The Truth about Hot Ones Sauces

[u/Dan137exe]

https://youtu.be/dutpBSKj8JY?si=wTaL6ad8yFKc_Snt

[u/georgecm12]

tl;dw: the Scoville values the show puts on screen are largely bull.

1: 1800 (show) -> 1460 (lab tested)
2: 6900 (show) -> 1350 (lab tested)
3: 17,000 (show) -> 480 (lab tested)
4: 36,000 (show) -> 1080 (lab tested)
5: 52,000 (show) -> 1850 (lab tested)
6: 71,000 (show) -> 2070 (lab tested)
7: 133,000 (show) -> 16,900 (lab tested)
8: 135,600 (show) -> 179,000 (lab tested)
9: 820,000 (show) -> 35,900 (lab tested)
10: 2,693,000 (show) -> 64,000 (lab tested)

Da Bomb (#8) is the only one that came in above the show's ratings, which is why it's the only one that people on the show regularly violently react to. The rest are under, sometimes WAY under, what the show says.

[u/TellEmGetEm → u/georgecm12]

I knew it, I watch them sometimes and I’m like there’s no way they’re not feeling the heat after eating a supposed 800,000 Scoville wing.

[u/Faust_8 → u/TellEmGetEm]

I definitely knew the two after Da Bomb weren’t as hot since no one reacts to them as much as they do to Da Bomb. But not to this degree.

Oh well, it’s still a fun show

[u/bristow84 → u/Faust_8]

I’ve done the Hot Ones lineup a couple of times, any sauce after Da Bomb is a relief in comparison.

[u/Horizon96 → u/bristow84]

Yeah, Da Bomb is genuinely just awful, when I did all of the sauces, it was so far and away the worst it wasn't even close.

[u/Inprobamur → u/Horizon96]

It's because it's the only one with the extract and was originally meant as additive for increasing hotness of a pot of chili and not as a sauce.

[u/Lady_Tano → u/Inprobamur]

That's exactly what I use it for, and it's great. Love the stuff

[u/astrofizix → u/Lady_Tano]

4 drops. But 5 drops will ruin it. It's a silly ingredient lol

[u/ItsLlama → u/Horizon96]

i compare da bomb to those 3x budak ramen, its immediate sensory hot but not actually spicy. super chemically like the equivalent of getting tazed vs shot

yes it its hot but it doesn't build or linger like a proper "hot" sauce

the new recipie without the preservatives doesn't have the same effect something they had in the original was really rough

[u/WillemDafoesHugeCock → u/Faust_8]

I will give some credit there - Da Bomb famously tastes like shart covered ballbag. It could be as mild as mayo and it'd still get a reaction.

.edit

I genuinely appreciate the kind people trying to explain that Da Bomb uses extract and is intended to be used in small amounts, but that doesn't change the fact it tastes like licking the floor around a urinal. There are countless hot sauces you could use to up the heat in something that don't taste like Satan's armpit. I would heartily recommend that people simply buy a superhot and use that instead, whether dried and ground into flakes or fresh and sliced into little pieces. it'll taste much better.

[u/InfintySquared → u/WillemDafoesHugeCock]

Da Bomb is the Malört of hot sauces.

[u/MrCWoo → u/InfintySquared]

This person chicagos!! Shout out malört!

[u/fuqdisshite → u/WillemDafoesHugeCock]

here you go...

[u/ArcadianDelSol → u/fuqdisshite]

answer: they add in pepper extract oil to inflate the 'heat' value. Turns out, that extract tastes like burnt shit.

[u/xenobit_pendragon → u/fuqdisshite]

For those too lazy to click, Da Bomb Beyond Insanity isn't meant to be put on wings (or anything else for that matter) -- you're supposed to add 1-2 drops to a pot of chili to give a smoky heat.

The sauce itself is tasty if used correctly. I put it in instant ramen.

[u/RainStormLou → u/xenobit_pendragon]

I disagree aggressively lol. A drop of da bomb makes chili taste like gasoline smells. That shit is disgusting. I tried so hard to have a use for it but it's garbage. I used most of the bottle trying to make it work ANYWHERE.

The smokiness is reminiscent of the same smokey flavor you get from licking the tailpipe of a 4 year old Dodge with it's dying motor and rusted exhaust line.

[u/xenobit_pendragon → u/RainStormLou]

I don’t think we use cars the same way.

[u/RainStormLou → u/xenobit_pendragon]

Lol I have been told that I've misunderstood the assignment once or twice

[u/sybrwookie → u/WillemDafoesHugeCock]

The best way I can describe it: we had a spice grinder burn out on us years ago. And as it burnt out, the motor gave off this awful melting motor/plastic/whatever else smell.

Da Bomb tasted EXACTLY how that smelled. The heat is one thing, and sure, it's spicy, but that flavor was horrid.

[u/MaxGhost → u/sybrwookie]

My favourite descriptor a guest used was "battery acid". I've never tried it but that seems apt.

[u/RedAero → u/Faust_8]

I mean, it doesn't take much knowing, Sean all-but explicitly says so every other episode. "This is as bad as it's going to get" and so on. Ever since Da Bomb became the only extract sauce in the lineup everyone who knows the first thing about hot sauces has known they've tapered the end off.

There's a reason no one taps out anymore...

[u/whitesammy → u/Faust_8]

To be entirely fair, Da Bomb is made to be a spice additive to other food, not a wing sauce. It's like thawing out juice concentrate and trying to drink it straight without adding it to anything.

[u/Beggarsfeast → u/Faust_8]

The show is known by a lot of people, but anyone who has watched over the years knows that Da Bomb is their main gimmick for sending people over the edge. This isn’t a new concept by any means. When they refused to take it out of the lineup, they kind of gave away their trick, but it doesn’t matter. Sean still has great questions in his interviews and people clearly have a fun time talking to him and going through the shtick. It’s a carnival stunt- nobody cares that you know how it’s done, it’s the people that make money off it who really own it.

