The Best Sorbet Flavors To Top With A Dash Of Hot Sauce

Hot sauce and ice cold sorbet may not be the first pairing that comes to mind when you're scooping up the sweet treat or buying a new hot sauce with a threatening label — but stick with us. Splashes of hot sauce are your easy-to-use tickets to sprucing up any standard serving of sorbet. 

Whether you're serving guests at home or craving an afternoon pick-me-up, the combination of a fruity sorbet served with an extra kick will have you reaching for another scoop. Yet with a flavor duo this surprising, you'll need to think carefully about the kinds of sorbet flavors you combine with your favorite hot sauces. To let this pairing shine, reach for fruit-forward sorbet flavors like mango, strawberry, and pineapple, then amplify and contrast the sweetness of the fruits with crunchy chili flakes or a fruit-based habanero sauce. Once you have this flavor combination mastered, you'll be presenting delicious bowls of decadent dessert with confidence.

Mastering a powerful flavor duo

Look for oil-based hot sauces to provide depth to lighter sorbet flavors, or double down on fruit servings by combining passionfruit hot sauce and coconut sorbet. If your hot sauce bottles are empty, you can deliver a similar kick with finely diced pieces of habanero peppers. Try mixing the peppers directly into our easy mango sorbet recipe for a sweet treat with some heat, or offset the sweetness of strawberry sorbet with a few sprinkles of dried chili. A red Thai chili hot sauce can be added to pomegranate sorbet for a refreshing after-dinner treat that will have your guests wanting the recipe to take home and try for themselves. 

The benefit of experimenting with this unique flavor pairing at home is that you can control the heat. Play with the hot sauces you drizzle on top of your sorbets and consider adding in more chilies or trying different kinds of peppers to build the perfect treat for your taste buds.