I was at the local food co-op when I saw Brother Bru Bru's African Hot Sauce. It said it was "very hot!" on the label, and since some of you had recommended African hot sauces to me earlier I decided to check it out. The label suggests that there were assorted peppers mixed into this concoction. Frankly, for me it was a bit on the mild side. Also, the background sweetness and pungency overwhelmed the heat. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the flavor, even if I was disappointed by tepid spice level. I'm giving it a 4 out of 10, mostly because this was way too mild for a "very hot!" sauce. I mean, the label advertises that it is peddling indigenous wisdom, and the cover has a bug-eyed black guy wearing a tribal necklace. It would have had to be real good to make up for the promises & kind of offensive marketing package, and it just didn't step up.
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The May 2007 edition of National Geographic magazine has an interesting one-pager on the "World's Hottest Chiles" that explains the Scoville Heat Unit (SHU) scale.
I can drink most of those sauces from the bottle, regardless of their supposed "Scoville rating". But I routinely get my socks knocked off by a dish of genuine Thai som tam (spicy papaya salad).
Supposedly, capsaicin doesn't degrade quickly, so that can't be the problem. But is it possible that the oils (oleoresin) and/or vinegar are binding to the capsaicin, or competing for slots on your tongue? Most of the spicy sauces in Thailand are based in fish sauce, which is mostly just salty water.
Try "Dave's Insanity" if you like real hot sauce.
i have.
Cool. Got a kick out of the "insanity in the eye" comment. Yeeeouch!
Slightly late addition.
Not directly relevant, but this was the most recent 'hot sauce' thread I could find from a quick search.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1063598/Aspiring-chef-dies-hour…
Geezer died from eating home made sauce from home grown chillis. Could just be capsaicin toxicity, I suppose.