mill. Vinegar – Plain white distilled vinegar works well here if you’re looking for a hot sauce where the flavor of the peppers really shines, but you can use different vinegars depending on what type of flavor you’re looking for. For a sweeter, fruitier hot sauce, use apple cider vinegar or add a dash of balsamic vinegar. Use lemon juice and white wine vinegar for a tangy citrus sauce.

– Plain white distilled vinegar works well here if you’re looking for a hot sauce where the flavor of the peppers really shines, but you can use different vinegars depending on what type of flavor you’re looking for. For a sweeter, fruitier hot sauce, use apple cider vinegar or add a dash of balsamic vinegar. Use lemon juice and white wine vinegar for a tangy citrus sauce. Salt – I use Diamond Crystal kosher salt, which is half the salt of other brands. When measuring salt by weight, it doesn’t matter what brand of salt you use. But if you’re measuring by volume and using a different brand of salt, even a different brand of kosher salt, halve the amount of salt.

– I use Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt, which is half the salt of other brands. When measuring salt by weight, it doesn’t matter what brand of salt you use. But if you’re measuring by volume and using a different brand of salt, even a different brand of kosher salt, halve the amount of salt. Kitchen Gloves – I add food-safe kitchen gloves as an ingredient because they’re just so important. You will seriously regret touching so many hot peppers without gloves. They are not optional. They are so important that I consider them a crucial ingredient.

At the most basic level, hot sauce can be made from three things: paprika, vinegar, and salt. But that’s at the most basic level, and you’re not easy, are you? (It’s okay if you are.)

Other Flavors to Add: Want to add some fruit? Do it. Want to add some tequila to give it a slight burn? Do it. Would you like to add cucumber juice? Jimmy finds this gross (he hates pickles) but encourages you to follow your heart.

How to make homemade hot sauce

First, put on a pair of disposable kitchen gloves. If you don’t wear gloves when chopping peppers, you’ll get pepper oils (aka capsaicin) in all your knuckles, creases, and fingernails. And you’ll regret it as soon as you rub your eyes or, worse, go to the bathroom.

So once you’ve put on your gloves, it’s time to chop and weigh the peppers.

Use a kitchen scale to weigh the chopped peppers in a large bowl. They should be around 10 ounces.

Remove the seeds and ribs for a milder hot sauce. Leave the seeds and ribs in the peppers if you want a hotter sauce.

Jimmy usually makes a mix of both – some peppers with seeds, some peppers without. This gives a nice moderate heat with lots of pure, fresh peppery flavor.

If you leave the seeds and ribs in the peppers, you can just slice them into rings instead of cutting them in half lengthwise first.

When you add the shallots and garlic to the kitchen scale with the chopped peppers, you should have about 15 ounces total of the peppers, shallots, garlic, and peppercorns. If you have less than 15 ounces, add more bell peppers, shallots, or garlic until the scale reads 15 ounces.

Mix all the ingredients in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, then cover the pot and simmer for 15-20 minutes.

Be careful when removing the lid – that vinegar fume is quite strong! It will definitely clear your sinuses and make your eyes water.

Place the pepper mixture in a blender. Cover it well and slowly increase the speed to the highest (or “liquify”) setting. After a few minutes, the hot sauce will be perfectly smooth and simmering at the bottom of your blender.

For the best, smoothest, and fastest results, use a high-end, high-powder blender like a Vitamix. If you have a less powerful blender, you may need to run it longer.

Finally, pass the hot sauce through a wire sieve to remove any lumps or peppercorns that remain.

You can even strain the hot sauce straight into the bottle you plan to keep it in!

Arrange the strainer in a funnel and squeeze the hot sauce through the strainer into the funnel. Depending on the size of your strainer and funnel, you may need to do this in batches.

And don’t forget to scrape anything that’s stuck to the bottom of the strainer into the funnel when you’re done!

Homemade Hot Sauce Storage Bottles

Whether you’re bottling your homemade hot sauce for home use or to give as a gift, you’ll always want to store it in a clean, sanitized bottle.

Much like sanitizing mason jars for homemade jam, you should fully submerge and cook your bottles, filling them while they — and the hot sauce — are still hot. For more information on this and the specific times and temperatures required for proper bottling of food grade hot sauces, see the Spicy Trio Hot Sauce Bottling Guide.

