A good place to start for homemade sriracha is a Thai market for the
all-important peppers and spices . And add a habanero for more heat.
Posted on 05/10/2024 2:14:46 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The rooster bottle won’t get shipped anywhere until at least September.
Marnie Shure is a writer and editor with over a decade of experience. For the past six years, she has been primarily focused on food publications, covering restaurant reviews, recipes, breaking news, fast food and grocery taste tests, industry trends, and more. She previously helmed The Takeout, a Midwest-based food website.
Over the past few years, fans of Huy Fong Sriracha, the hot and garlicky chili pepper sauce in the iconic rooster bottle with the green cap, have experienced a roller coaster of emotions and heartbreak typically reserved for sports fans and soap opera viewers.
The Washington Post reports that after years of wavering availability and recipe changes, Huy Fong is facing severe weather that threatens its pepper supply — conditions that could lead to yet another sriracha shortage.
Bottles of Sriracha Are Selling for Over $30 as the Shortage Enters Its Second Year Huy Fong recently canceled all forthcoming shipments to wholesalers and notified them that sriracha production is on pause until after Labor Day — nearly four months from now. There is currently a severe drought in Mexico, where Huy Fong’s red winter jalapeño peppers are grown, and the high temperatures and dry conditions can cause the plants to stop ripening altogether, never achieving their prized red color. According to a letter obtained by the Post, the company says the peppers haven’t achieved the ideal shade (they’re still too green), and it would affect the hue of the finished product. As such, Huy Fong will wait until the next growing season later in 2024.
To the casual observer, this shortage might not seem like the biggest deal. After all, there are dozens of varieties of sriracha available in most supermarkets and specialty shops whose supply doesn’t appear to be threatened as Huy Fong’s is. Yet the prevalence of Huy Fong is arguably the reason that any other brands have proliferated in the United States at all. The product debuted in 1980 at a time when America’s global cuisine was more siloed, and it took decades for Huy Fong to make the leap from Asian supermarkets to the American mainstream.
Even now, in the age of endless fusion and experimentation, the rooster bottle’s sweet heat and garlicky punch maintains a dedicated fandom, which is why it’s so important to get the look and feel right. A greener pepper just wouldn’t achieve the desired effect.
Sriracha Chicken Wings “It’s a double-edged sword when the success of this particular sauce comes from a jalapeño that can only be produced in California or Mexico,” climate scientist Guillermo Murray-Tortarolo told the Post. Yes, California: Until a protracted legal dispute dissolved the partnership in 2016, Huy Fong’s peppers were supplied by Underwood Ranches, a California-based business that now produces its own competing sriracha.
The Huy Fong Foods Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce factory is seen on May 14, 2014 in Irwindale, California. Huy Fong is facing severe weather that threatens its pepper supply—conditions that could lead to yet another sriracha shortage. DAVID MCNEW / GETTY IMAGES This is far from the first hiccup Huy Fong has experienced in recent years. In 2020, like so many other consumer packaged goods, the sriracha experienced shortages due to a combination of COVID-spurred supply chain issues and a drought that was affecting the crops. However, when the company suspended production again in 2022 citing similar climate issues, Underwood Ranches told CNBC in 2023 that it could have met the demand had it still been Huy Fong’s supplier. The latter had instead been sourcing its peppers from Mexico and was thus facing down Mexico’s drought. Now, the same issue appears to be plaguing the pepper supply.
The Best Hot Sauces, According to F&W Editors Where does this cycle of disappointing jalapeño harvests leave us? Consumers might have to seek heat elsewhere until the rooster returns to shelves. There are plenty of other brands that can help fill the void — Yellowbird, Ninja Squirrel, Fix, Three Mountains, and others — but if nothing but Huy Fong will do, prepare to pay dearly on the secondary market once they disappear from store shelves.
Okay, so it’s not like sriracha.
A good place to start for homemade sriracha is a Thai market for the
all-important peppers and spices . And add a habanero for more heat.
Later I ended up with a large pepper garden and love experimenting making my own sauces now.
It's already spicy and has a good kick to it. If you make it more spicy, it'll take away from the flavor.
Call me when there’s a shortage of Chinese chile oil. Then I will be concerned.
CC
It has a decent flavor, but to me no spice.
🤓 someone better notify Hitlery in case she needs another few bottles for her pocketbook🤓
Sambal Oelek is so much better than Sriracha. The founder has a great story, though. Couldn’t find any Sambal during the ‘Rona so I made my own. Deee-liciious.
Sambal oelek on krupuk chips, nasi goreng mmmm.
H->! deeply affected....
There is an article from a month or two ago detailing exactly what happened and how it happened, basically it was a Self Inflicted wound that resulted in the shortages and inconsistencies in the peppers which caused the flavor to be different in different batches... there was a lot of info
I used to shop at the Underwood Ranch farm stand in Somis all the time, which was right near my parents’ house. Good people there and the BEST strawberries.
I like Kikkoman sriracha a bit better than rooster.
I like spicey... with flavor. Sriracha doesn’t do it for me... I ate hot early as an expat in SE asia, maybe my tastebuds are conditioned differently.
But I have a question... wasn’t the original sriracha recipe stolen from the originator who was NEVER compensated?
Exactly why I am a fan of Indian cuisine because it is not just heat, it is complex mix of spices. Mexican cuisine is mostly just heat.
India has a long history of kingdoms, and was the richest country one time spanning thousand+ years. The art of cooking tasty food advanced in the kingdoms. My own father was associated with a kingdom, and I still remember the amazing food at the palace.
If you have Lidl in your area (a German grocery chain like Aldi), they have a house branded spicy ketchup that is outstanding.
Last year, Lidl sold a box of 12 different German beers. Highly recommended. They were OUTSTANDING!
It was a Christmas box set. $40. C’MON CHRISTMAS!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.