HOT SAUCE: North Dakota buys more than any other state (Hawaii, the least)

[WillTravelForFood]

Our friends over at Instacart have released some results from their shopping data related to Hot Sauce purchases. Some examples from their analysis:

• America's favorite purchase (by volume)? Sriracha
• America's 6th favorite purchase (by weight)? Tabasco
• North Dakota purchased more hot sauce per customer than any other state. Hawaii purchased the least
• 59% like their hot sauce heat level to be "hot", while 46% prefer "regular hot". 14% said "as hot as it gets"
• 8% put hot sauce on ice cream, 17% put it on popcorn
• 81% prefer hot sauce at dinner; only 24% use hot sauce at breakfast

Source: https://www.instacart.com/company/up...te-hot-sauces/

[WillTravelForFood]

We keep a bottle of Sriracha in the pantry. We prefer Tabasco brand sauce when looking at the generic "hot sauce" brands. Just tossed a never-opened, many years past its expiration/best by date of Frank's, if that's an indication of preference.

Apparently, we did NOT put that ** on everything.

[fracmeister]

'8% put hot sauce on ice cream"

I'm calling BS on this one.

[bbqLuv]

No Hot sauce on Ice Cream, I am guessing you like Coors Light too.
I refer you for Panhead John

[Polarbear777]

How does Instacart know that one based on purchase information?

[RonB]

Well, this is a hot topic.

[Panhead John]

🙄🙄

[ssandy_561]

We go through a bottle of Frank’s about every month. I like it on Mac & Cheese, eggs, reheated day old pizza, white rice and butter, mix it with Ketchup for burgers and/or fries.

We also do a Hot Ones Wing challenge every year. This year will be our 5th year. I do the research and chose the hot sauces every year. The first 5 to 6 sauces are all about flavor while slowly upping the heat. The final sauces are there only to burn your face off. It’s stupid and fun at the same time.

Here were the lineups for the past 4 years.

[Spinaker]

El Yucatecha is a classic. Great sauce.

[bbqLuv]

Day-old pizza and coffee for breakfast. I hear you.

[Attjack]

That's only a survey of instancart customers. My guess is it isn't very representational of the country.

[WillTravelForFood]

yup. we do the best we can with what we have to work with.

[Attjack]

WillTravelForFood Understood. My guess is Mexican hot sauce is incredibly popular and vastly underrepresented in the instacart customer base. I would definitely be interested in another more accurate survey. Personally, I love all types of hot sauces.

[surfdog]

Attjack I agree… locally, the overwhelming variety is Mexican style. With only a couple Asian styles represented. The market by my GF’s house has quite a lot of choices. It’s probably 15-18+ feet long and above my eye level…with everything from all of the various, but small, El Yucateco bottles on up to large Valentina bottles…and a few other large bottles/jugs…including Sriracha.

Sriracha may be over represented simply because of the variety of other sauces. I mean, name another brand Asian style hot sauce that is readily available, thus familiar, throughout the country. OTOH, there are at least four Louisiana style brands that can be found almost everywhere: Tabasco, "Louisiana," Crystal, and Frank’s. That alone could skew a volume stat.
And there’s a seemingly endless variety of Mexican style sauces out there…

That said, as of 2019, Huy Fong’s Sriracha represented nearly 10% of the US $1.5-billion hot sauce market. But again, that could be skewed by familiarity. With eleventeen bazillion Mexican varieties available nationwide, hitting 10% for a single one could be difficult.

FWIW, I carry several varieties in my suitcase at any given time. Currently I have "Louisiana," Tapatio, and Cholula. Need to pick up another Huy Fong Sriracha. So when I am "fully loaded" Sriracha seemingly represents 25% of my hot sauce..but personally, I replace my Mexican style sauces FAR more often…but the brand may change…need to pick up some more El Yucateco for instance. Which brings us full circle to my original point. I have LOADS of choices for Mexican style sauces…but generally only buy Huy Fong Sriracha when choosing an Asian style: so it represents nearly 100% of my Asian hot sauces…but FAR less of MY total consumption.

Full disclosure: I’ve not used Instacart, and have never actually seen their website…so I have NO idea of what they offer.

[glitchy]

Am I the only person that thinks Sriracha is way overrated? I love spicy food, but every time I’ve tried Sriracha it’s ruined my food…at least for my taste buds. I love jalapeños, chipotle (yes still a form of jalapeño), anaheim peppers, hatch peppers, habenaro, thai chilies, etc. I keep Chipotle Tabasco, Frank’s (eggs mostly), Cholula, and Valentina’s Black label on hand all the time, plus usually several random other hot sauces I’m trying to find a match for…but I feel I’m on a desert island by myself when it comes to Sriracha. I just don’t dig the flavor.

I’ve never looked up the ingredients, it’s probably got horseradish, mustard, or an asain relative of those in it.

[glitchy]

Bkhuna I have not tried it in pho, but the first couple times I tried it was on Asian inspired noodle dishes.

[Spinaker]

That maybe, but it sure tastes like it to me. I guess that is what I was trying to say is...... I do not get the hype. Not that it is bad, I just don't get the hype. To me, it is nothing special. I've had it in Pho, on sushi and I too see it at pretty much every restaurant I go too. Which is part of the reason I don't get the hype. Bkhuna

[surfdog]

I’ll use it on Asian food. Full stop.
OTOH I’ll put Tapatio, Cholula, et al, on pretty much ANYTHING!

And Tapatio is my current go-to for Bloody Mary’s. I prefer Mexican style sauces in my Bloody Mary’s these days.

[Spinaker]

Y'all need to indulge in some Matouk's! It is great stuff and my favorite.


Marie Sharp's is also excellent. Hand made in Belize. I discovered this stuff one time, years back when I was down there. Now it is pretty much everywhere in the US, but man is it good.

[Spinaker]

Nah, it is no big deal. I have a case of it at work. Never know when you want to share a bottle. It is like liquid currency around here. glitchy

[Panhead John]

Hey John boy, I ain’t proud. I’ll take a bottle. Maybe bring a couple to Rockdale?

[Spinaker]

You got it man! Panhead John

[Bkhuna]

Matouk's is great stuff. We use it whenever we make Caribbean based food.

[Texas Larry]

My preference is Valentina’s.

BTW I suspect the ND folks need lot of hot sauce to thaw out.

[Polarbear777]

Or they use instacart more because it's too cold to want to go to the store.

[Bkhuna]

Valentina's extra hot is my go too salsa picante when I don't want salsa on my Mexican food.

[Polarbear777]

This all probably also assumes that the % of people in any given state using instacart is the same % of the state population.

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

The tiny little bottle of Tabasco you get with an MRE is one of my favorites even though there's so many more favorable options out there.

But we keep about 5+ hot sauce brands in the house at all times. The go to here is Cholula, my wife actually likes it and it's my favorite on hashbrowns and eggs. I really like Tapatio vs Cholula but it's too hot for my wife.. by the way the Tapatio brand ramen is extremely hot, I love it. Way hotter than their sauce but still the same great flavor.

Wife is from SD, I don't think anyone in her family really uses hot sauce so I was surprised to see the other Dakota as the top consumer.

We have some Franks but it rarely gets used. Same with Sriracha

And then finally a few random boutique brands but usually don't repeat buy them.