The most popular hot sauces in the US—and the history behind them

• Popularity: 44%
• Fame: 72%
• Scoville scale: 747 SHUs

 

Texas Pete hot sauce has its roots in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where it was first introduced in 1929 by Sam Garner and his three sons (Thad, Ralph, and Harold), who'd previously bought a barbecue restaurant where they made a famous barbecue sauce. The hot sauce was born when customers asked for something with more heat.

A marketing adviser pitched the name "Mexican Joe," but Sam Garner insisted on an American name. The family settled on Texas Pete, an homage to the piquant cuisine of Texas and a nickname Harold went by. Its combination of tangy vinegar, aged peppers, and a balanced heat level has made it a staple in the Southeast and beyond. The sauce complements various dishes, including traditional Southern fare, barbecue, fried chicken, and Tex-Mex cuisine. Unsurprisingly, Texas Pete is the most popular hot sauce in the Carolinas, Georgia, and Virginia, according to 2025 Instacart data, and it ranks fifth on the platform nationwide. Today, Texas Pete is still run by fourth-generation Garner family members, and they've even gotten into the sriracha game.

• Popularity: 44%
• Fame: 69%
• Scoville scale: 2,200 SHUs

 

Huy Fong Foods' sriracha, named after the coastal town of Si Racha in Thailand, where the chili sauce originated, was created by Huy Fong Foods founder David Tran. The name Huy Fong honors the freighter that carried Tran out of Vietnam as a refugee in 1979. He arrived in Los Angeles the following year and started selling the hot sauce out of his Chevy van.

Initially catering to the growing Asian immigrant community, sriracha soared in popularity due to its versatility and distinctive flavor (a balanced blend of spice, tang, and garlic), which owes its heat to sun-ripened red jalapeño peppers. The iconic rooster logo and green-capped bottle gained a cult following and subsequently mainstream appeal. Huy Fong Sriracha is so popular that when a chili pepper shortage halted production in 2022, panic ensued.

Today, the sauce is in numerous cuisines, deliciously enhancing everything from noodles to soup to pizza, as the bottle suggests. It's also the second-best-selling hot sauce on Instacart and the top seller in eight states, from Texas to Washington. Forbes put Tran's net worth at $1 billion in 2023, making him America's first hot sauce billionaire. Huy Fong may have competition, however: Underwood Ranches, Tran's former chili supplier, launched its own sriracha in 2020 and has been expanding its distribution as Huy Fong's supply problems dragged on, including another Huy Fong production slowdown in mid-2024.

• Popularity: 56%
• Fame: 86%
• Scoville scale: 450 SHUs

Frank's RedHot sauce has a spicy and rich history dating back to the turn of the 20th century. In 1896, traveling salesman Jacob Frank wanted a career change and decided to go into business with his two brothers in Cincinnati, establishing the Frank Tea and Spice Co.

As the Cincinnati Enquirer reports, the trio first sold spices in small, shelf-sized packages; then they expanded to peanut butter in 1906; and finally, they ventured into hot sauce territory in 1918. That's when Frank traveled to New Iberia, Louisiana, where, with the help of pepper farmer Adam Estilette, they created a recipe for a hot sauce made with cayenne peppers rather than tabasco peppers.

The sauce, first bottled and sold in 1920, blends spicy and tangy flavors thanks to its unique base of aged cayenne peppers, which are mixed with vinegar, salt, and garlic. The hot sauce is relatively mild, sitting at 450 on the Scoville scale.

Though it long had its fans, the popularity of Frank's surged after 1964, when the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York, served the first Buffalo wings (Frank's says its sauce was the secret ingredient). By 1980, the company was producing 72,000 bottles of Frank's RedHot sauce a day.

In 2017, McCormick acquired Frank's RedHot, along with French's mustard, in a $4.2 billion deal for Reckitt Benckiser's food business. Today, the second most popular hot sauce in the U.S. is sold in 20 countries worldwide. It's also Instacart's best-selling hot sauce, claiming the top spot in 31 states.

• Popularity: 61%
• Fame: 94%
• Scoville scale: 2,500 SHUs

The most popular hot sauce in America, Tabasco, also has a history dating back to the 19th century, when food lover and avid gardener Edmund McIlhenny first created it on Avery Island in Louisiana. Its popularity grew thanks to its unique blend of aged red peppers, salt, and vinegar that impart a bold, tangy flavor.

As the story goes, according to the official Tabasco website, McIlhenny was given seeds of Capsicum frutescens peppers that had either come from Mexico or Central America in the mid-1800s. He grew his first commercial pepper crop in 1868, and by the following year, he'd sent out more than 650 bottles of his brand-new hot pepper sauce, offering it wholesale for $1 apiece to grocers in New Orleans and around the Gulf Coast at large. He called it Tabasco, a word of Mexican Indian origin believed to mean "place where the soil is humid" or "place of the coral or oyster shell."

By the late 1870s, the hot sauce's recognition had grown, and it was sold throughout the U.S. and Europe, becoming a staple condiment cherished for enhancing various foods.

Today, Tabasco comes in nine different varieties, and the company is still family-owned and operated on Avery Island. For the ultimate hot sauce enthusiasts, there's even a museum where you can learn about how Tabasco is made.

Though it's no longer the most popular hot sauce in its home state of Louisiana (Louisiana Brand Hot Sauce now takes the title, per Instacart), Tabasco remains the most recognized hot sauce in the country: 94% of Americans surveyed by YouGov know the brand.

There are quite a few famous hot sauces that didn't make the cut, based on YouGov data, but still deserve a mention, starting with a trio of Mexican-style favorites.

First up is Cholula Hot Sauce, which comes from a 100-year-old family recipe. It boasts a combination of arbol and piquín peppers, providing a flavorful heat complemented by a hint of garlic. Then there's Tapatío, created in 1971 by Jose-Luis Saavedra in Southern California and characterized by its well-balanced spice level and citrusy undertones. Tapatío is California's best-selling hot sauce, while Cholula leads in Hawaii and Montana, based on Instacart's findings. And finally, there's Salsa Valentina, introduced in 1960 by Don Manuel Maciel Mendez. This one stands out for its use of Mexican puya peppers.

If Louisiana flavors are more your speed, there's The Original Louisiana Brand Hot Sauce, a Southern classic that dates back to 1928 and delivers a cayenne-induced kick. It hails from New Iberia, Louisiana (the same town where Frank's RedHot was created), and it's now the top seller in Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Tennessee. There's also Crystal Hot Sauce, another Louisiana favorite, started in 1923 by Alvin Baumer. It features a milder heat with a hint of sweetness that complements everything from oysters and chicken to dips and cocktails. Little did Baumer know the recipe for "Crystal Pure" that came with his purchase of a New Orleans snowball syrup company would be the spicy gift that keeps on giving.

Also popular, according to Instacart's findings, is Taco Bell, which bottles its signature mild, hot, and fire sauces for customers to enjoy at home. The fast-food chain's bottled sauces rank third on the platform, ahead of Cholula and Texas Pete.

Additional writing by Cu Fleshman and Jaimie Etkin. Story editing by Jaimie Etkin. Copy editing by Paris Close. Photo selection by Clarese Moller. Updated by Colby Droscher.