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I bought the so called "Suicide Hot-Sauce" from Hot Licks about a year ago when I visited California. I forgot to ask how this sauce rates on the Scoville Scale, because I usually don't care that much about those numbers as long as the taste is good.

The topic came up in a recent discussion and I tried to find this information on the Internet. Many supplier provide this information, but I could not find anything, not even a rough estimate, about the Suicide Sauce. From what I have read so far this sauce is one of the less hot ones.

Can anyone who knows this hot-sauce give a rough estimate how hot it is?

Update: According to their website the Hot Licks "XXX" sauce is three times as hot as the suicide sauce. In case someone has information about this one, this would help as well.

Edit: Is there a way to rate sauces on the Scoville scale? Does an index exist for sauces? Is there a way to measure the hotness?

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  • SHU analysis may not have been done. What about a taste test and just compare it to others in your fridge?
    – zanlok
    Commented May 13, 2011 at 23:40
  • @zanlok: I am currently only using the hot sauce in question, I have nothing to compare it to. The only thing I can say is that it is way hotter than Sambal Oelek, but that doesn't say much.
    – Demento
    Commented May 14, 2011 at 12:10
  • @TFD: Thanks for the suggesting. I wouldn't consider it a California/US only question because they ship around the world. I live in Europe for example and use it. But if I cannot find an answer here, I will try your idea and register on a special forum focused on hot-sauces to ask my question.
    – Demento
    Commented May 14, 2011 at 12:13
  • I was thinking more a general California locals forums? It's a well known sauce on the west coast, not so much else where
    – TFD
    Commented May 15, 2011 at 9:10
  • This question is about the specification of a specific commercial product, and thus should have been directed to the producer's web site, or Q&A line. It is not of general interest--it is a specific "local" question in that it is restricted to a specific product. Voting to close since it somehow came to the top page again.
    – SAJ14SAJ
    Commented Mar 13, 2013 at 0:16

3 Answers 3

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I am Adrienne Fay, Merchandise Manager for Hot Licks, Maker of Suicide and XXX.
I just discovered this post. Unfortunately even I can not give you the Scoville rating because we have never had our sauce rated on the Scoville scale for two reasons:

  1. The rating system is intended for peppers and even two peppers on the same vine will have two different ratings.
  2. Everyone's perception of hot is different. So for some people,even a drop of Suicide sauce will destroy them, where some customers buy the product by the case load.

Most companies will estimate the Scoville rating by ingredients we know, but frankly we just set out to make a sauce with capsaicin extract that had flavor. Hopefully you find the taste and heat level to your liking.

If you have any further inquiries you can email me at [email protected]

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  • I totally agree that it makes perfect sense to just try to make some good hot sauce. That said, I think if you wanted to get it rated, you probably could. The rating system can certainly be applied to sauces. Plus, since sauces are produced in larger batches, they'll have less variation. With respect to varying perception, the point of the Scoville scale is to remove that variable to just get a number; then if people care to learn it, they'll know their tolerance on that scale.
    – Cascabel ♦
    Commented Apr 5, 2013 at 18:12
  • Especially modern methods which are based on chemical analysis, not subjective tasters in a panel.
    – SAJ14SAJ
    Commented Apr 5, 2013 at 19:16
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+50

On this website, and this one they have rated several different sauces based on the Scoville scale. Although "Suicide Hot-Sauce" is not on the list, you can get an estimate of its range if you know the ingredients.

That said, I've tried the suicide sauce and it is no hotter than what's used in chicken hot-wings sold in bars, and is comparable to Tabasco. I would estimate its hotness to be between 40,000-60,000 Scoville heat units.

UPDATE

As I was reading more about it, I found out that Hot Licks started out in San Diego and "Suicide" was their first ever sauce! In fact, two of their three stores are in SD, which is where I am right now. So I went to one of them and inquired about it and they said it was around 100,000 - 120,000 SHU! That's way above my estimate of Tabasco sauce/chicken wings (my tongue has sure become insensitive!). They also confirmed what you said in your post... "XXX" is rated at around 300,000 SHU.

They said these are only estimates and that there are no official ratings of the sauces because they didn't get it verified/rated (which explains why my earlier links didn't have any info on them). Apparently it is very expensive to do so.

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  • The majority of bars in the U.S. use Frank's Red Hot (original), so if it's comparable to bar wings then it would be in the vicinity of 450 SHU.
    – Aaronut
    Commented May 15, 2011 at 21:15
  • @Aaronut: 450 SHU is way too low for Suicide. Perhaps my comparison to hot wings was misguided (and possibly inaccurate, given my state when eating them :D), but it's definitely within a stone's throw from Tabasco.
    – user6132
    Commented May 16, 2011 at 0:50
  • Well, the Frank's "extra hot" is 2000 SHU. That's probably the "suicide" in most wing joints (regular FRH being "hot"). I can't imagine it being much more than 2000.
    – Aaronut
    Commented May 16, 2011 at 0:54
  • @Aaronut: See my update above. I was way off on the SHU estimate.
    – user6132
    Commented May 16, 2011 at 1:21
  • +1: Great answer, thanks for the effort! Bounty has been awarded :).
    – Demento
    Commented May 16, 2011 at 6:32
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I've had Frank's. I've had Tobasco. I can drink that junk. Suicide is much hotter. Like the top answerer mentioned, it's probably around 100,000 SHU. Franks is tomato sauce compared to Suicide. XXX is about 3 times hotter than even Suicide.

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    downvoted, because the only part which actually addresses the question (scoville number of Suicide) does not say anything substantially new or well-sourced.
    – rumtscho ♦
    Commented Mar 13, 2013 at 12:44

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