I know this is Buy European, but if you want hot sauce with a Mexican name/theme, how about Mexican hot sauces?
Valentina, Búfalo, El Yucateco, Huichol, La Guacamaya etc.
But not Tabasco, Cholula, Tapatío: all US companies using Mexican culture, names etc.
(Indeed, I live about 30 minutes from the city of Cholula, and “Cholula” sauce is stacked in the “Ethnic/Foreign” aisle of a few supermarkets, and never found in ordinary shops.)
A finnish friend of mine brought some for me. They are SO GOOD!
I like Encona sauces from the UK https://www.enconasauces.co.uk/products
I might be addicted to this stuff. For a brand readily available in supermarkets it is really good, delicious and hot.
It isn’t anything like tobasco though imo.
https://www.skanskchili.com/produkt/sriracha-chili-sauce-250-ml-eko/?lang=en
This is my favorite hot sauce. They have other products as well,but this one tastes amazing.
Not sure about the land of production, but Santa Maria hot pepper sauce is alright.
https://prep.santamariaworld.com/dk/produkter/hot-pepper-sauce/
Santa Maria is a Swedish company owned by Paulig, a Finnish company.
https://prep.santamariaworld.com/uk/about-santa-maria/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PauligE: Added info that Santa Maria is Swedish.
They make the absolute beast of a spice mix, GrillKrydda. I met a top chef in France that even imported it for himself, when I visit Sweden I bring back kilos if that stuff. But they don’t ship outside sweden (or maybe scandinavia, I always thought it was a Swedish company, the more you know!)
Here is the little spice we have left 🥲
Santa Maria indeed is a Swedish company, and they are owned by a Finnish company.
E: This is probably the spice you mentioned. They ship worldwide.
Oh my god oh my god oh my god
They had a more Swedish name (the founder’s surname or similar) but adopted their Mexican-sounding name during the 1990s taco fad in Sweden.
That’s a different route that you maybe do not want to take, but you can easily ferment your own sauce. Though it may be more of a hobby than an actual source of condiment (if you’re not into this kind of thing).
My favourite hot sauce producer: https://www.alles-chili.de/
In Germany many supermarkets (Kaufland, Globus, Rewe, Edeka,…) have hot sauces from ‘Hot Mamas’ which is a brand by Luise Händlmaier which is quite popular for their mustard. All sauces I tested so far were quite good and definitely better than Tabasco.
Sadly, there is probably none that can be reliably sources, there is no barrel-aged vinegar based mild hot sauce similar to Tabasco, as everyone was trying to develop their unique extra-hot blend.
There are plenty of good hot sauces imported from Asia (Thai Sriracha, Indonesian Sambal Oelek [for me the best is windmill brand]), many interesting (and hot AF) European bigger brands (I like Polish Roleski, they have nice hot sauce range) and local small-batch craft brands, but sadly no direct Tabasco replacement, as there’s no direct bourbon replacement – there are tens of thousands of interesting flavors across the world, so I can live with that for a while.
Some Piri-piri sauce brands are in the same ball park of hotness as Tabasco and it’s rare for them to be much hotter.
The flavour profile is a bit different but not as much as Sriracha for example.
Piri-piri sauce
Hotness is fine, but I couldn’t yet find one with the right consistency (most of them have some thickeners, as they are, well, sauces), and right flavor profile – I’m considering trying to make my own batch of either salt-macerated or fermented birdseye chilli sauce without any extra additives and mix with barrel aged Italian white wine vinegar, this should give a similar vibes.
Fortunately, I’m using this particular sauce mostly in cocktails every now and then, so I’m not in a hurry.
Piri-piri you say?
