Favourite hot sauce?

Interesting, maybe it's just my taste buds! But I agree with you that Sriracha is great as a general purpose sauce, especially for Asian dishes. The fermented garlic and pineapple sound like a delicious addition to the Bolivian hairy chillies - I'll have to try that combination sometime. Thanks for sharing your sauce preferences and homemade creations.

Crazy Bastard have some new flavours:https://www.crazybsauce.com/product-page/winter-warmer-set

Plus their own hot curry sauce:https://www.crazybsauce.com/product-page/berlin-brennt-hot-curry-sauce-100ml

@igCorcaigh have you tried Tongue Tied? Based in Cork: https://tonguetiedhotsauce.com/

Just stumbled upon them now online, so i'm curious if anyone has any reports.

Re Tongue tied,

I'll nip down to the Marina Market on Friday to sample them.

Looks promising.

Red Hot is the brand name. I was referring to the Original variety.

https://www.franksredhot.com/en-au/products/franks-redhot-original-cayenne-pepper-sauce

Yeah its the new pulled pork.

Huge market in America though so as tastes change here there'll be more of a market for it. Its really easy and fairly cheap to do.

Unfortunately, as a lot of small food producers find out, something being cheap and easy to make does not mean it's easy to make money from it.

Breaking into markets to sustain your little industry is extremely hard. Doing fairs and markets doesn't, generally pay. You need expansion and investment to actually make money and that comes with risk.

And when I say, "make money", I mean cover wages and other overheads and stay afloat - not become rich.

Deals with retailers only last until another competitor woos the supermarket with a better deal.

It just seems to me that of all the new business ideas that people are rushing into, this one, to me, seems particularly difficult to successfully monetise.

I think (?) Rebel Chilli were the first Irish producer. Now they have loads of competitors and more and more imports. I wonder how they are doing, now?

Also, hot sauce, for most people is a very occasional buy. It's not like most people go through a bottle every couple of weeks.

That's what I mean, unless you get that lucky break and big investment and expansion, I don't think it's really a viable business for many. I can't see many small producers surviving as small producers.

I really don't know how you'd know that many new Irish sauce companies are doing well. There existence isn't, necessarily, a sign of success - just that they haven't given up yet. I could well be wrong about this but I guess time will tell. I wonder have many come and gone yet? Every food market has someone new trying to flog their special relishes and sauces. Some aren't great and most are pretty generic. Small scale food production is extremely difficult to make money from.

To tie in with the small scale local sauce production, and a curry sauce range.

A few weeks ago I saw Mr. Athula at a stand in Supervalu Carrigaline. He was promoting his range of sauces, which he makes in Carrigaline. I tried the Jalfrezi sauce and was blown away. Really nice and easy to use. Once the jar is open for a day in the fridge, it heats up a bit more. I've just had a lunch by cooking noodles, and just stirring in a few spoons in and heat up. I also use it as a standard curry sauce, with fried jackfruit and veg. My wife doesn't like heat, so has tried the Korma, which is also very nice.

He persuaded me to try his tomato sauce (I never use tomato sauce), and it was really different, with a hint of heat, cloves and cinnamon. I came away with a jar.

And he was an all-round nice guy! We had a great chat about chillies , Sri Lanka etc.

So, if you get a chance, pick up a jar of Jalfrezi and/or the others, to try, and support local produce.

Picked up the 3 tongue tied sauces in MM at lunch, for €18. Saucy, but what the hell. Shopping local.

Got to taste them while there.

Jalapeño and apple - not too hot, probably nice with cheese.

Red chilli and orange - bit hotter, lovely orange coming through.

Habanero- hottest, but still OK. Not sure about it regarding flavour. Possibly best at adding to cooking rather than a condiment.

So far, can see myself repeat buying the red chilli and orange.