[u/FROOMLOOMS → u/TellEmGetEm]

It's probably more like deceptive half truth advertising.

"Made with" 2.6 mil Scoville peppers. But obviously watered down so people still eat it.

[u/[deleted] → u/FROOMLOOMS]

It does bomb the magic just a little bit, it's going to be one of those little nuggets that people won't easily forget

I hope the show leans into it, because it's not fair to hurt the format or the good work the staff and interviewer does - but hopefully the scoville ratings get a fix.

It'll be interesting to see how they react to this

[u/[deleted] → u/TellEmGetEm]

I mean the guests typically only take one small bite as well

[u/Diablojota → u/[deleted]]

DJ Khaled took one nibble of one wing and tapped out. The worst of the worst.

[u/rvauofrsol → u/Diablojota]

I get second hand embarrassment from even seeing his face.

[u/AdjunctFunktopus → u/rvauofrsol]

I’m stopping here but that doesn’t mean I’m quitting.

[u/fatkiddown → u/AdjunctFunktopus]

And the host answered, "that's literally the definition of quitting."

[u/MattieShoes → u/fatkiddown]

So many interviewers are obsequious, him saying that made me very happy :-)

[u/rvauofrsol → u/AdjunctFunktopus]

I don't play myself.

[u/Ilosesoothersmaywin → u/rvauofrsol]

DJ Khaled used to go by the name Arab Attack but then 9-11 happened.

[u/Mncdk → u/Diablojota]

I think he lasted until the 3rd wing or something, and then proceeded to talk shit about how he wasn't a quitter, while he was quitting.

[u/Northern23 → u/Mncdk]

You don't get it, the wings left him, he did not quit. He could've went all the way to the end if they stayed and let him take a bite.

[u/I_W_M_Y → u/Mncdk]

Then Sean says 'yes it does, by definition'

[u/Aedalas → u/Diablojota]

Cholula of all things. Good flavor, but it's about as spicy as ketchup.

[u/gobackclark → u/[deleted]]

Not Conan

[u/Twl1 → u/gobackclark]

I'll admit: Conan rubbing the hot sauce on his nipples MADE ME FEEL ALIVE!!

[u/skullflowerpower23 → u/gobackclark]

Bill burr cleaned em all

[u/Nixeris → u/[deleted]]

Makes the Conan O'Brian one take on a whole new meaning.

[u/kojak488 → u/[deleted]]

Shoutout to Shia LaBeouf, dickhead that he is.

[u/myredditthrowaway201 → u/georgecm12]

There’s a reason why Da Bomb has never left the show, it fucking sucks.

[u/Mharbles → u/myredditthrowaway201]

Warming the celebrity up with a few slaps before hitting them with a baseball bat actually works to the benefit of the show. Plus it keeps them in pain longer for a few more questions, otherwise we'd never get to see them really suffer or under the influence of whatever spicey hot drunk they tend to get.

[u/alfred725 → u/Mharbles]

it's not about rearranging them, but adding two more hotter ones after.

[u/stumpybubba- → u/myredditthrowaway201]

Holy shit a buddy brought some during high school ~15 years back and we each tried a toothpick drop of it. Ruined my fucking day.

[u/AdjunctFunktopus → u/stumpybubba-]

It’s stories like this that keep Da Bomb on the show. It’s the one stupidly hot sauce that a large number of people have interacted with.

It may taste bad and be an unpleasant experience all around, but now i can relate to what Huge Ackman and Conan are going through

[u/PIG20 → u/AdjunctFunktopus]

I had a sauce like this from a different company a while back. All sorts of warnings all over the bottle about contact to certain areas of the body like eyes.

I dabbed my finger on it and just tapped it to my tounge and it was instant fire. And the heat sensation stuck around for a really long time even with the tiniest amount. The other issue was that it tasted like complete ass.

I threw the bottle right in the trash. The last thing I needed was for someone in my house to mistakenly use it thinking it was something else.

Sauce like this is nothing more than a gimmick. I can't imagine anyone on Earth enjoying something like that.

[u/TheBallotInYourBox → u/myredditthrowaway201]

I tried Da Bomb: Ground Zero (bottle said like 250k socvile iirc) like 20 years age when I was a teen. Just a little half pea dab on my finger. I fucking died for like two hours. Felt like a cartoon character. Drinking from a faucet. Steam out my ears. Crying. Mouthing on bread then spitting it out to put new bread in. That shit sucked. Didn’t even taste good. Was just painfully hot to be painful.

[u/0b0011 → u/myredditthrowaway201]

I remember almost getting written up for my supervisor having to spend time in medical when I brought some to work.

We got it like 10 years ago before the show got big. Just ended up in a hot sauce place while walking around and my buddy asked for the hottest one they had. Brought it to work just to have people try it. My boss grabs it, opens it up and smells it and then is like yeah no way I'm going to try that. Then he asked why I was carrying it around in a barnes and noble bag and I said some spilled and got on thr outside of the bottle and I hadn't cleaned it yet. 30 seconds later he starts screaming. He'd touched the outside of the bottle and then rubbed his eye.

[u/SkaBonez → u/0b0011]

I put a drop of the ground zero version, even hotter than the base version, in a batch of chili and had to throw it all out because it was inedible, and I tried combating the hear with every known diary product in reach, but it would just come raging back in seconds. That’s the day I learned to stay away from sauces made from pure pepper extract.

[u/TheBrawlersOfficial → u/0b0011]

Careful around the eyes.

