Honey Hot Sauces

What a honey hot sauce actually tastes like

Sweet first, then heat. Honey coats the tongue and blunts a pepper's sharpest edge, so these sauces feel rounder than their heat level suggests, and the thicker ones cling to food instead of running off it. That's why hot honey ended up on pizza and fried chicken everywhere.

Honey and habanero, mostly

Half of these bottles pair honey with habanero, whose apricot flavor is a natural match for it. Jalapeño is next, then cayenne and, in a handful of bottles, Carolina reaper. Ginger, lime and orange show up often to stop the sweetness sitting too heavily.

How hot these get

Gentler than most of the site: around seven in ten are mild or medium, and only a few reach extra hot. Sweetness is doing part of the work, so a honey sauce usually reads a step milder than the same pepper would on its own.

How to use it

Wings and fried chicken first, then tacos, eggs, pizza and pork. A honey sauce also works as a glaze: brush it on in the last few minutes of grilling or roasting, once the meat is nearly done, so the sugar caramelizes rather than burns. Cheese boards, biscuits and roasted carrots take it well too.

One thing to know

Honey isn't vegan, and it's not recommended for babies under a year old. If you want the same sweet-hot balance without it, the mango, pineapple and peach collections get there with fruit instead.