Hottest Hot Sauces

Tarpon shop pushing hot sauces limits

From hot sauces such as Blair's Sudden Death, packaged in a miniature coffin, to West Africa Voodoo Juice, sold with a tiny doll and pins, local chefs just cannot get their flavorings hot enough.

Chuck Wilson, who along with his wife, Cindy, operates the Spiceman's Kitchen, at the Sponge Docks, said the market is growing for spices, rubs, barbecue and hot sauces. People want to save money and express themselves through their recipes.

The growing popularity of TV cooking shows has spurred weekend chefs to create their own concoctions. Rather than buying traditional brands found in grocery stores, cooks are turning to regional and locally produced sauces, Wilson said.

This has created a loyal following for specialty spice shops such as the Wilsons', which is at the Roosevelt Boulevard end of the Sponge Docks.

Cooks from all over the Suncoast make regular visits to Spiceman's Kitchen because it has more than 250 different hot sauces, rubs, jerk sauces, barbecue and chicken wing sauces and a variety of seasonings and specialty food items, Wilson said.

"We are one of the very few shops that feature regionally produced hot sauces and barbecue sauces, spices and rubs," he said.

A person from Syracuse, N.Y., came into Spiceman's Kitchen and was amazed to find his favorite local rub from upstate New York.

The Wilsons' shop is a virtual spice sauce museum, with rows of bottles sporting names some as hot as the sauce inside.

At the scalding end of the heat spectrum, the store sells one sauce that packs a 3-million-Scoville-unit. The Scoville scale measures the amount of the heat-generating chemical capsaicin in peppers.

Another sauce packs a palate-punishing 7.1 mill Scoville units. By comparison, the average hot sauce has around 5,000 Scoville units, while Tabasco sauce has about 2,000 units.

There is even a sauce comprised of pure capsaicin and vegetable oils.

Some people buy really hot sauces to display in their kitchens, such as the $139 bottle of The Source, a 7.1 million scoville unit hot sauce in ominous packaging.

For those who want something milder, there is the 1.5 million Scoville unit concoction called "Da' Bomb — The Final Answer." It bears a warning that it is not for direct consumption and should only be used as a food additive.

The sauces come with names that are just as hot or sweet as the product itself. Sauces most people use are not nearly as spicy hot and add flavor to dishes, chilis, and other creations. Spicy rubs also are becoming very popular, Wilson said.

Hottest Hot Sauce – Scoville Scale for Worlds Hottest Hot Sauces ...

People are constantly asking what are the world’s hottest hot sauces so we put together the list of the hottest hot sauces ever created. If you are a hot sauce lover then chances are you have heard of the Scoville scale and know how it is used.  But for the newcomers to the love of hot sauce, it is interesting to note how hot sauces are rated and how hot they really can get.

The Scoville scale is a measurement of the spicy heat (or piquance) of a chili pepper. It is named after its creator, American pharmacist Wilbur Scoville. His method, devised in 1912, is known as the Scoville Organoleptic Test. The number of Scoville heat units (SHU) in a particular pepper indicates the amount of capsaicin present. What is Capsaicin? It is a chemical compound that stimulates chemoreceptor nerve endings in the skin, especially the mucous membranes.   Have you ever eaten a really hot pepper and all of a sudden your nose starts running and your eyes tears up?  Well that is the effects of the level of capsaicin in that pepper.

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