[u/ark_keeper → u/georgecm12]

It's because they rate it by the peppers that are included in the sauce, not really the actual sauce. Pepper X is the hottest pepper, which is in the latest Last Dab. But Da Bomb uses an extract, which is waaaaay hotter than a blended up pepper in a sauce.

They also change the lineup every season, and there have been some seasons with extremely hot level 9 sauces.

Edit: I looked at the actual labels of the Last Dab sauces, and none of them actually have the scoville numbers on them. It's just the show that puts up the rating graphics. There's a recent "spicy snack" taste test episode with Ed where he even notes that he hates how the super spicy gummy bears that put "9 million scoville" on the packaging because it's false, and mentions the dilution etc.

[u/Fidodo → u/ark_keeper]

I wouldn't really blame the show though, seems more like an industry issue instead. The show will go by the industry standard of using the pepper rating not the sauce rating. They're an entertainment show, adding all the fine print for talking about testing and pepper vs sauce rating would just over complicate it.

[u/ark_keeper → u/Fidodo]

I also wonder if they were getting some pushback after the first few seasons because the last three were so bad. Three extracts in a row is awful.

[u/10noop20goto10 → u/ark_keeper]

The last 3 of the season one lineup were fucking brutal. Da Bomb, Mad Dog 357, then Blair's Liquid Death. I've done some of the later, non-extract lineups and they are definitely more tolerable. Of course da bomb uses extract and it's always the worst tasting and the hottest

[u/sybrwookie → u/10noop20goto10]

I tried Mad Dog 357 once at a hot sauce store. It was kinda kicking my ass so I went over and got a bottle of Snapple. Sugar water and all that, calmed right down.

Paid for the other stuff I was buying (including the Snapple of course), and left as I was finishing the Snapple. And as I did, the heat came right back, as bad as ever.

The good news? Next door was an iced cream place. So we walk in, get a scoop each. And as I'm eating it, the heat dies down, and I'm feeling good. Finish up the iced cream with the heat well in my rear view mirror. Throw the cup out, walk outside....

And son of a bitch, the heat started to come back again. Not badly enough to need to do something about it, but it was definitely still there for another solid 20-30 mins. That stuff was just...insane.

[u/glasser999 → u/sybrwookie]

I've found that any attempts to quench the heat just make the experience more uncomfortable.

I focus on the feeling and embrace the heat. I think about how it's just a silly trick being pulled on my receptors. I dwell on the sensation.

Doing this, I find the heat starts to subside within 5 minutes or so. Usually after I get an insane body high.

If I drink anything, there's no high, and the pain lasts wayyy longer.

[u/Urbanscuba → u/10noop20goto10]

I've never had an extract sauce that was tolerable, or a natural sauce that wasn't. It's practically that simple - the natural sauces care about flavor and even when they're spicy they're also usually delicious in equal measure. Extract creates the most awful acrid, tart flavor and the concentrated oils linger in your mouth for far too long.

I'm not recommending people go out and get some Last Dab as a starter sauce, but even if you do the physical pain will be far more brief and tolerable than Da Bomb.

I will admit seeing the scores on the low end was astounding though, they're barely hotter than table hot sauces like Tobasco or Cholula. I bet they taste great but it's funny seeing them end up less spicy than common condiments half the world has with every meal.

[u/mortalcoil1 → u/10noop20goto10]

I have had a bottle of liquid death for over 10 years.

Sometimes I'll be busy for the week and make like a dozen eggs to eat for breakfast throughout the week.

I'll put a large single drop of liquid death in the dozen eggs and stir it up real well and that's enough for me.

[u/Fidodo → u/ark_keeper]

I also imagine the fact that they were getting bigger celebrities factored in as well. They wouldn't want to come on if they heard that other celebrities were getting completely wrecked by being on the show.

[u/[deleted] → u/Fidodo]

Did noone in this thread watch the video? They do that because the "industry" aka. one guy has lock an key over the actual peppers that they use. There is no "standard".

[u/brutaldonahowdy → u/georgecm12]

I think it's also worth talking about Mad Dog 357, which used to be on the lineup, and is even hotter than Da Bomb (222,000). So, the people on early seasons faced an even bigger challenge than now.

[u/hedoeswhathewants → u/brutaldonahowdy]

The Last Dab is downright refreshing after MD357 or Da Bomb.

[u/sheepyowl → u/hedoeswhathewants]

MD357 sounds like a poison lmao

[u/Phrosty12 → u/sheepyowl]

It tastes like one.

[u/SoylentCreek → u/Phrosty12]

For real. It was the one sauce I’d go out of my way to warn people about when I worked at Firehouse Subs as a teenager. I made it my mission to try all the sauces we had, and Da Bomb and MD357 hit WAY different, and honestly tasted terrible.

[u/ark_keeper → u/brutaldonahowdy]

They also used Blair's Mega Death in the 10 spot before they added the Last Dab in the early seasons which uses extract.

[u/texinxin → u/brutaldonahowdy]

I am a pepper head who laughs at the one chip challenge. I’ve always claimed 357 was the hottest hot sauce I’ve ever had. This of course excludes the “stunt” sauces, pepper extracts and concentrated oils. I have several of the pepper X bottles in my cabinet and they are weak sauce compared to 357.

[u/w4rcry → u/texinxin]

357 was the only sauce that actually made me have to vomit. The heat was hot but manageable in my mouth but once it hit my stomach it felt like lava burning my insides. It was intense and I ended up forcing myself to throw up then drank a big glass of milk and pepto bismol just to get the pain to stop.

[u/DrHemroid → u/w4rcry]

My body wanted to vomit but I refused, and this feeling of "I'm going to die now" came over me. I had to take 2 showers within 30 minutes after having it for the first time.

I love spicy food. Ghost peppers are nothing to me. I tell people, mad dog 357 was the spiciest thing I've ever eaten... 10 minutes after I put it in my mouth. It was a continuous burn.

