The original green-capped rooster brand (Huy Fong?) is too hot for me but I adore the sweeter, milder Trader Joe’s brand…which seems to be discontinued. I don’t mean TJ’s Green Dragon, which is also too hot. I mean the red TJ’s version. Sigh. My bottle is almost empty. Can anyone recommend a similar brand?
I haven’t tried it myself, but Lee Kum Kee makes their own sriracha sauce. I’ve seen it at my local asian market.
Well, SeriousEat had an article comparing various Sriracha sauces. It described their flavor profiles. In this article, the hotter the sauce, the higher the ranking, so you may want to look at #7, #8 and #9:
Particularly, Siraja Panich may fit you. Sweet and garlic… not very spicy, they said.
Thai Kitchen: “…Unfortunately, their definition of “spicy” didn’t exactly coincide with ours. Thick and gloppy with a cloyingly sweet flavor, some folks likened it to spicy duck sauce, or said it was “more like sweet and sour sauce.” Yet it wasn’t as good as either of those other sauces, either.”
Siraja Panich: “One of the most popular brands in Thailand, it had barely any heat at all, instead coming off as sweet and syrupy, with not enough actual chili flavor, and way too much garlic for our tastes…”
Dragonfly: "
Dragonfly: “Our loser had a near fluorescent red color that turned off many tasters (it’s the only brand with artificial coloring in it). “Very sweet and not much aroma or flavor,”…”
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Thanks, Chem! I have bookmarked the SE article. Sounds like maybe I should get one of the weaker, sweeter ones and mix with Huy Fong.
Along those lines, perhaps ketchup mixed with Huy Fong would work?
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Great idea.
@greygarious If you like Huy Fong and Trader Joe’s, but wish for a sweeter and more garlic profile, then maybe you can just increase the other ingredients. Here are what I am looking at:
Trader Joe’s ingredients: Ground red chili peppers, water, sugar, ground garlic, salt, contains 2% or less of garlic powder, cultured dextrose, vegetable extract, natural flavor, vinegar, citric acid, xantham gum
Huy Fong’s ingredients: Chili, sugar, salt, garlic, distilled vinegar, potassium sorbate, sodium bisulfite as preservatives, and xantham gum
It seems like the main ingredients for both are (1) chili, (2) garlic, (3) vinegar and water.
Finally, it seems Amazon and eBay are still selling them.
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Good ideas here. For the meantime, I ordered two bottles of th TJ’s on eBay. A tad pricey, but each will probably last me a year, and maybe by then they will stock it again. Thanks!
I know ~$10, right? I was just about to ask. Is the Trader Joe’s brand out of stock or discontinued? By the way, do you know if there is a difference between the white cap vs the green cap? Best wishes.
Two for $14, free shipping. I have only seen white caps in the stores but as far as I know they only make one kind.
