The milder, serrano-based cousin of Secret Aardvark’s original habanero hot sauce is a little tangier and sharper than the red sauce. It’ll work anywhere you want heat with a bit of tang—guacamole, beans, eggs, rice, even pasta. If you’re like us, you’ll keep both styles of the Secret Aardvark hot sauces on the table and mix and match to suit.

Unlike many habanero-flavored hot sauces that are incendiary hot and over-spiced, Secret Aardvark keeps the heat in check with a little fruity sweetness that falls between Caribbean and Tex-Mex hot sauces. Fruity habanero pairs beautifully with tomatoes, avocado, corn, even melon, making this hot sauce one of our favorite summertime sauces. Try mixing a little with extra-virgin olive oil and a splash of lemon or lime juice for your next tomato salad or toss with mixed melon wedges, cilantro leaves and a little crumbled queso fresco. Or make this the “secret” ingredient in your next batch of guacamole, topping with a handful of crunchy toasted pepitas to temper the spice. And if you’re one of those who likes ketchup on your eggs (we know, its polarizing), Secret Aardvark is a breakfast champion. Matt, our food editor, blows through this sauce at the breakfast table, slathering it on his omelets, scrambles and fried eggs alike, though he thinks it really pairs best with the crispy fried corned beef hash at his local breakfast joint.

Cooked in small batches by hand, this well-rounded hot sauce has a bright, bold heat and a vegetal quality akin to red bell pepper, followed by a lingering smokiness. It’s made with a blend of amarillo and panca chilies, both native to Peru and grown by Incan farmers. Paqu Jaya brings out the chilies' fruity notes with mangoes and rich Amazonian honey, balancing the sweetness with savory garlic. The final product is a multifunctional hot sauce that can be used in just about anything—whether as a condiment or an ingredient for cooking.

Ají amarillo is the name for both an indigenous Peruvian chili pepper and the hot sauce it's made into. This medium-hot version of the famous condiment is delicately balanced between sweet, spicy and earthy flavors. The chili itself tastes fruity, floral and slightly vegetal, with an intense yet fleeting heat. To make this vibrant sauce, the peppers are cooked with mangos and oranges, emphasizing the chili's fruity notes while adding natural sweetness. Since amarillo chilies are rarely sold fresh in the United States, this hot sauce's concentrated flavor makes it perfect for incorporating Peruvian flavor into your everyday meals, and thanks to its thick consistency—think Sriracha, not Tabasco—just a little goes a long way.

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.

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.

Made without artificial preservatives or other fillers, this award-winning Cambodian hot sauce is pure flavor, featuring not only red chili peppers but also pungent garlic; salty, umami-packed fish sauce; vinegar; and sugar for a complex and balanced condiment. Its moderate heat level and subtle sweetness make it incredibly versatile. Its moderate heat level and subtle sweetness make it incredibly versatile.

Villa Jerada’s Harissa No. 1 is our favorite version of this North African red pepper paste for its bright, complex flavor. While many store-bought varieties have a one-dimensional spicy flavor, this harissa layers acidity and fruitiness with preserved lemons, a touch of vinegar and tomato paste for a lively, tangy condiment. Villa Jerada uses just enough high-quality Moroccan olive oil to make the harissa spreadable and smooth without diluting its flavor, as opposed to conventional brands that contain a high proportion of water and vegetable oil.

Mom's Mala is a vibrantly red and deeply fragrant Sichuan chili oil that is all about bringing out the aromatic side of chili, balancing mouth-tingling (ma) Sichuan peppercorns with spicy (la) chili peppers. This classic mouth-tingling sauce is a classic condiment much harder to find on supermarket shelves than other Asian hot sauces that feature peanut or garlic. Rounded out with a blend of star anise, cinnamon and cloves—the core spices of Chinese five-spice powder—and a touch of sugar and oil, this Sichuan chili oil has floral and lightly smoky notes and is available in both mild and spicy versions.

Fragrant Sichuan chili oil is as common in Chinese restaurants as ketchup is in American diners. Blank Slate's Kitchen small-batch rendition pairs the heat of chili with zesty ginger and aromatic shallots and garlic for an especially bright flavor.

Gochujang is a Korean hot pepper paste that has a savoriness similar to Japanese miso and is fermented with glutinous rice, which gives it a slightly sticky texture and subtle sweetness. It’s a real powerhouse ingredient that we’ve come to rely on and consider an essential element of the Milk Street pantry. Chung Jung One's version has an approachable, mild heat level for adding to everything from tofu stew to barbecue meats.

Made with dried rose petals, this aromatic harissa has an amazing depth of flavor, with an up-front warmth that builds gradually. The subtle rose flavor doesn't overpower but rather enhances the other ingredients, layering botanical notes with earthy spices and playing up the fruity and floral notes of the chili. Made with dried rose petals, this aromatic harissa has an amazing depth of flavor, with an up-front warmth that builds gradually. The subtle rose flavor doesn't overpower but rather enhances the other ingredients, layering botanical notes with earthy spices and playing up the fruity and floral notes of the chili.

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.

Even people who can't handle too much spice will love this Apricot Harissa, which has permeating sweetness and light dried-fruit quality, backed by warming spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg and cumin. Whereas most versions of the popular North African condiment are fairly spicy, Belazu's product tempers chili's heat so it's just a mild, pleasant tingle on the palate.

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.