Key point.
True, but from my understanding the āoriginalā was created by a woman in Sri Racha (which is now sold under the name Sriraja Panich) and itās actually sweeter than the Huy Fong sauce. One can trace authenticity back as far as one likes - Iām sure there was some sauce that was the inspiration for Sriraja Panich, and someone who inspired that sauce tooā¦ and we could get in to a hipster sauce-off saying we liked the original sauce before it was popularā¦but the point that I think we can all agree on though is Huy Fong makes a damn good chili sauce, and we donāt need no stinkinā corn syrup in our ketchup.
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I mix in a little mayo for an awesome dipping sauce. Suddenly people will try it.
edit: annnnd @OtherMichael has both good taste, and better timing than I.
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Why you ask? Because people will buy it, of course.
Another consideration is that grocery shelf space is a premium, and a comapny the size of Heinz will be allowed to muscle away a couple of spots from competing brands to make room for this thing.
I think itās probably more in order to flood the marketplace and induce brand fatigue. At that point, advertising takes over, and Huy Fongās budget is no match for Heinzās. Huy Fong probably continues to have similar revenues as they do now, but Heinz battles out out with the other CPGs for the growth market.
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Tobasco is gross. ALL HAIL SRIRACHA. The one true spicy sauce.
I donāt get all the hubbub over Sriracha, especially when people play snobbery games over Tabasco being inferior to it. Theyāre both mass-produced products and neither of them is truly that great.
Blairās deathsauce is where itās at IMO, but even then thereās a ton of other great-tasting sauces.
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Iām currently going batshit crazy with Yucateco Chipotle sauce, but I doubt that will be much of a revelation to most here!
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Its kind of thick and weirdly sweet, I also find it tastes more tomatoes than like straight up chilies. Not a lot of complexity there. I donāt particularly like the stuff myself, though its very good in certain places. Many Asian foods, particularly American Chinese take out. Its actually really good on oysters. But its just sort of generically sweetish and hot. And the heat isnāt really a pleasant sort of hot. Its just kind of stingy, all at once, and all in the front of your mouth. There are much hotter chili sauces that donāt make my teeth ache the minute they hit my mouth the way it does. I like my various hot sauces to be a bit more balanced. Most of your Thai, and even some of the non Thai srirachas do that better. Thereās more acid, or more complex pepper and garlic, to balance out whatever level of sweetness is there. Huy Fong is like the Tabasco of the hot sauce world. Its got heat and a basic flavor going (for Tabasco its pretty much just vinegar, for Huy Fong its a vaguely sweet "i might be a pepper i might be a tomato). Both tend to be, while not astronomically hot, the unpleasant sort of spicy.
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Or, another way to think about it is that if shelf space is a premium, then thereās no point to selling all the same lame shit that every other grocery store tends to offer. Apparently the space isnāt all that āpremiumā!
Sriracha mixed with mid grade american yellow mustard is the perfect dip for french fries.
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Stahp it. Iām at work, and my keyboard canāt handle this much droolā¦ I gotta stop reading these food articles.
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Sriracha mustard is awesome. My favorite thing to dip french fries in.
So weāre pretty much coming full circle back to where ketchup originally came from.
Obligatory The Oatmeal reference
And then I ruined it.
Heinz hasnāt lasted this long in the condiment business by not jumping on every damn fool fad that lasts any length of time. Remember their motto: āNo one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American people.ā
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The El Yucateco Kutbil-Ik stuff is really good, too. Love that one.
For the benefit of non-Aussies, El Yucateco and the like are about as common as Byron Bay Hot Sauces in the US. Which are also pretty decent and their coconut curry one is brilliant on snags.
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I think this is the sign Iāve been waiting for to go out and try sriracha, assuming it hasnāt been ruined already.
That LA Times article is great. I love the people who are āconcernedā on behalf of Mr. Tran.
- president of Stallman Marketing, a food business consultancy
- a food and drink analyst for Mintel
- a partner and expert on brand protection and trademark issues at the
law firm Sideman & Bancroft. - an intellectual property lawyer who has represented the Los Angeles
Lakers, Pom Wonderful and Nordstrom.
Marketers, analysts, and IP lawyers are right to be worried about the success of Huy Fong, because it shows you donāt need the āservicesā of leaches in order to have a successful business.
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