You can buy glass hot sauce bottles online in kits that come with lids, labels, and those plastic caps (called “opening reducers”) that go over the opening of the bottle to slow how quickly the hot sauce comes out.

We go through hot sauce so quickly here that we usually keep ours in a clean plastic squeeze bottle in the fridge. Squeezing a perfect zigzag of hot sauce onto your balls in the morning really makes you feel like a pro! And you just can’t have that experience with a glass bottle.

If you plan on storing your hot sauce for months, I recommend using a glass bottle.

The pH of Shelf Stable Hot Sauce In order for your homemade hot sauce to keep at room temperature, it needs to have a pH of 3.8 or less. As you can see, when I tested the pH of this hot sauce, it landed right between 3.0 and 3.5 on the pH scale. Thank you to my scientist friend Sam at Smack Of Flavor for her help with the pH testing portion of this recipe!

To test the pH of your hot sauce, stick a pH strip into the hot sauce while it’s still in the blender. That way, if the pH is 4.0 or above, you can add vinegar 1 tablespoon at a time, mix in, and retest until you get the pH right.

One important caveat: That “shelf-stable” pH of 3.8 is for hot sauces that are strictly for home use, or maybe, maybe if you’re going to sell them at a farmer’s market or something.

It’s a combination of pH and food-safe bottling practices that make your hot sauce “shelf stable.”

If you’re giving away or selling your homemade hot sauce, you need to make sure you follow safe bottling practices and comply with all FDA regulations for wholesale licensing, the types of closures you can use, the way you fill the bottles etc. I’m not an expert on these things and encourage you to do some additional research so you don’t get into trouble or make anyone sick!

And while this homemade hot sauce has a shelf stable pH for home use and is safe to store at room temperature, it also doesn’t hurt to store it in the fridge just in case. That’s what I do.

The best hot sauce blender

The more powerful your blender, the smoother your hot sauce will be. I use my Vitamix 5200 which can liquefy pretty much anything.

If you have a less powerful blender, you may need to blend longer to get a smooth texture. And I don’t recommend using an immersion blender for this.

Regardless of which blender you use, be sure to still strain the hot sauce through a wire sieve before bottling!

Practical tips & recipe notes

Taste the peppers you use before preparing your hot sauce so you can get a feel for their flavor and spiciness. Sometimes even peppers you are familiar with can surprise you! A few years ago we were growing jalapeños in our aerogarden and learned the hard way that peppers grown in a hydroponic garden are (roughly) a thousand times hotter than jalapeños from the supermarket. (That batch of peppers also taught Jimmy to always wear latex gloves when cutting peppers, btw.)

HAVE I MENTIONED ENOUGH TO WEAR KITCHEN GLOVES WHILE HANDLING PEPPERS? PLEASE HEED THIS WARNING, I PLEASE.

If you don’t have a blender, a powerful food processor can probably get the job done, although I haven’t tried it personally. You’ll want to pause to scrape the sides of the bowl several times, and you’ll likely need to let it run longer.

Recipe FAQ

What happens if you don’t wear gloves when handling hot peppers? Jimmy says, “If you run your hands under warm water, it will feel like someone is burning your skin alive. Picking your nose or rubbing your eyes will make you regret every life decision that brought you to this moment. These hot pepper oils are a waking nightmare. Lord help you if you touch your genitals.” I forgot to wear gloves and my fingers are burning. How do I get rid of the pain? Jimmy says, “You don’t have to. I’ve tried. Every remedy I’ve seen (and tried) will never be good enough. Just buy some latex gloves, okay? more than peppercorns.”