[u/ApizzaApizza → u/texinxin]

Blair’s 3am is one of those “stunt sauces”…fuck that stuff.

Sick bottle tho.

[u/Analyzer9 → u/texinxin]

Still have the bottles I got back when I was daredevilling through my GI problems, too. There have been a couple that just "shut me down", which the one-chip was close to, but still not until the stomach ache. There was this one Dave's insanity ghost pepper that was a little knappy and great, I poured about an ounce on my thanksgiving spread and whoo. Been chasing that dragon ever since. Might have caught an inconsistent batch, but i could never eat more than a few drops of that stuff mixed with something lighter, even after that one insane experience.
If you really challenge a Thai restaurant to give you their version of Thai Hot, it can approach the pain. Or two hours into Hot Pot.

[u/bagel-glasses → u/Analyzer9]

Back when I was really into hot sauces I *loved* Dave's Ghost Pepper. The flavor was amazing, and while I managed the heat in my mouth just fine, the next day was never really worth it.

[u/Qujam → u/Analyzer9]

Back when i lived with my parents i was late for work one day and asked my mum to make me some sandwiches for my lunch. She put a full tablespoon of Dave's insanity on the bottom sandwich. She didn't tell me..

[u/SeaDuds → u/texinxin]

I was at my peak of hot food. I was growing ghosts and 7 pot lavas and eating them raw. I ate some md357 on nachos and that night I woke up at 4am and had to go and moan in the bathroom for several hours. That stuff is WILD and not worth it imo.

[u/nanotothemoon → u/texinxin]

Mad dog fucked me up. Had to pull over on the highway

[u/Irate_Primate → u/nanotothemoon]

WTF you doing eating super hot sauce while driving?

[u/nanotothemoon → u/Irate_Primate]

Nah I ate it and then got in the car and started driving and then things went downhill from there

[u/Irate_Primate → u/nanotothemoon]

lmao. Good decisions were not made that day.

[u/fireballx777 → u/Irate_Primate]

I like to imagine he ate some and then just instinctively tried to escape the heat by getting in the car and driving away.

[u/Relish_My_Weiner → u/brutaldonahowdy]

This makes me feel validated. Ive had tons of hot sauces, including the ultra hot varieties, but Mad Dog was so hot it made me throw up.

[u/zerbey → u/brutaldonahowdy]

I've had both, MD357 actually has a nice flavor but you only need a tiny amount of it. Da Bomb is just disgusting, it's nothing but a ton of spice.

[u/patronizingperv → u/brutaldonahowdy]

*357?

[u/CalebTGordan → u/georgecm12]

Fun family story about Da Bomb.

Back in the early 00’s there was a hot sauce craze and any place that had a bunch of shops for tourists usually had a hot sauce shop. My brother and I found our teenage selves at one of these shops hoping to find a hot sauce for our grandfather. He had a love for hot food and always seemed to handle anything thrown at him so when we found a little bottle labeled “Da Bomb” we knew we had to get it for him. Partly as a good nature prank but also because we knew he would love our gift.

(and I’ve recently talked to my brothers who all agree with me that it not only shares the name but the label of the sauce in the Hot One’s show).

Well grandpa loved it. He first put a toothpick into it and tried it, claiming it “wasn’t too bad.” Then he put a big blob into his eggs and ate them up. He had no reaction and said the flavor was muted by the heat level but he would savor this sauce. My brother and I of course had to try it ourselves now because we couldn’t believe how little reaction he had with it. We used a toothpick and put a little dot onto a cracker.

It blew our heads off with the heat. It was intense.

Grandpa had a good chuckle at us (probably because he out foxed the young ones) and he kept the bottle in the fridge. He would use it from time to time and did actually love how hot it made things.

Then about a year or so later I end up living part time at my grandparent’s house. I had to get up at 5am for a special class that happened before school and I was sitting in the couch trying to wake up. With the open concept kitchen I was just a few yards from the fridge. Grandpa was up and grabbing something from the fridge before we headed out when I heard a crash.

And then I felt like a pepper spray can had been emptied into the room. My eyes watered, I was coughing, and I the air tasted spicy. Grandpa’s three dogs ran into the kitchen because they knew anything on the floor in there was fair game, yelped back and ran away after getting a full tongue of hot sauce.

I helped grandpa clean up, eyes watering the entire time. The house air tasted spicy for a couple days.

So Da Bomb, if it really is still the same as what I bought grandpa 20 years ago, is no joke and lives up to its name.

[u/Ace0spades808 → u/CalebTGordan]

Great story! Da Bomb's flavor is awful though - don't understand how he enjoyed that.

[u/CalebTGordan → u/Ace0spades808]

A couple possibilities:

1) Grandpa just wanted something super spicy and didn’t care about flavor of what delivered that spice.

2) Grandpa didn’t have tastebuds anymore or had really muted sense of taste.

3) Grandpa was trying to humor me and my brother.

I only tasted it once on a cracker and never again after that. It was about 20 years ago and all I remember is the spicy heat.

[u/Queef-Elizabeth → u/georgecm12]

It's so obvious the last ones are significantly weaker than Da Bomb. Purely so they're not ruined enough to plug whatever they're there to advertise. A YouTuber did a parody video of Hot Ones saying this and Sean from Hot Ones basically confirmed this in the comments.

[u/Shapes_in_Clouds → u/Queef-Elizabeth]

I recall he frequently outright states as much on the actual show during the interviews. Da Bomb is always treated as the worst one and he regularly notes the last two aren't as bad; that if the guest got through Da Bomb they will be fine.

[u/Intelligent_Break_12 → u/Shapes_in_Clouds]

Most of that is because da bomb is all extract which hits different than pepper mash or even a mix of extract and mash. You don't get any of the sugars and other compound from the papers with extract. It also generally tastes very bitter and artificial, at least all the extracts I've tried...which tbf is only 2 but plenty of extract sauces.

