I enjoy watching other people eat hot stuff, but when it comes to me eating spicy hot stuff—you’d better have a pretty good bribe ready. I’ve had my share of spicy foods and know my limits. Besides the heartburn aftermath, I’ve never enjoyed eating things so spicy that I can’t taste the food’s natural flavors.
That’s why I hesitated to try Tapatio for the first time…
My brother claimed it was the shizzle and had nearly polished off a full bottle by himself. We have pretty similar tastes and that’s what pushed me over the edge. I held the bottle close to my face and inspected the ingredients: water, red peppers, garlic, salt, various spices, sodium benzoate… despite it probably being loaded with preservatives, I figured it was okay to consume. At least there wasn’t a hidden chiltepe in there. I hate those little pepper bombs of death.
I unscrewed the red Tapatio cap and sprinkled the light red sauce onto the edges of my noodles and over a few pieces of my pork, chicken, and shrimp. Not wanting an overwhelmingly large amount of Tapatio on my first bite, I used my chopsticks to roll the noodles and meat together and evenly spread the sauce. I felt a little rebellious for adding a Mexican hot sauce to a Chinese cuisine.
Still hesitant, I sniffed the sauce. It was sweeter than I expected, and my nostrils detected a slight tang… just enough to give it some pizzazz without curling my nose hairs. This boosted my confidence and I lifted a small measure of Tapatio-covered noodles to my open mouth and began to chew.
This is when my taste buds were surprised with an explosive burst of flavor. It was sweet. It was tangy. It was a little spicy. And I loved it!
I couldn’t believe how awesome Tapatio was and it only took a few seconds to sprinkle even more over my noodles. It was the ideal balance of sweet and spicy, an addictive combination.
And that’s how my addiction began… I’m head over heels for this stuff. Whenever I’m cooking for myself–my wife & kids have a ridiculously low heat tolerance–or when they’re not looking, I sprinkle Tapatio over my meats and noodles, add it to my soups, spread it through my sauces, and mix it into my pizzas (my personal favorite, especially when combined with fresh lime).
If you haven’t tried Tapatio, you need to.
If you don’t like hot sauces, give this one a chance.
If you decide you don’t like it, please send me your unspoiled leftovers.
And if you’re wondering, no, I wasn’t paid to write this. In fact, Mr. Jose-Luis Saavedra, Sr. doesn’t even know I exist. Pero Senor Saavedra… si algun dia escuchas de me, me encantaria conocerte.
Got to put in a plug for Tabasco Jalapeno sauce. Mmm it’s amazing. Not quite as hot as regular Tabasco (unfortunately), but it’s super good.
Sold! I keep a bottle of sriracha in the refrigerator for certain recipes, but we don’t keep hot pepper sauce on the table. When I was a kid we had both Pick-a-Peppa (another one you should try) and Tabasco, but never Tapatio. I’ll pick some up this weekend.
Also, I don’t like very fiery sauces either. What’s the point of numbing your mouth so that you can’t taste the rest of the meal?
I too have a bottle of Sriracha in the refrigerator… doused some ribs in it once. Hottest piece of meat I’ve ever had. I’ve learned to hold back on that one.
Travis, keep your vile devil sauces to yourself.
I, too, LOVE Tapatio. I go through the little bottles pretty quickly. It’s a ritual to be liberal with it on my daily homemade breakfast burritos : )
But the preservative, Sodium Benzoate, has me concerned…
From wikipedia;
“In combination with ascorbic acid (vitamin C, E300), sodium benzoate and potassium benzoate does form benzene, a known carcinogen”
I’ve stopped buying tapatios because of this because I love orange juice(vitamin C) with my breakfast burritos.
I think they should come up with a new, preservative free recipe (or something like it). I mean, the salt and pepper in the sauce should act as a pretty good natural preservative, right?
I would just LOVE to have my sauce back without the strain on my conscience.
Hi Casey. Breakfast burritos are excellent with this stuff, too bad you stopped buying it ;). Just to play devil’s advocate, most of the food you eat has carcinogens in it. The sun’s ultraviolet rays are also carcinogenic as is chlorine in lots of drinking water. Truth is, they’re everywhere and are impossible to avoid. –As far as preservatives go, I’m 100% with you there. They’re used way too often.
my names josh i think that im addicted to hotsause ik it sounds weird but i think its true my favorite kind is red hot when i think about it my mouth starts to water :)) for christmas i got one of those big bottles of red hot and finsihed it in 2 weeks :)) at school lastyear they had hotsause and i ate it with everything i ate hotsause with pickles ( which is really good ) spaghetia eggs fries wings but i usually eat hotsause with a spoon i stick it in the microwave and put butter garlic powder salt pepper and sometimes tomato sause :))
Ode to Tapatio:
O Tapatio;
Thy color is as the rising sun
And like the dawn fills my eyes with fire
So hath thy brilliant flame begun
To fill my tastebuds with desire
And ere the morning beams hath waned
Determined doth my mind become
To put thee over scrambled eggs
And eat thee till my face is numb.
I’m a casting producer for SHED MEDIA US and we’re currently casting a show that chronicles adults with unusual eating habits and/or food addiction. If anyone really does have an addiction to hot sauce (or any other food for that matter), feel free to contact me at 323.904.4680 x1147 or by emailing freakyeaters@shedmediaus.com.
Best,
REBECCA
Josh, you’d better contact Rebecca.
Okayyy so I know this is gonna sound weird but hey for the love of tapatio just try it! Okay so I also dont know if you’ve ever had hot munchies BUT a bag of hot munchies and some tapatio sauce … might be a bit toooo spicy if your not a total spice lover but the flavor is still all kept without being washed out by hotness. Thought Id share, hope ya like!
@Melissa. Cool! Thanks for sharing the idea 🙂
Personally I’d recommend the Naga Viper sauce. It is absolutely delicious. It’s hot though, just a bit hotter than tapatio or sriracha (I love both of those as well). http://goo.gl/WbMqy
Are you insane? 😉 Sriracha is about as hot as I go.
If you like Tapatio, you need to give Cholula a try. I loved Tapatio until I tried Cholula – it has everything great about T, but is smoother and just plain better, and also not blow your head off hot. Plus no preservatives!
Ingredients:
Water, Peppers (Arbol and Piquin), Salt, Vinegar, Spices and Xanthan Gum. That’s it. Certainly worth the $2 for a small bottle – I go through a lot of it.
I’ve heard good things about Cholula. I’ll give it a try! Thanks 🙂
Michelada: currently my favorite drink on the planet!
1/4 C lime juice
5-10 dashes of Tapatio
1 Mexican beer (I like Corona light because I drink a lot of these puppies! )
Several dashes of Tajin Mexican seasoning
1.Dip your pint glass in Lime juice and then in Margarita salt (I use pink Himalayan salt, coarsely ground, as it does not cause swelling and water retention as badly as regular Margarita salt. .. But that’s just me being a girl ;p )
2. Add Lime juice and tapatio
3. Add beer
4. Sprinkle with Tajin
Enjoy! !
Best, most addicting thing on the planet!
Here’s a modified version…
Same as above, but add Clamato & squeeze some fresh lime in and for the rim, then replace the margarita salt with Tajin. AWESOME, just awesome!
If you like it hot, then you can use the Clamato Picante!
I agree, Tapatio is awesome, and I’m a candy ass when it comes to hot stuff! I won’t touch anything hot, but Tapatio is good!