The earthy, smoky-sweet scotch bonnet pepper is relatively difficult to find in the U.S. and this bright red sauce features the pepper’s flavor at the forefront. This classic Dominican extra-hot sauce isn’t for the faint of heart though—the heat is instant and lingering—but you’ll get that distinct vegetal-smokey, yet fruity scotch bonnet flavor. Scotch bonnets are used all over the Caribbean, and there really isn’t a satisfying sub for them. For those that want to be transported to the tropics, in search of the true flavors, this pepper is a big part of that. Jalapeños are incorporated here too to balance out the intensity, and make it much more palatable than many hyper-spicy hot sauces out there. Most are all about cramming in heat with no attention to flavor, while this one is complex and delicious.

This straightforward, use-everywhere hot sauce is a great example of how simplicity is often best. While many jalapeño-based hot sauces don’t taste fresh and lose their distinctive flavor, and also use preservatives that make them cloudy and bitter, this sauce’s jalapeno flavor is almost as bright as biting into a fresh pepper. It’s mellowed a bit, so the effect is more juicy and pickled. It has a really nice amount of heat, which won’t blow out your palate by any stretch, but it has a warming, slow creep of heat. The garlic isn’t overpowering, it just adds a good foundation to keep the vinegar and jalapeño grounded. Plus, the heat doesn’t stay around too long, so you can enjoy drizzling it on throughout the course of your whole meal.

This bright, yellow-orange hot sauce has a nice spice that isn’t too aggressive—a friendly heat. The main attraction is the passion fruit flavor—it’s so bright and fresh, you could be scooping a spoonful of the seeds right from the fruit itself. And the fruity flavors of the chili peppers mingle in behind the passion fruit as well. This is a really special sauce—a bit spicy but a celebration of passion fruit. Add a tropical twist to your hot sauce collection.

Around 15,000 SHU on the Scoville scale, this wonderfully textured, milder sauce yields a perfectly smoky flavor from fresh smoked chili peppers. The smoky element adds a significant hit of flavor, but won’t compete with the flavors of your dish. It’s bright, fresh and chili-forward, with a touch of sweetness that coaxes more smoke aroma out without overpowering the flavor of the chiles. Overall really well-rounded and just plain yummy.

Around 15,000 SHU on the Scoville scale, this smooth and glossy sauce has a well-balanced, aromatic herb character that sets it apart from most other hot sauces. We’ve seen some use herbs like oregano before, but never oregano and rosemary. The rosemary gives the sauce a truly French feel—with a soft sweetness and fresh taste that subdues its vinegar base. The effect is very much like walking through an herb garden— lots of different aromas mixing together into a tasty herbiness. With a mild kick, it’s spicy enough to curb a craving for heat but you taste more clean pepper flavor, which won’t blow out your palate.

Around 75,000 SHU on the Scoville scale, this smooth-textured sauce is tangy and spicy–essentially a better, thicker Tabasco. The Sirocco leaps ahead thanks to the gentle sweetness that both tames the vinegar and boosts the pepper flavor. It also has a bit of smokiness to it— not like a bbq sauce or a chipotle hot sauce, but enough to give it that extra something that makes it much more interesting and well-rounded. The subtle smoke flavor comes from powdered smoked peppers, rather than fresh. The result is a bright and light smokiness under the vinegar tang, not the deep round smokiness of roasted/smoked fresh peppers. A touch of pleasant sweetness rounds out the flavors. The hottest kind we have from Maison Martin, this sauce has less fruity ripe pepper sweetness than the other two and is sharper in a way reminiscent of vinegary Tabasco.

While you can buy kimchi in most stores these days, this is the first hot sauce that captures its vibrant flavors in a versatile condiment. This vibrantly red hot sauce showcases the fruity, friendly heat of aromatic gochugaru chile flakes grown in China that are the base of many kimchi pastes, but focuses on fresh flavors over fermented funk. Fresh-pressed ginger juice adds a sweet-spicy brightness, while the acidity and fruitiness of the lime helps the fruity chili flavor to pop. But Neither overpower the actual chili flavor. And a hint of garlic adds the perfect base note to keep everything grounded.