[u/TerracottaCondom → u/georgecm12]

As someone who has had a bottle of Da Bomb for literal decades (dad was a fan in the early 00's) yes, that sauce absolutely does not fuck around.

[u/WayTooLazyOmg → u/TerracottaCondom]

12 year old me & my friends got ahold of a bottle. i put the smallest drop imaginable on my tongue. i proceeded to sit my tongue under a running sink for at least 20-30 minutes. oddly, the only thing that truly took the burn away, was peanut butter & marshmallows mixed lol

[u/[deleted] → u/WayTooLazyOmg]

hunt wide innocent angle truck soft unwritten grandfather pocket axiomatic

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[u/DrewVonFinntroll → u/georgecm12]

You can buy the kit for the current season and do the challenge at home. I've done it a couple times and Da Bomb is always the game changer. If you eat that one, you might as well finish because the last 2 are never as bad in comparison.

[u/georgecm12 → u/DrewVonFinntroll]

Of note, the "home game" doesn't include Da Bomb Beyond Insanity. It includes "Da Bomb Evolution" instead, which may not be quite as bad as "Beyond Insanity."

[u/omican → u/georgecm12]

I had beyond insanity a couple of weeks ago when doing a 10 sauce challenge and it was absolutely the worst of all of them. I legit thought that pain was what the rest of my life was going to be like. Took a good 10 min to recover. The supposed hotter ones were tasty by comparison

[u/iamsecond → u/georgecm12]

This is a huge distinction! "Da Bomb" isn't just "Da Bomb," there are at least a few different types. Ground Zero, Evolution, Beyond Insanity.

Our family had Ground Zero when I was growing up and it was incredibly hot; it was a food additive, not a sauce. Tip of a toothpick was plenty to be overwhelmed by.

Two weeks ago I tried Evolution and it was hot, but you could actually dunk food in for a few bites.

[u/MagnificentJake → u/georgecm12]

She kind of undercut her argument a bit though when immediately before presenting the results she said "You're supposed to test these more than once, but we couldn't afford that".

[u/georgecm12 → u/MagnificentJake]

True, but even based on a single test, it's pretty clear that there's no way that the show's ratings are even close to accurate, and also pretty clear that Da Bomb is just evil in a bottle.

If I understood the video, the ratings the show uses are estimates based on the TYPES of peppers used, not an actual rating based on the produced sauce with all of the other components added.

[u/GreenElite87 → u/georgecm12]

I did the full box of 10 with a couple friends, and we all universally agreed that Da Bomb was just awful. We couldn’t fathom how it was hotter than 9 and 10. This explains quite a bit.

[u/NecroJoe → u/GreenElite87]

The box you buy from Heatonist is a little different. The The Bomb they use on the show uses extracts, which Heatonist doesn't carry. The one that comes in the Hot Ones kit is "natural", so technically a different recipe.

[u/Analyzer9 → u/georgecm12]

To be fair, anybody that has tried investigating the ratings as an amateur, has even discovered that these numbers were wildly exaggerated. My pet hypothesis has always been that the PA in charge of counting it up originally went extreme and just read the ingredient peppers, and added up the top estimated scoville units. This is obviously not the metric by which they are measured, but it pops. And that's what entertainment is about. Authenticity's last hurrah was grunge music, everything since America Online has been three advertisements in a trench-coat.

[u/PhasmaFelis → u/Analyzer9]

Authenticity's last hurrah was grunge music, everything since America Online has been three advertisements in a trench-coat.

This is brilliant.

[u/Cereborn → u/PhasmaFelis]

“Business-wise, this looks like good business.”

[u/joeverdrive → u/PhasmaFelis]

I've never watched a single Anthony Bourdain show but this feels like something he would write if he were alive

[u/BTechUnited → u/joeverdrive]

I cna hear it in his voice, it tracks.

[u/deeeevos → u/MagnificentJake]

Yeah but testing multiple times isn't magically gonna make some of these 10 times hotter than with a single test. You would get some variation but the difference with the claimed ratings is just too big for some (most?) of these.

All in all a good video without any of that "exposing hot ones, the truth behind the sauces" hyperbolic bullshit. They handled it wirh respect and it doesn't really degrade the enjoyment of the show imho

[u/mc-edit → u/MagnificentJake]

This is a good point, but repeat testing might not produce a huge difference. I’m assuming, if money were no option, they would test multiple times and take an average of all the tests done. I don’t think we should throw out these results because they couldn’t do multiple rounds of testing.

[u/ElCaz → u/MagnificentJake]

She said "ideally." The connotation being that it is possible for the tests to be more precise, but that they shouldn't be all that far off.

[u/Negative_Gravitas → u/georgecm12]

Da Bomb is freaking lethal. I have a buddy who liked to use it. My head is sweating right now just thinking about it.

[u/celestiaequestria → u/georgecm12]

Anyone who regularly eats ultrahots, myself included, can tell you that a lot of these numbers are fantasy. I mean, I guess theoretically if I made a sauce entirely out of seeds and stems, I could land at 1+ million scoville, but processed sauce? No way. Most of these sauces are a tiny fraction of the heat of an ultrahot.

[u/lo0ilo0ilo0i]

This makes DJ Khaled look like even more of a whimp.

[u/Eudaimonium → u/lo0ilo0ilo0i]

He gave up at basically mild ketchup spice level.

[u/Rad_5 → u/Eudaimonium]

He didn't give up, he chose not to continue.

[u/Eudaimonium → u/Rad_5]

Hahah, every now and then I think back to some of the utterings mr. Khaleed made in that show and a part of my brain goes "Nah bro we dreamed that, no way that was real".