Rebecca Says: Try some of these hot pepper hands remedies and wish you the best of luck! How do I make my homemade hot sauce less spicy? Most of the heat in peppers comes from two parts of the pepper: the seeds and the ribs. The ribs of a pepper are the white part inside the pepper where the seeds are attached. Removing these parts from the peppers reduces the heat immensely. Do this for all the peppers and you have a super mild hot sauce. Another way to reduce the heat is to swap out some of the hot peppers for red peppers or even those little sweet red, orange, or yellow peppers. What is a good pH stable hot sauce ratio? If preserving your hot sauce is important to you (a pH of 3.8 or lower), use a ratio of 4 ounces (½ cup) vinegar for every 10 ounces of chopped peppers, onions, and garlic combined. According to this recipe, you should have a total of 15 ounces of peppers, onions, and garlic, which is why the recipe calls for 6 ounces (¾ cup) of vinegar. You can check the pH of your finished hot sauce with a pH test kit. I don’t care about shelf stable pH, can I make this less vinegary? Yes! If you plan on storing your hot sauce in the fridge and want to make it just for you, you can reduce the amount of vinegar down to 4 ounces (½ cup). Does hot sauce go bad? How long does hot sauce keep? Finally, yes! This hot sauce has a shelf-stable pH, which means it can be safely stored at room temperature and out of direct sunlight for several months (I’d estimate 6-8 months, although we always finish ours well before that!). Shelf life will be extended if you keep it in the fridge. After that time, it’s not necessarily that it “goes bad,” but you may find the flavors deteriorate afterward.

📖 Recipe

$0.00 / per case

To place an order or request a sample, call us at (562) 921-6880 or email us

This (clear) flint glass bottle is nicknamed the Woozy because of its round shape and long neck, giving it the ‘look’ that defines the Woozy style. The ideal bottle option for hot sauces, but also perfect for BBQ sauce, salad dressing, syrups and fortified oils.

Flint Glass Woozy Bottle: 5 Ounces (5 Ounces)

Neck finish: 28-400

Case quantity: 12

Hot sauce lovers around the world have collections of their favorite sauces that take up a lot of space in their cupboards. Favorite sauces can be used up quickly. But the remaining sauces, used only occasionally, can spoil.

In order to better serve your customers, it is important to consider the shelf life of your product and take steps to extend the product lifespan as long as possible.

What goes in the hot sauce? What does vinegar do with hot sauce?

The main ingredients in most hot sauces are vinegar and chili peppers. Both ingredients have natural preservative properties that ensure your sauces remain safe to drink over time. The capsaicin in peppers also helps prevent bacterial growth, and even older bottles of hot sauce are unlikely to cause serious illness if consumed past an expiration date.

Additional food safety issues can arise when you start adding other ingredients to your sauces. Many hot sauce makers add a variety of vegetables or use sweet fruits like pears and apricots to enhance the flavor of their hot preparations. These ingredients can shorten the shelf life of a hot sauce.

Does homemade hot sauce need to be refrigerated?

When these additional ingredients are added to a sauce, refrigeration is required once the hot sauce bottle has been opened. The more complex your hot sauce recipe, the more food safety issues come into play. Hot sauce recipes for bottling

Even so, even opened bottles of hot sauce can be stored in the refrigerator for up to three years. Bottles that remain capped can last even longer. However, the flavor of the hot sauce changes over time and loses its potency. In some cases, shaking the bottle of hot sauce a few times before use can restore some of the flavors, but there’s no guarantee.

In many cases, hot sauce can get hotter the longer it sits on the shelf, or the opposite can happen, leaving your hot sauce with no heat at all. Not only does time cause changes in flavor in your hot sauce, it can also affect its color. Peppers often naturally darken in color, and the sauce can do the same.

Other signs that your hot sauce has gone bad include the growth of mold, which starts out as small black spots. Some consumers may mistake these spots for black pepper, until the mold eventually gets out of control.

Once mold begins to grow, your refrigerator faces another potential hazard. Hot sauce ingredients can start to produce gases that gradually build up until eventually the entire bottle explodes.

How to preserve hot sauce

Use high-quality hot sauce bottles and closures

One way to protect your hot sauce and offer customers a longer shelf life is to ensure you use the highest quality hot sauce bottles and stoppers to seal and protect the flavor.

Bonus tip: Customers can also help extend the shelf life of their favorite hot sauces by always keeping the bottle cap clean. When old sauce cakes around the lid, it can attract bacteria that can infect the rest of the bottle’s contents.

Follow the sterilization protocol

To prevent harmful bacteria from entering your products during the manufacturing process, make sure all consumables are properly sterilized.

Avoid using oil

Most hot sauce experts recommend avoiding using oil in or around your hot sauce-making process, as it can introduce a botulinum toxin, a toxic protein.

pH for Shelf Stable Hot Sauce

Ideally, a pH reading of 3.4 creates a sufficiently acidic environment to prevent bacterial growth. To achieve this balance, use citrus fruits like lemons or limes, or a quality vinegar.