Zab’s is nothing like anything we’ve ever found in run-of-the-mill grocery stores. The sauce is made from rare datil peppers grown in their native St. Augustine, Florida before it’s cooked and bottled by hand. This sauce in particular is meant to be a love letter to the regional sauces made there. We love its texture—not too thick or runny—and its unique heat, which lingers on the palate but doesn’t overwhelm. It’s tangy and sweet, thanks to the additions of pineapple and tomato, along with the carrot and fruity cider vinegar. Extra earthiness from hits of turmeric, mustard and earthy-sweet molasses make it a complex but completely versatile hot sauce.

A twist on a classic vinegar-based hot sauce using the rare datil pepper, Zab’s is nothing like anything we’ve ever found in run-of-the-mill grocery stores. The sauce is made from datil peppers grown in their native St. Augustine, Florida before it’s cooked and bottled by hand. We love its texture—not too thick or runny—and its unique heat, which lingers on the palate but doesn’t overwhelm. The flavor is tangy and a bit vegetal like a tomato with an up-front sweetness. And of course, the datil’s taste shines through—a bit fruity like a habanero, but with a bit more sweetness. The final pop of flavor is black pepper, which yields an earthy fruitiness and a different type of heat. Not too spicy, a slow bloom that’s easily tempered and almost mustard-like.

K-Mama is a rich, mildly spicy and savory-sweet sauce that will add instant Korean flavor to almost any dish. Featuring a base of the Korean red pepper paste gochujang, K-Mama's Original Sauce has a mild, lingering chili heat balanced by brown sugar, umami-rich soy sauce and the fermented soybean paste used to make gochujang. Aromatic sesame oil gives the sauce a silky richness. The company also makes a Gluten-Free Sauce that's slightly tangier, brighter and lighter-bodied, but with all of the same complexity.

Minnesota resident and Korean American K.C. Kye developed K-Mama Sauce out of nostalgia for his mother's homemade Korean cooking. The award-winning condiment is ideal for making bibimbap, a classic Korean rice dish, as well as marinating meat, drizzling over rice or noodle dishes or using as a flavor base for stir-fry.

Based on a family recipe, Lime Leaf Sambal by Auria's Malaysian Kitchen is a one-of-a-kind tangy and savory chili paste made with makrut lime leaves and lime juice. The clarifying aroma and complex floral notes of makrut lime complement the chili peppers' fresh, vibrant quality without making the hot sauce taste overwhelmingly citrusy. The sambal is rounded out with pungent garlic, cane sugar and kosher salt for a savory, balanced condiment that has both the brightness of fresh chilies and the depth of cooked chilies.

Belazu uses its earthy Rose Harissa as the base for this bold and fiery chili paste, which has the perfect amount of smokiness from the addition of chipotle peppers. It's earthy but not overwhelmingly smoky, so you can still savor the fruity depth of the other chilies. The harissa's spiciness is complemented by rich balsamic vinegar of Modena and dark muscovado sugar, which bring out the natural sweetness of the chilies without overpowering the paste. Bright cinnamon rounds out the harissa, which we sometimes treat as a complexly spiced chipotle paste.

This small-batch chili paste from Auria's Malaysian Kitchen has a wonderful chili-forward flavor, with a balance between the brightness of fresh peppers and the earthiness of dried chilies that makes it adaptable to all manner of recipes. The spice is rounded out with pungent garlic and a touch of sugar and vinegar, and the producer also uses shrimp paste in its recipe, which contributes umami flavor without any fishiness. As an ingredient for cooking, you can get more mileage out of sambal than hot sauce thanks to its thicker consistency, while its complexity makes it a great powerhouse ingredient for weeknight stir-fries. Try substituting sambal for the red chili flakes in our Thai Stir-Fried Spinach.

Tuk Meric is a Cambodian black pepper sauce typically made with lime juice, fish sauce, sea salt and sugar for a sweet, salty and tangy flavor combination. We asked Angkor Food if they could make a version, and in response, chef Channy Laux created this sauce based on her mother's recipe. The unique addition of tamarind juice makes Angkor Food's Tuk Meric tangy, not vinegary, and highlights black pepper's fruity notes.