What is the hottest hot sauce in the world? It's complicated

Red Section Separator Spicy exchange / 2023 Learn more

Spiciness is measured using the Scoville Scale, and sauces are given a Scoville Heat Unit rating (SHU). This measures how much capsaicin is in a given hot sauce.

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Despite what news websites tell you, we don't know for sure what the hottest hot sauce is. This is because most companies don't release the exact SHU of their sauces, and their marketing teams are savvy enough to fool top journalists.

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Mad Dog 357 No. 9 Plutonium was long considered the hottest hot sauce in the world... but it's not actually hot sauce, it's capsaicin extract. And in fact, while pure capsaicin is 16 million SHU, Mad Dog clocks in at "only" 9 million SHU.

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A contender: Regret Hot Sauce

Cream Section Separator Our best guess for hottest hot sauce in the world in 2023 is Regret Hot Sauce — but we don't actually know how hot it is. Journalists are claiming that it's 12 million SHU. This is an affiliate link This is an affiliate link Get Regret Hot Sauce

If you look at the ingredients list, it uses 12 million SHU oleoresin in addition to other ingredients. That means that the actual SHU is much lower because it is diluted by garlic, herbs, tomato, and other ingredients.

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Other extremely hot sauces

Cream Section Separator Here are a few other contenders for hottest sauces in the world. I have chosen to include only sauces that are currently in production and/or available to purchase online so that you can actually snag a bottle if you're interested! Learn more

Black Mamba 6 Get Bitten hot sauce uses 6 million SHU extract. Again, that is not the rating of the sauce itself because the other ingredients dilute the capsiacin. But there is no denying this sauce is HOT.

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Meet Your Maker Retribution Sauce

Cream Section Separator Meet Your Maker Retribution sauce uses ghost peppers with 5 million SHU pepper extract, combined into a 2.7 million scoville sauce. Meet Your Maker

This sauce uses an oleoresin of capsicum, giving it a painfully hot kick. HotSauce.com rates it at 250,000-1 million SHU.

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