The Best Tabasco Sauce Flavor Is Already Your Favorite

Tabasco is most known for its classic bright-red, vinegar-forward hot sauce that you'll find in home kitchens and on restaurant tables across the country. In fact, the Louisiana-based hot sauce brand is actually one of the most popular varieties sold across the United States. But the company actually produces a range of hot sauce flavors and varieties, so as you might expect, we at Tasting Table set out to rank every Tabasco hot sauce flavor from worst to best so that you don't have to waste your time and harm your taste buds.

Perhaps not so surprisingly, the brand's classic hot sauce flavor took the top spot in our ranking for a few reasons. To start, it's all about the balance of spice compared to the other flavors that didn't get the heat levels spot on according to our writer. It's also both tangy and spicy at the same time, which adds spice and depth of flavor to any dish it's put on. Then, there's the versatility, because it can be used on top of dishes like fried chicken and incorporated into marinades and other dipping sauces.

Believe it or not, the best Tabasco hot sauce based on our taste test doesn't use many ingredients at all. In fact, it just uses aged red peppers, distilled vinegar, and salt — that's it. It's outstanding flavor is thanks in part to how Tabasco uses a barrel-aging method similar to whiskey; the hot sauce ages for up to three years before it's bottled and distributed to your local grocer. With a mid-range of heat sitting between 2,500 and 5,000 units on the Scoville Scale, it's hot enough for those with a high tolerance without being too extreme for those who don't.

To make the most use of your bottle of classic Tabasco, add a few dashes to your next marinade, perhaps with our tenderizing steak marinade recipe. A few dashes will also elevate your scrambled eggs, buttermilk fried chicken, and even smoky chicken chili with a classic flavor and balanced level of heat.