Depending on your actual recipe, you may need to address other concerns that may shorten your hot sauce’s shelf life. Not only do you need to make sure your customers are getting the best tasting, highest quality sauce, but you also need to make sure your hot sauce bottles are made from quality materials and are properly sealed to protect the flavor and integrity of the sauce.

More resources:

Does Hot Sauce Go Bad?

https://www.growandmake.com/diy-hot-sauce-faq/

http://www.cookinglight.com/healthy-living/home/when-does-hot-sauce-need-to-be-thrown-out

step 2

Hold the neck of the bottle over a clean can to allow the can to catch dripping wax for easier cleaning. This method works well for sealing plastic bottles used in dry-content crafts like sand art or homemade bath salts. If you’re using wax to seal a project with liquid contents, you’ll need to spend more time layering the wax to create a bridge over the liquid in the bottle neck.

Some may have noticed it before — and it may come as a surprise to others — but every bottle of Tabasco hot sauce has a number stamped on the bottom of the bottle. People have questioned that number since Tabasco bottles hit store shelves. Some people believe it has to do with the heat of the hot sauce inside, which ranges from one to forty. But that is far from the truth. So what does the number on the bottom of a Tabasco bottle mean?

What’s the number? Something super secret? A key to hot sauce treasures?

It’s something that will surprise you and probably disappoint anyone wanting something more mysterious and cryptic.

According to Tabasco’s own website, that number on the bottom of the Tabasco bottle (31 in the above example from a bottle of Tabasco Chipotle Hot Sauce) refers to something with much more operational function. Tabasco labels each bottle with the mold number used to create the specific bottle you are holding. It’s just a way for them to keep an eye on quality control so they can deliver the best product possible.

There you have it. It has nothing to do with heat or a super secret code. There is no cryptic meaning, much as we would like it to be. Instead, Tabasco is doing what it does best – preparing the highest quality hot sauce. we will take it

Discover the Tabasco “Hard To Find” Hot Sauce Set We love this Tabasco set. These are hard-to-find bottles that you won’t often see on supermarket shelves, complete with their delicious Scorpion Sauce (greater spiciness than you’d expect!) and their own version of Sriracha. Buy Now We earn a commission when you click this link and make a purchase at no additional cost to you.

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A variety of chillies for sale at a market. Credit: filmlandschaft/iStock/Getty Images

Tabasco is a brand for hot sauces and is also one of the most well-known mixes. The sauce is made with Tabasco peppers, vinegar, and salt, and the resulting flavor — bold and intense — pairs well with a variety of dishes and recipes. Although it doesn’t provide a lot of vitamins and minerals, it offers other health benefits.

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Basic nutritional information

A teaspoon of original Tabasco sauce contains zero calories and zero grams of fat. The sauce does not provide essential nutrients such as protein, fiber, vitamin C, calcium or iron, but due to the lack of calories or fat, it can have a valuable place in your healthy eating plan. The green jalapeno flavor provides 6 percent of your daily vitamin C needs. The sweet and tangy flavor packs 15 calories per teaspoon, but the other flavors, including Buffalo, Habanero, and Chipotle Pepper, are zero-calorie and zero-fat.

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Capsaicin and Health

According to the University of Maryland Medical Center, Tabasco sauce contains capsaicin, a pain reliever. Capsaicin also aids in digestion and reduces symptoms of indigestion, note Michael T. Murray and Joseph E. Pizzorno in their book The Encyclopedia of Healing Foods. Capsaicin could also reduce symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux disease and irritable bowel syndrome. Capsaicin may be useful in weight loss by activating satiety signals after eating, according to a 2005 article published in the International Journal of Obesity. Although you don’t eat topical capsaicin, it’s interesting to note that it’s often used as a pain reliever or to treat skin conditions like psoriasis.

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Sodium Statistics

One downside to eating Tabasco sauce is the amount of sodium it contains. One teaspoon of Tabasco Original Sauce contains 35 milligrams of sodium, about 2 percent of the American Heart Association’s recommended daily sodium limit of 1,500 milligrams. A teaspoon of Green Jalapeno or Garlic Pepper flavor has 150 milligrams of sodium, or 10 percent of your daily limit. The buffalo-style Tabasco sauce flavor has the most sodium at 190 milligrams per teaspoon. Monitoring your sodium levels is a great way to protect your heart’s health.

