Scoville units measure a pepper, not a finished sauce. So the peppers come first here, then where each of our sauces lands.
| Pepper | Scoville range (SHU) | We use it in |
|---|---|---|
| Bell pepper | 0 | — |
| Jalapeño | 2,500 – 8,000 | Good Gracious Green |
| Fresno | 2,500 – 10,000 | Rambunctious Red |
| Cayenne | 30,000 – 50,000 | — |
| Habanero | 100,000 – 350,000 | — |
| Yellow Fatalii | 125,000 – 400,000 | Golden Hurricane, Hot Halves |
| Peach Ghost | 800,000 – 1,000,000 | Hot Halves |
| Yellow Scorpion | 1,200,000 – 2,000,000 | Good Gracious Green, Hot Halves |
| Carolina Reaper | 1,400,000 – 2,200,000 | Death Rides a Bull, Carolina Zinger, Rambunctious Red (final ingredient), Hot Halves |
| Fatal Death Pepper ours | Not independently tested | Death Rides a Bull, Hot Halves |
A tasting scale, not a lab measurement. The same horn that is on the back of every bottle.
Heat 3 of 10 Rambunctious Red
Scoville numbers belong to the people who published them. The 0 to 10 placement is ours, and it is a tasting judgement, not a measurement.
| Sauce | Published SHU | Who published it | On our scale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frank's RedHot Original | ~450 | Third-party only. McCormick publishes no number. | 1 / 10 |
| Texas Pete Original | 340 – 740 | Texas Pete, on its foodservice site. | 1 / 10 |
| Crystal | 2,000 – 4,000 | Third-party only. Baumer publishes no number. | 1 / 10 |
| Valentina, yellow label | ~900 | Third-party only. | 1 / 10 |
| Cholula Original | 1,000 – 2,000 | Cholula, historically. The page is gone since the McCormick acquisition. | 2 / 10 |
| Huy Fong Sriracha | ~2,200 | Third-party only. | 2 / 10 |
| Valentina, black label | ~2,100 | Third-party only. | 2 / 10 |
| Tabasco Original Red | 2,500 – 5,000 | McIlhenny, on the product page. | 2 / 10 |
| Tapatío | ~3,000 | Third-party only. | 2 / 10 |
| Yellowbird Classic Serrano | 1,600 – 6,160 | Yellowbird, on the product page. | 3 / 10 |
| Yellowbird Classic Habanero | 15,580 – 54,530 | Yellowbird, on the product page. | 6 / 10 |
| Da Bomb Beyond Insanity | 135,600 | Spicin Foods. Extract-based, so treat it as a label claim. | 9 / 10 |
Straight answers to the things people ask us most.
Peppers are always the first ingredient in our hot sauces. Not water, not vinegar, not fruit filler. That is the whole of what Peppers-First means, and it is why the sauce tastes like the harvest instead of like salt and acid. Carolina Zinger is a spicy condiment rather than a hot sauce, so it is built to a different recipe and this does not describe it.
Yes. Vegan and gluten free.
Ten medals in three years at the NC Hot Sauce Competition in Oxford, North Carolina. Rambunctious Red took first place for Best Mild and Best Sauce Overall. Good Gracious Green took first for Best Verde. Death Rides a Bull is a two-time first place winner. Golden Hurricane came out of the 2025 competition a semi-finalist in the hot category.
Our hottest production sauce, a 10 out of 10 on our own scale, built on the Fatal Death Pepper, a Carolina Reaper crossed with a Yellow Fatalii that we grow ourselves.
Carolina Zinger is a spicy condiment, not a hot sauce. Tomato and mustard seed base with a hint of real Carolina Reaper, built for hot dogs, tenders, fries, and burgers off the grill.
No, and it is not close. Texas Pete publishes 340 to 740 Scoville units for its Original. Tabasco publishes 2,500 to 5,000 for its Original Red. So Tabasco is roughly four to seven times hotter. Worth knowing: most heat charts online list Texas Pete at exactly 747 SHU. Texas Pete does not say that anywhere. That number comes from a retailer chart, not from the company.
Rambunctious Red and Good Gracious Green sit at 3 out of 10 on our scale, which puts them about where Tabasco lands. Frank’s RedHot and Texas Pete are milder still, around a 1. Golden Hurricane at 8 is well past Yellowbird’s habanero. Death Rides a Bull at 10 is a different category entirely. The placements are our tasting judgement, not lab work, and we say so on the heat scale page.
Rambunctious Red if you want a daily driver for eggs and tacos. Good Gracious Green if you cook a lot of fish and vegetables. Both are mild.
Direct from us, from independent shops and grocers across North Carolina, and wholesale through Faire. The Where to Find Us page lists all 104 locations.
$25 each or $20 with the purchase of The 4 Pack of Award-winning Hot Sauces or the Carolina Zinger Gift Pack.
Pre-order the teeShirts start shipping the week of October 19. Order by October 22 to have it for Halloween. Sauce ordered with a shirt ships with the shirt.
