Sriracha Smackdown Part II: Who Reigns Supreme?

Round 2 is complete! Folks, these results will knock you out of your chair.

But this time, I didn't run the show. Oz du Soleil, of DataScopic, took the lead on this round and built the most incredible interactive sriracha spreadsheet in history -  he also enlisted the help of Ashley Bower for the final design. (This is what happens when you get some data nerds like Oz and I to design a sriracha review). And we had some very special contributing judges - Griffin Hammond, the producer/director of the Sriracha Documentary, and Brian Meagher of Hot Sauce Daily! Round 1 judge Juli Johnston joined us again to contribute. We compiled the results LIVE through Google Hangout. What an awesome crew! 

Sriracha Smackdown ROUND 2

Update 7/16/2013: The results for Round 2 have been posted by Oz! Check it out. Full SFB analysis coming soon!

And just when you thought it was over. There has been an outpouring of new data/recommendations on srirachas we didn't try. So you know what that means. ROUND 2!

How will this work? This time, we want more judges. And you don't have to be here. Here is the list of new brands we will be trying. If you can get your hands on any one of these, you can participate. We're going to limit Round 2 to about 5 more brands, and compare them with the results from Round 1. Blindfolding is optional.

Scoring will work the same as the last round so we can compare results - simply rank on overall taste (1-5), heat (1-5), bottle art (1-5).We'll run it through our algorithms and come up with the new winner.

Send me a note if you are interested in participating! And send me some additional srirachas! We may even do this live!

Here are the list of newcomers so far:

1.) Saigon Sisters T-racha Awesome Sauce (only available if you live in Chicago)
2.) Yuzu Pao Sriracha (only available online)
3.) "Pain is Good" brand (only available online and in some specialty shops)
4.) Dark Star Sriracha (only available online)
5.) Thai and True "Sarachee" (available online and in Oregon specialty shops)

We wanted to find Polar brand which was a winner on a recent Serious Eats sriracha contest, but they are out right now (probably had a run as a result of the blog).

We will also be re-testing the following brands with the newcomers:

1.) Huy Fong (available everywhere)
2.) Lee Kum Kee (available at many asian markets and some regular grocery stores)
3.) Sky Valley (Whole Foods sells this brand)

We will be doing this live at an upcoming Google Hangout!

The Sriracha Smackdown

And the winner is...

Well hold on, I don't give away answers for free...you'll need to read to the bottom (or just scroll, lazy reader). For those of you who haven't kept up, here is the premise of the test. Bascially, we went in blindfolded and tasted a ton of srirachas to determine which had the best flavor and texture - and see if we could identify the rooster. Check here to see our list. We made some tweaks to the original concept - didn't do the food round since we had so many srirachas (19 to be exact) and were afraid of burnout. Better to go naked.

Update as of 7/21/2013: We've also completed ROUND 2! Be sure to check it out!

The srirachas are rolling in

Update as of 5/21/213

Roland came in today! This one is made in China. Another Dragon Sauce. Can't they all just like get together and have an international expo or something and pick different mascots? That would be pretty darn cool. They can call it SrirachaCon!

Color and texture in the bottle are looking pretty similar to Trader Joe's. Waiting on Lee Kum Kee, Flying Goose, and a few others. On that note, if anyone knows how we can obtain Saigon Sisters "T-racha Awesome Sauce" (based out of Chicago), please let us know, we will send you a check.  Oh and look, there already is a Hot Sauce Expo. Need to plan our trip...

Update on the Sriracha Smackdown

Update: See our results for Round 1 and Round 2! The post below tells the story of how we came by these many srirachas, and some additional facts about them.
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For those of you that missed a beat, we have decided to put The Rooster and Huy Fong foods to the test.

Here is an update of our srirachas to date:

Srirach Name Origin Status Tested Huy Fong US Obtained, duh! Round 1 and Round 2 Caravelle Thailand Obtained Round 1 "Shark Brand" Mild Thailand Obtained Round 1 "Shark Brand" Hot Thailand Obtained Round 1 and Round 2 Grand Mountain Thailand Obtained Round 1 Green Mountain Thailand Obtained Round 1 Green Mountain "Strong" Thailand Obtained Round 1 Trader Joe's US Obtained Round 1 "Flying Goose" Thailand Obtained Round 1 "Crying Tiger" Thailand Obtained Round 1 and Round 2 "Pain is Good" US Ordered Round 2 Lee Kum Kee US Obtained Round 1 and Round 2 HT Traders US Obtained Round 1 Roland China Obtained Round 1 Yuzu Pao Japan Obtained Round 2 Oxygen Amazon Colombia Obtained Round 2 ABC Indonesia Obtained Round 1 Sriraja Panich Thailand Obtained Round 1 Sky Valley US Obtained Round 1 and Round 2 T-racha Awesome Sauce US Obtained Round 2 Aroy-D Thailand Obtained Round 1 Uncle Chen US Obtained Round 1 Dark Star sriracha US Obtained Round 2 Homemade My House In the works Round 2

Get ready for the next "Judgement of Paris"... Is Rooster King?

Ok sriracha fans, you've asked for it. Less non-sriracha and more sriracha. While this really wasn't the full intent of the blog, I can't deny requests for content.

As you're probably aware (well, at least if you read sriracha news like I do, and I know you do), there has been quite a kerfuffle about "counterfeit sriracha". More on that here, and here, and here (yes, even Zagat is on this).

But I say - so what? Why does Huy Fong have a corner on the market? Is it true that Rooster is King? Turns out, everyone and their mother makes sriracha sauce. True, it was David Tran's version that sparked the Great Sriracha Revolution back in 2008/2009, but really, sriracha was inspired by Thai hot sauce that has been around for an undetermined amount of time. Don't believe me? In fact, what you know as rooster sauce is as American as apple pie, and tells of a classic immigrant success story.