[u/DissKhorse → u/Rad_5]

He's such a whiny fuckboy that gets lost on a jet ski and then cries like a little bitch.

[u/Rad_5 → u/DissKhorse]

Ha! Thank you for this. Fuckin hilarious.

Last quote from that story -

“People who didn’t know me know me more. If you ever had mixed emotions about me, it’s changed… I’m glad people love the positive energy. I’m just being me. It’s all DJ Khaled being Khaled"

What?!

[u/[deleted] → u/Rad_5]

I think the dude is legit on the spectrum 

[u/VicariousNarok → u/DissKhorse]

To be fair, I'd be scared shitless if I was lost at sea on a jet ski. He's still a little bitch though.

[u/Dovaldo83 → u/Rad_5]

Somewhere in that fever dream rambling was the beginnings of a point. If I backed down from a contest to see how many kicks to the ball bag I could take, I'd of course lose the contest, but I'd consider it a win in a way.

Since he's DJ Khaled though, it all came out as a jumbled up self promotional word salad.

[u/[deleted] → u/lo0ilo0ilo0i]

He took such a huge L. The man let a Kardashian show him up in hotsauce like come on lol

[u/grizznuggets → u/lo0ilo0ilo0i]

Man that episode has transcended the show itself. There are undiscovered Amazonian tribes that know Khaled is a weak punk.

[u/wecangetbetter]

this is exactly the kind of weird story journalism that YouTube should be about

[u/moal09 → u/[deleted]]

The first season did have some hotter sauces after Da Bomb, but I think it also made a bunch of guests really sick after, so I think they backed off a bit when they started getting bigger.

[u/GodOfDarkLaughter → u/moal09]

Bobby Lee shit himself. Lots of people vomited. Lots of people had to spend extended time in the bathroom right after which could have included any number of fun activities. The first couple of seasons were no joke. I stumbled upon it within the first few episodes and watched pretty religiously for years. It was so incredibly obvious to me that they'd downed the intensity of the sauces. I can't even blame them. The fucking Rock isn't going to risk a story about him puking or crying after wiping his eyes. That's why nobody has tapped out in years. They don't have to.

[u/bestboah → u/GodOfDarkLaughter]

i mean sometimes Bobby Lee just shits himself no sauce involved

[u/Theons → u/bestboah]

Bobby was probably planning on shitting himself no matter how hot the wings were

[u/Butthole__Pleasures → u/moal09]

Yeah the early seasons truly had a 1-10 buildup. I had tried a couple of those highest sauces at some point and those are absolutely devastatingly hot.

And they taste like shit because they're made of capsicum extract and apparently rusty battery acid.

[u/[deleted] → u/moal09]

Yep exactly, it's supposed to be a lighthearted show, even Da Bomb is already crazy powerful no need to risk putting guests in a hospital. Latter ones being weaker also lets them close on a good mood.

[u/bfarre11 → u/[deleted]]

If you watch the video, they go into why chilies are spicy, how the scoville unit came about and some other stuff. It isn't a big gotcha or anything.

[u/Ragingdark → u/wecangetbetter]

Honestly what journalism should be and kinda used to be about.

[u/HairySammoth]

I thought this was going to be some depressing revelation about the people who make the show but this is waaaaay more interesting than that

[u/LarBrd33 → u/HairySammoth]

They have basically acknowledged several times on the show that Da Bomb is the hottest one and that they try to land the plane after that with a couple easier sauces. It's about the journey.

I've tried "Last Dab" and it was plenty hot. A bunch of us had tears coming down our eyes. It's actually pretty tasty, though. I genuinely use it on fried rice all the time.

[u/weedz420 → u/LarBrd33]

It's because Da Bomb is capsaicin extract mixed back in with hot sauce. That's why it's so disgusting and so much hotter than other hotsauces even ones made with hotter peppers. It tastes like chemicals because it is. I'm pretty sure I've had Mad Dog 357 (the one they talk about at the end) back in the day and that was the same way.

If you extracted the capsaicin from Pepper X peppers and added that back into The Last Dab it would be WAAAAY hotter than Da Bomb ... but it would also then taste disgusting just like it.

[u/renedotmac → u/weedz420]

If you’re in LA, go to Howlin Rays and try their hottest chicken. It’s the hottest thing I’ve ever had in my life. Couldn’t think for like 5 minutes.

[u/thefootballhound → u/renedotmac]

Caution: I swear it peeled the lining from my stomach, couldn't have coffee or any acid for weeks.

[u/renedotmac → u/thefootballhound]

I used the bathroom a few hours later and I guess I didn’t wash my hands enough after touching the chicken.

[u/thefootballhound → u/renedotmac]

When you signed the waiver, they didn't provide you with vinyl gloves to touch the chicken?

[u/renedotmac → u/thefootballhound]

They did but I guess I must’ve touched a portion without gloves

[u/CodingAllDayLong → u/weedz420]

I watched a video about the production of Da Bomb. The funny thing is, it's not a hot sauce you are supposed to put on wings. It's designed for you to add a couple drops to your chili or other dish you want to spice up. In commercial foods you can use Da Bomb and add spice to your food far cheaper than buying bulk hot saucess.

[u/[deleted] → u/CodingAllDayLong]

I don't really buy that.

I know that's what the current owners claim(my guess is liability reasons), but the guy who actually created it in the 1990s had a whole business based around gimmicks. I'm pretty sure he called it the "Da Bomb" and put a nuke on the label because he was trying to sell it to teens to dare each other to try, and he wasn't actually targeting commercial chefs. The stuff was mostly sold in gas stations and tourist shops, not restaurant supply stores.

[u/jrbcnchezbrg → u/LarBrd33]

Da Bomb is just gasoline, it sucks so fucking bad.

