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Dave's Gourmet is a company notable for creating and introducing Dave's Insanity Sauce, which formerly held the title of "world's hottest sauce." The sauce is widely distributed through gourmet hot sauce boutiques and online hot-sauce sites.
The original Dave's Insanity Sauce premiered around 1993 and was one of the first sauces to be made directly from capsaicin extract, allowing it to be hotter than the hottest habanero-pepper sauces of the day. It has been rated at 180,000 Scoville units, [1] compared with 2,500 for Tabasco sauce. Part of the intrigue behind the sauce name (Insanity) was founder Dave Hirschkop’s wearing of a straitjacket at events promoting his products. [2]
The following varieties of Dave's Gourmet sauces are currently available:
Tabasco is an American brand of hot sauce made from tabasco peppers, vinegar and salt. It is produced by McIlhenny Company of Avery Island in southern Louisiana, having been created over 150 years ago by Edmund McIlhenny. Originally the tabasco peppers were grown only on Avery Island; they are now primarily cultivated in Central America, South America and Africa. The Tabasco sauce brand also has multiple varieties including the original red sauce, habanero, chipotle, sriracha and Trinidad Moruga scorpion. Tabasco products are sold in more than 195 countries and territories, and packaged in 36 languages and dialects.
The Scoville scale is a measurement of pungency of chili peppers and other substances, recorded in Scoville heat units (SHU). It is based on the concentration of capsaicinoids, among which capsaicin is the predominant component.
Chili peppers, also spelled chile or chilli, are varieties of berry-fruit plants from the genus Capsicum, which are members of the nightshade family Solanaceae, cultivated for their pungency. Chili peppers are widely used in many cuisines as a spice to add "heat" to dishes. Capsaicin and the related capsaicinoids give chili peppers their intensity when ingested or applied topically. Chili peppers exhibit a range of heat and flavors. This diversity is the reason behind the availability of different types of chili powder, each offering its own taste and heat level.
Scotch bonnet is a variety of chili pepper named for its supposed resemblance to a Scottish tam o' shanter bonnet. It is ubiquitous in West Africa and the Caribbean.
Hot sauce is a type of condiment, seasoning, or salsa made from chili peppers and other ingredients. Many commercial varieties of mass-produced hot sauce exist.
Capsicum chinense, commonly known as a "habanero-type pepper", is a species of chili pepper native to the Americas. C. chinense varieties are well known for their unique flavors and, in many cases, exceptional heat. The hottest peppers in the world are members of this species, with a Scoville Heat Unit score of 2.69 million measured in the C. chinense cultivar, Pepper X in 2023.
The Red Savina pepper is a cultivar of the habanero chili, which has been selectively bred to produce spicier, heavier, and larger fruit, ultimately more potent than its derivative.
The Naga Morich is a chili pepper originally grown primarily in Bangladesh and Northeast India. It is also one of the hottest known chilli peppers and measures 800,000 SHU on Scoville scale. Morich is the word for chilli pepper in Bengali, with similar words in Assamese:, Nepali, Hindi and the languages of Nagaland and Manipur. "Naga Mircha" is registered under the Geographical Indications (GI) of Nagaland by Government of India.
Blair's Sauces and Snacks is a United States snack company founded in 1989, most famous for their Death Sauce line of hot sauces, known for their extreme range in Scoville heat ratings.
Renfro Foods, Inc. is a privately owned, award-winning food producer of salsas, sauces and relishes, including 30 Mrs. Renfro’s products, located in Fort Worth, Texas. Founded in 1940 as the George Renfro Food Company, Renfro Foods is now owned and managed by the second and third generations of the Renfro family. Its products are sold in the United States, the Caribbean, Canada and the U.K.
The Infinity Chili pepper is a chili pepper hybrid of the Capsicum chinense species created in England by chili breeder Nicholas Woods of Fire Foods, Grantham, Lincolnshire. For two weeks in February 2011, the Infinity Chili held the Guinness World Record title for the world's hottest chili with a Scoville scale rating of 1,067,286 Scoville Heat Units (SHU). On March 1, 2011, it was displaced by the Trinidad Scorpion Butch T pepper, which registered 1,463,700 SHU.
The Trinidad Scorpion Butch T is a Capsicum chinense cultivar that is among the hottest peppers in the world. It is a hybrid pepper and thus not indigenous to anywhere; however, its hybrid parentage is derived from the Trinidad Moruga scorpion indigenous to Trinidad and Tobago. It was named by Neil Smith from The Hippy Seed Company, after he got the seeds originally from Butch Taylor who is responsible for propagating the pepper's seeds. The "scorpion" peppers are referred to as such because the pointed end of the pepper is said to resemble a scorpion's stinger.
The Carolina Reaper chili pepper is a cultivar of the Capsicum chinense plant. Developed by American breeder Ed Currie, the pepper is red and gnarled, with a bumpy texture and small pointed tail. It was the hottest chili pepper in the world according to Guinness World Records from 2013 to 2023 before it was surpassed by Pepper X, which was also developed by Currie.
The ghost pepper, also known as bhüt jolokia, is an interspecific hybrid chili pepper cultivated in Northeast India. It is a hybrid of Capsicum chinense and Capsicum frutescens.
Ashley Food Company is a hot sauce manufacturer, based in Sudbury, Massachusetts. The Ashley Food Company product line, called Mad Dog Hot Sauces, contains 28 hot sauces, oils and chili powders and barbecue sauce. In the spring of 2012 Ashley Food Company wanted to be in control of the quality and quantity of the scorpion peppers and any others they use in their products, so they started growing them in Massachusetts with the help of local greenhouses and an agricultural school.
The Chocolate Habanero pepper is a cultivar of the habanero chili, which has been selectively bred to produce spicier, heavier, and larger fruit, ultimately more potent than its derivative.
The habanero is a hot variety of chili. Unripe habaneros are green, and they color as they mature. The most common color variants are orange and red, but the fruit may also be white, brown, yellow, green, or purple. Typically, a ripe habanero is 2–6 centimetres long. Habanero chilis are very hot, rated 100,000–350,000 on the Scoville scale. The habanero heat, flavor, and floral aroma make it a common ingredient in hot sauces and other spicy foods.
Marie Sharp's Fine Foods Ltd., better known as Marie Sharp's is a condiment and jam manufacturer based in the Stann Creek District of Belize, Central America. The women-owned company is named after its founder Marie Sharp and is highly regarded for its authentic Caribbean, carrot-based habanero pepper sauce recipe. Marie's Belizean habanero pepper (hot) sauces consistently rank among the world's tastiest and most beloved condiments.
Amongst growers in the US, the UK, and Australia, there has been a competition since the 1990s to grow the hottest chili pepper. Chili pepper species and cultivars registering over 1,000,000 Scoville Heat units (SHU) are called "super-hots". Past Guinness World Record holders include the ghost pepper, Infinity chili, Trinidad Moruga scorpion, Naga Viper pepper, Trinidad Scorpion Butch T, and Carolina Reaper. The current record holder, declared in 2023, is Pepper X, at more than 2.69 million SHU.