I love hot sauce, Tapatio and Cholula being my favorites. Both are now owned by private equity, so I thought I’d share this story.
I went to my local farmer’s market and met a man that makes his own hot sauce, right here where I live. Not only did he have the most flavorful cayenne sauce I’ve ever had, but he also had a Scorpion pepper sauce with legitimate flavor as well.
All that to say, check out your local artisans. You may find something you love.
Also making your own is always a good idea.
I know you mean a specific type of sauce, but I do like this page for recipes:
https://panix.com/~clay/cookbook/bin/table_of_contents.cgi?salsa
Making your own is absolutely awesome and might I recommend this guy to get you started: Brad Leone - somewhat related: do be aware that botulism will fuck your shit up if you play fast and loose with homemade stuff. Store / prepare stuff as recommended.
Being acquired by private equity firms is almost always a death blow to anything. So many games developers, businesses. Once they’re milked for every penny, the husk is tossed aside.
Time to find your Latino grocer and pick a random one off the shelf until one hits. This one is close to tapatio - but a little less sharp. From Mexico and used by the families near me.
The texture is quite a bit different from what I remember, thicker and less watery. Good though
Valentina’s great!
Can confirm as a Tapatio lover.
Hasta la vista, basic b sauce
Meh, Cholula was my go-to anyway.
Other firms have opted to diversify their spicy portfolio through M&A, including McCormick & Co., which purchased hot-sauce maker Cholula for $800 million in cash in 2020 and Frank’s RedHot three years earlier.
And what’s with this almost parodic, coded sounding statement?
“We believe that Tapatio is poised to benefit from several secular trends that are dramatically reshaping consumer food choices, and we look to take advantage of the brand’s significant whitespace opportunity.”
Well, shit lol.
Kinda makes sense why Cholula used to be my go-to. Something had to have changed, I don’t care for it anymore.
Still an acceptable sauce but black label Valentina is my jam now.
I’ll just switch to Gringo Bandito. Surely a hot sauce made by a punk band’s lead singer couldn’t be owned by a mega conglomerate, right?
Now they’re just throwing random words in sentences hoping no one will notice
‘significant whitespace opportunity’ is borderline tone deaf. Or dogwhistle. Can’t decide
Secular trends? As opposed to religious ones?
Tapatio is one of the absolute worst. I’d rather go without if that were my only option, and then not return.
The ramen was actually good.
The Saavedra family, which founded the brand in 1971, will retain a minority stake in Tapatio following the transaction.
This stuff has been in the larder since always but I think I will drop them
Well that hot sauce will be water in a few months. Salsa Huichol is my 2nd choice. It’s a 6oz bottle for around $1.50 at Winco.
Damn, that was my go-to sauce that doesn’t taste like vinegar.
If you’ve got anything other than Frank’s you’re doing ok