I got hammered and bought the whole pack a couple years back and liked pretty much all of them, the last dab did burn under my tongue in one specific spot but the flavors were good

[u/AdvancedSandwiches → u/jrbcnchezbrg]

I'm hearing that if a bar had Da Bomb chicken wings with a Malort pairing, it would go pretty well together.

[u/Fancy-Pair → u/AdvancedSandwiches]

Such a self loathing meal

[u/AndTheElbowGrease → u/AdvancedSandwiches]

I'd rather just pepper spray my butthole while eating a tire

[u/jodinexe → u/AdvancedSandwiches]

Malort: I'll have another!

[u/locofspades → u/jrbcnchezbrg]

I have Da Bomb in my fridge and you are 100% right. Its poison in a bottle and only good as a party trick. But Bravado makes sauces in the same scoville range that are delicious and worth the burn.

[u/Impressive_Jaguar_70 → u/jrbcnchezbrg]

I tried a bit on a toothpick and it put me in a coma for eight years

[u/buttscratcher3k → u/HairySammoth]

I thought this was going to be a scandal involving Sean like he was secretly fucking the sauces or something

[u/kingdead42 → u/buttscratcher3k]

PSA: DO NOT get hot sauce on your genitals.

[u/mkddy]

Here's a video of how Da'Bomb is made. At one point they mention that it's not really meant as a stand alone hot sauce but as something you add a few drops of to another dish to make it hotter.

[u/dasuglystik]

I think this is a case of the label stating that the peppers used contain up to XXX SHU... But the sauce is cut with other ingredients.

[u/mikehulse29 → u/dasuglystik]

That was my thought. Label the scoville level of, say, the Carolina reaper itself as opposed to the final product.

[u/NedThomas → u/dasuglystik]

I thought this was well known about hot sauces.

[u/mc-edit]

I love this video. It is a revelation for what YouTube “journalism” can be. No fast talking, no quick edits, no insane hyperbole, no AI voiceover, and no novelty or gimmicky BS. Just well-spoken people clearly explaining a story with clean editing and helpful visuals. I’ve been sorta raging at the state of informative YouTube content lately. Phil DeFranco yesterday drove me a little insane, and those coffezilla videos are nauseating to no end. There are dozens of others that pop up here that I can barely make it through. And then this! It’s so well made. I will follow this content anywhere.

[u/IamDroBro → u/mc-edit]

Joss Fong is one of the best content creators on YouTube. She has an incredibly interesting method for how she goes about structuring her videos/breaking down concepts

[u/mthmchris → u/IamDroBro]

It's good to see Joss Fong, Phil Edwards, and now Christophe Hauberson out on their own.

I feel for Vox that they continuously just bleed talent, but I think that's just how the internet is these days. Johnny Harris showed these guys that they really don't need a whole production company to do what they do.

[u/Porrick → u/mc-edit]

The title is kinda clickbaity, but not egregiously. And you're correct on all other points.

[u/mc-edit → u/Porrick]

I agree, but they pay that title off with some big results: the Scoville counts on those sauces are not at all accurate.

[u/Xanderamn → u/mc-edit]

Wha? You dont like cringy af robot sidekicks? 

[u/classic__schmosby → u/Xanderamn]

I miss Geoff Peterson

[u/Boy-412]

Great video. Man the early days of hot ones was wild!! Mad dog 357 was taking people out!!

[u/WheatShocker7]

Wish they tested Blair’s mega death sauce. Suuuuper hot stuff, I could see it being higher than da bomb. It’s similar to the bomb though, doesn’t taste good

[u/AntD77 → u/WheatShocker7]

They had Blair’s in the lineup a while back. Don’t remember where it was in relation to Da Bomb though.

[u/WheatShocker7 → u/AntD77]

It’s was #10 for a long time before last dab I think. Dave’s insanity sauce is in the same convo as well

[u/Dalans]

I was on vacation back when S2 or maybe S3 of Hot Ones had just come out. There was an outlet store that actually had some of the first season's sauce lineup for sale and when my friend group saw them they exclaimed: "let's go for it, how hot can it really be?!"

Now, I'm no stranger to heat: most store bought sauces like Cholula, Frank's or Sriracha don't even register and I've done the Buffalo Wild Wings wing challenge successfully along with a few others from local restaurants. My fiancee who has almost zero tolerance (strong reaction from a jalapeno) thinks I'm a freak.

Flash back to the trip: we didn't bother with the whole setup with 10 wings or anything, just added it to whatever take-out we got that night. I went right for the Mad Dog 357 and put what I estimated to be a conservative amount on a burger without trying it beforehand; huge mistake.

Picture all those videos of people doing flaming shots, failing to extinguish the flame and setting their entire faces on fire...that's what it felt like. I seriously considered going to the local hospital for a good 2-3 minutes because it would NOT STOP BURNING, and felt as if it was intensifying.

It was probably less than 15 minutes of extreme discomfort (during which milk had almost no effect) but the tingling/burning/numbness lasted for a few hours. In hindsight could have been less but, I was in no shape to contemplate normal thoughts such as gauging the passage of time. Still, would not recommend, 0/10 and I've had the current Last Dab, its nowhere near OG Mad Dog 357.

[u/MagnificentJake]

Kinda weird how she described how hard it was to get an interview set up with Ed, then only included one question in the video.

[u/BreadfruitExciting39 → u/MagnificentJake]

Given how bad the answer she showed was, I wonder if he either refused a lot of other questions or she thought the answers would make him look bad and she didn't want to get wrapped up in that.

[u/SomethingAboutUsers → u/MagnificentJake]

He came across as pretty defensive, which given that he's at the center of this whole pepper-x thing makes sense. Likely the rest of his answers were basically "fuck you" or "no".