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Adding Tabasco sauce to your diet

Replace your usual sauces with Tabasco sauce to cut down on your calories and fat. For example, sprinkle Tabasco sauce over tacos or burritos instead of sour cream, or over fried chicken steak instead of sauce. The original flavor is your best bet in terms of sodium content, but whichever flavor you choose, go easy. The sauce’s strong flavor means you don’t need much, and limiting your intake will keep your sodium intake down.

In the world of hot sauces, there are no bigger names than Tabasco and Sriracha. One is an American staple with more than a century of history, the other a comparable upstart that has captured the imagination of a generation of foodies. But how else do they differ? Are the tastes similar or are they worlds apart? Can you feel safe substituting one for the other? And what about the heat? Are they equally sharp? We answer these questions and more as we compare Tabasco Original Red to Sriracha.

Table of Contents

How similar are the ingredients in Tabasco and Sriracha?

The beauty of hot sauces is that the recipes can vary widely, falling somewhere between tabasco and sriracha. Tabasco is a Cajun-style hot sauce that relies on three simple ingredients: distilled vinegar, red pepper, and salt. Sriracha, on the other hand, is a thicker sauce — like thin ketchup — with a much larger laundry list of ingredients: chili, sugar, salt, garlic, distilled vinegar, potassium sorbate, sodium bisulfite as a preservative, and xanthan gum.

The Tabasco chili of choice (no surprise) is the Tabasco pepper—a strong medium-hot pepper (30,000 to 50,000 Scoville heat units). Sriracha turns to red jalapeño for its heat source, which is much lower on the pepper scale (2,500 to 8,000 SHU).

Read our reviews of these two popular hot sauces:

So what’s hotter? Tabasco or Sriracha?

Based on the chilies used, you might think Tabasco is a landslide hotter. It’s hotter, but not crazy. Both hot sauces fall in the low jalapeño hotness range: Tabasco at around 2,500 to 5,000 SHU and Sriracha at around 2,200 SHU. For comparison, jalapeño peppers range from 2,500 to 8,000 Scoville heat units.

Why so close when the Tabasco pepper is so obviously hotter? It is in the amount used in the hot sauce mix. The ratio of chilies to vinegar in Tabasco Hot Sauce moderates the overall heat of the Tabasco peppers to a level where a great many people can enjoy the hot sauce.

The spiciness of Sriracha is more in line with the pepper used. Ripe red jalapeños tend towards the higher end of the jalapeño range, but the chili is certainly more present in the sauce overall compared to Tabasco.

How about the taste? How different are the flavors of these hot sauces?

Eating Sriracha and Tabasco are definitely two different experiences, and as such, they suit different types of cuisines.

Tabasco has a strong vinegar flavor typical of Cajun hot sauces where vinegar is the power ingredient. Tabasco also has a depth you don’t often get from Cajun sauces. The Tabasco pepper adds a little sweetness and a little smokiness that beats the vinegar. Tabasco shines with any Cajun meal, many Southern dishes, chicken wings, eggs, fried dishes and Bloody Mary cocktails. Be careful when using it with lighter recipes as the vinegar can overwhelm less heavy foods.

Tabasco Original Red on a spoon Sriracha on a spoon

Sriracha also has vinegar, but nowhere near the level of Tabasco. There is no main flavor player in the sauce. Instead, chilies and garlic are the main flavors here. There is also a subtle sweetness from the sugar used. Sriracha is more like a sauce, less like a condiment and more like an added ingredient to a meal. As such, it has many more culinary uses in the kitchen. It originally shone in Asian cuisine, but today there are hundreds of recipes that use the sauce. It’s also delicious on fried foods, eggs, and fruit.

Can you substitute tabasco for sriracha (or vice versa)?

It’s easy for novice hot sauce shoppers to see two red hot sauces and think they’re interchangeable. It’s far from the case. Sriracha and Tabasco have comparable heat, but that’s about it. The acidity of Tabasco vinegar is completely different than the garlic sweetness. Sure, you can opt for one over the other for something like eggs, but brace yourself for a completely different dining experience.

How easy is it to find these hot sauces?

It’s that easy. Both Tabasco Original Red and Sriracha are staples in almost all supermarkets. But conveniently, for many, they’re also available online.

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