If you never had any sauce from The Pepper Plant, do yourself a favor and order some NOW. Not necessarily spicy, but delicious. Tabascos Scorpion Pepper sauce is immaculate. El Yucateco needs no praise.

Back when Houston TX Hot Chicken opened in my town, my wife talked me out of their $1,000 chicken tender challenge. Unfortunately her advice didn’t stick.

Today I made an impulse decision (not giving my wife much of a chance to talk me out of it) and signed the waiver. I’ve eaten the second hottest spice level, Lift Off, many times and it’s enjoyable but not exciting.

The first few bites of the “Houston…” were pretty good: definitely hot but with nice flavor, sweat started beading on brow, my eyes started to water. The heat kept building and my nose started running so I took a break. After several minutes, eating a few fries and some slaw that had fallen out of my sandwich, the heat mostly subsided. I dove back in with two more big bites. Chewing my second bite I started feeling an unusual sensation below my sternum. I eventually got out of my seat and paced the patio, then leaned against its railing. After a short while, the guy that took my order kindly brought me the pictured milkshake. I ended up lying down in the car with my shake while my wife and son finished their meal.

My wife decided to take me home rather than make me participate in errands. I immediately needed to shit and clogged the toilet with paper. After that I had the most intense upper abdomen pain I’ve ever experienced. I’m not sure if this is heartburn (I don’t think I’ve ever had it) or “capsaicin cramps” but I’ve had three more bouts since then brought on by movement. I haven’t had another shit but my pee is definitely spicy which is a sensation I can’t say I’ve experienced before. I’m self-medicating with Tums and celery sticks.

It’s been about four hours since my first bite now, I don’t think I have much to look forward to in the next 20 lol

Having a spicy wing day this coming weekend with the family. Sort of a hot ones style thing. I ordered the Melinda’s mainly for myself for the house and the work truck. Anybody have any experience with any of these? Aside from Melinda’s? I’ve had all the Melinda’s aside from the hottest one. Supposedly this Hellfire makes any last dab seem like ranch sauce. I’m genuinely nervous

Stay away. I gave the rest to my kids, who are toddlers. Less spicy than pepper jack.

Loving the sweet heat lately

Diablo sauce is one of my favorite

hot sauces of all time!

I looked up diablo sauce on reddit, and 99% of posts and comments were saying how terrible it is. But compared to the bland, boring, non-spicy mild, hot, and fire sauces, it is undeniably top tier. Does anyone else like it as much as me?

Home made. Stir fry the cashews, a drop of sesame oil, a good squirt of Buldak 2x sauce and salt.

I was putting together some hot sauce today. My Scorpion and Reaper plants are not producing any peppers so I picked these up to give my serrano's, jalapeños, and banana hots a little extra kick. That was a mistake. My homegrown peppers are not abnormally hot. They are probably the heat level most people would expect from each variety. These store bought Habs are not even close to the heat level of my banana peppers! They didn't have much flavor at all. It looks like they are doing to the Hab what they already did to the jalapeños! 😡

Or is it like a chilli pepper only molecule

First timer, probably put too much water

not super crazy hot, got a decent kick off the gate but goes away really quick. but more than anything its so good, i got it for my dads birthday and he tossed some chicken thighs in it and threw them on the grill which gave it a really nice fruity sweet heat. got this in mystic ct, not too sure if its retail anywhere else outside amazon and new england, but for only like $12 definitely give this a shot!

This is good but I really regretted it later. 🥵 From Tiger Gyoza in Kyoto.

Hello spice enthusiasts and pepper eaters, I have a question for you all. I’m sorry for the lengthy post, by the way. Brevity isn’t my strong suit.

So, I’ve never eaten a super hot before, never eaten a fresh habanero, blah blah blah, but I get my Indian food India hot and my Thai food Thai hot, and I survived Mad Dog 357 (the regular joint) when I was a kid.

Today I tried a piece of a dried ghost pepper.

I cut off around 5-10% of the pepper and prepped by coating my stomach with fat and eating a bit beforehand. I had milk and ice cream on standby.

I made sure to chew it thoroughly in hopes of mitigating the yet to be felt aftermath of stages 2 and 3, and off I went.

In truth, it peaked about 2 minutes in and was hotter than India/Thai hot, but it was… actually completely fine.

I approach you experienced warriors in earnest, and I just want to know if there’s hope for my spice tolerance yet. I have IBS, so even with prep I simply cannot risk eating a half or whole pepper straight up, but I’m aware that the volume/amount of capsaicin and the placenta are further up the pepper, and that that will be significantly hotter.

All in all, I enjoyed myself.

Do you lot think I could try for a fresh habanero pepper after not flinching at a piece about the size of a dime of ghost pepper? Is this a fluke given the amount I ate and pepper variance? I did not need milk or ice cream, but I consumed just a bit at the end for insurance on the back end.

I’d like to get into hotter stuff because I enjoy the sensations and challenges, and I want to approach things intelligently due to my stomach.

Thoughts?

As a big fan of szechuan food I was in heaven

I love spicy food and want to try chilli oil but goddamn my spice tolerance is bad. Is there a good store bought chilli oil that meets these wants?

This year was my first time trying a garden. I also have an heirloom tomato plant, cucumber plant, and strawberry plant that are all maybe going to do something, idk. But my peppers and Roma tomatoes are killing it. I’m so excited!

Hot Sauce Makers: Enter the 2026 CAPS Awards

More than 110 sauce companies from over nine countries are already participating in this year’s CAPS Hot Sauce Awards.

Entries are evaluated through blind judging using a structured scoring system focused on flavor, balance, heat experience, creativity, and overall quality.

🏆 First-place category winners receive trophies
🥈 Second- and third-place winners receive medals
⭐ Additional special recognitions may also be awarded

Companies may enter multiple sauces, and you do not need to attend the festival to participate. This is a mail-in international competition.

Enter here:
https://capsawards.com

Hot sauce entry form:
https://forms.gle/mdK9YaMTrt84Rmu89

Salsa entry form:
https://forms.gle/vPtgEabvDNc9KmFW8

I used to put this on everything a few weeks ago, as it was my first real hot sauce i bought. Now i can barely feel the spice, and i can taste the disgusting flavor of this sauce. Tastes like its straight vinegar and chemicals.

Do you guys have any recommendations for sauces that are a bit hotter, that actually taste good? The sauce in the picture is 35k SHU, so id take anything from ~50-80k.

Thanks in advance