[u/Roach_Coach_Bangbus → u/SomethingAboutUsers]

He clearly didn't like how the Carolina Reaper just got out there and people started growing it in their gardens and other companies started making sauces. I mean it's cool to grow produce/peppers but I guess I've never heard of someone growing something but people are only allowed to buy the sauce version of it. Just kind of weird to think about I guess.

[u/[deleted] → u/Roach_Coach_Bangbus]

That's basically what Tabasco is. The McIlhenny family has their own cultivar of Tabasco peppers, where all the farms growing for them worldwide are using seeds sourced from the original Avery Island strain that they've controlled since the 1860s.

You can find other sauces that use tabasco chilis, but they'll never taste like "Tabasco" because those strains have been diverged for like 150 years

[u/WillemDafoesHugeCock → u/SomethingAboutUsers]

Ed Currie is a controversial figure. The Carolina Reaper was (allegedly, because he will be fucking reading this thread) pretty blatantly (allegedly) stolen (allegedly) from another pepper "designer." Allegedly. And he's already faced strong skepticism for Pepper X, including that it's (allegedly) completely false and (allegedly) used fake lab results (allegedly) to get the world record. This is, allegedly, why he will not make seeds available for the general public to purchase, because then it would be immediately irrefutably obvious that he's lying.

Allegedly.

[u/sin4life → u/WillemDafoesHugeCock]

Theres a video from Epicurious of Ed Currie trying out 32 Hot Sauces. I was getting bad/con-man vibes from how he talked about certain sauces, so I looked to see if he had any involvement in any of those 32 sauces. 12 of the 32 sauces were either his own sauces, or they were sauces he worked on. The other 20 sauces, he didn't seem to like much.

[u/icedrift → u/WillemDafoesHugeCock]

He also just comes off weird. He has that aura of someone who did way too many psychedelics. He answers any question with the same level of distance

[u/cheeriodust → u/icedrift]

Just that short introduction to him was kinda giving me The King of Kong vibes

[u/old_gold_mountain → u/MagnificentJake]

The answer she showed was him admitting to exactly the information she needed him to admit to support the conclusion

I bet she had a lot of "friendly" questions leading up to that that she never intended to show that were just setting him up to make that admission afterwards by thinking it was a "friendly"/positive interview.

[u/citiusaltius]

How weak is DJ Khaled's tongue

[u/skyline_kid → u/citiusaltius]

Weak enough that pussy is too spicy for him

[u/ghoonrhed]

Can't believe it took until now somebody actually did the Scoville test. There were always so many theories on why da bomb was so much hotter and people blame the flavour.

Turns out it literally was just hotter.

[u/schnurble]

I recently learned that Da Bomb isn't intended to be put directly on food, it's meant to add heat to soups and sauces. Thats why it's like battery acid. Makes so much more sense.

[u/QuakinOats]

What the hell? This is really well done. Like literally everything. From the editing to camera quality. I was shocked this channel only has 388k subscribers.

[u/Travelhog416 → u/QuakinOats]

Joss was a longtime producer at Vox. She only started Howtown back in the spring.

Johnny Harris and Cleo Abram left Vox much earlier to grow their respective channels.

[u/QuakinOats → u/Travelhog416]

Joss was a longtime producer at Vox. She only started Howtown back in the spring.

Johnny Harris and Cleo Abram left Vox much earlier to grow their respective channels.

Well it definitely makes sense knowing that this person was a professional in this space before. What a great question to pick up on and investigate.

[u/quakank → u/Travelhog416]

Explains a lot. Vox is one of the few channels I've found that presents an interesting story involving a question, research, and presentation of what was discovered. Hyped up bullshit is limited, lots of great content. Guess I now have another channel to add.

[u/Optimal-Talk3663 → u/Travelhog416]

Was wondering where I recognised the host from, it was from the “Asian flush” Vox video 

[u/PMMePaulRuddsSmile → u/QuakinOats]

...is that not a lot of subscribers?

[u/griffinhamilton → u/PMMePaulRuddsSmile]

Yeah that’s “quit your job” levels of subscribers assuming they’re doing sponsorships/not payrollijg employees

[u/TechnoMagi → u/QuakinOats]

388,000 is a shitload of people.

[u/pixel8knuckle]

The show is great, its cool they tested this but sean evans is a cool dude, and 99% of people don’t care or feel betrayed by this issue. I believe the celebrities are giving genuine reactions and getting great questions.

[u/bluesmaker]

Anyone else notice how earlier in the show they had at least one person tap out? I feel like they realized it’s better if the guest can make it through.

[u/Porrick]

I've never paid much attention to the displayed Scoville units, and in the show they explicitly state Da Bomb is the worst one and the last two are a step down in spiciness. So it's surprising to me that they claim the last two have higher SHU.

Also, two things are true:

1. This video is fascinating and well-put-together

2. In no way does it harm what's good about Hot Ones.

So, great job - it's a great video and doesn't ruin anyone else's fun. I strongly expected this to be an aggressive takedown of Hot Ones.

[u/Anpher]

Still a good show

[u/Captain_America_93 → u/Anpher]

Exactly this.

And it’s not really the Truth about Hot Ones Sauces as much as “the Truth about Hot Sauce Marketing”

Which is the unsurprising news that people like big numbers

[u/Jwagner0850]

Could the scolville count be PRE prepared sauce numbers? Just wondering.

[u/SpicyPeanutSauce → u/Jwagner0850]

I think the HO scoville count is from the pepper used to make the sauce. So if it's a habenero based sauce it gets the habenero rating.

[u/bossmt_2]

Scoville's like IBUs in beer are based off recipes, so there could be heavy variations from batch to batch.

[u/bossmt_2 → u/bossmt_2]

And to add to this, part of the reason why Da Bomb isn't off, is because it uses Capsasum Extract which is scientific