Heatseekers: Seven of the best Irish-made hot sauces according to a chilli obsessive
Spice up your life with the best hot sauces out now.
It used to be said that Irish people had a mild palate, shunning heat in favour of bland food. That was then. These days, our appetite for chillies in all their guises has resulted in a tsunami of flavourful condiments flooding our shelves.
Discerning diners that we are, we Irish favour one type of hot sauce over many: the gateway ‘swicy’ sauce. Coined by the New York Times, a swicy sauce is a sweet one, often tomato-based, fermented, with a deep layering of flavours finished with a punch of heat.
Just like your traditional hot sauce – think Tabasco - a swicy sauce can be used as a condiment with your eggs for breakfast, to add a spicy kick on your sandwich at lunch, or as a little finishing touch of heat drizzled on your dinner.
The great news is if you do fancy teasing your tastebuds with a taste of something swicy, there are lots of Irish producers making extremely delicious condiments.
I’m obsessed with this range of sauces. I recommend putting the original sauce on everything but also keep a bottle of their Chipotle in the press to add depth and richness to chilli sauces. Their Raspberry Chipotle is the epitome of swicy - this smoky, berry-rich goodness is great on pork or salads. dublinhotsauce.com
Fantastic sauces with really fun branding that take you on an education of the Scoville Scale (used to measure the heat in chillies) from the start of the range to finish. Beware Mic’s fiery Voodoo Reaper that contains over 50% Carolina Reaper Chilli, measuring 1,200,000 on the Scoville Scale! micschilli.com
I love the diversity of this range, from red and green sweet chilli sauces to jalapeño jam, a Korean bbq sauce and their barrel-aged hot sauce made with West Cork Distiller’s barrels. A sauce for every occasion! rebelchilli.com
“Some call it life’s sweetest kiss” and that is exactly how you can describe it! This sweet caramel sauce is made with fresh garlic and spicy Sriracha to find that balance of flavour that goes so well on pancakes but is equally as good as a marinade for pork. Has to be tried! chimac.ie and also available from hensteethstore.com
Voted as his Product of the Year for 2021 by the Irish Examiner’s Joe McNamee, Savage Sauces are made by Sean Cotter from natural ingredients, using no preservatives and he has three in the range – Hawaiian Teriyaki, Fermented Sriracha and Orange Miso. All three are delicious adventures in the swicy category and are fantastically original in taste. savagesauces.ie
Founder of Tastefully Yours Norbert Thul created Frothing Ferments in 2018 and their raw vegetable ferments are handmade and cultured in small batches for 2 to 4 weeks using the ancient technique of lacto fermentation. The range includes Traditional Raw Sauerkraut, Raw Fermented Kimchi, Lemon & Lime Water Kefir, and Sriracha Hot chilli Sauce. facebook.com
Ellie Kisyombe is from Malawi and in her range of sauces, she marries flavours from her home country with ingredients from Ireland – “African-inspired and Irish-made.” This vegan and gluten-free sauce is my favourite in the range as its zingy smokey flavour livens up anything it touches. ellieskitchenhomeedition.com
Masaalon means ‘condiments’ in Hindi and the company is the brainchild of Conor McEniff, who founded it during the pandemic when he had to move home to Donegal from New York and found himself in the kitchen more often than not. Conor’s love of Indian food inspired the range of four sauces. I recommend the Plum and Cardamom Chutney for its sweet tanginess that is an amazing accompaniment to a cheeseboard. masaalon.com
