About the data
How HotSauceDB is built
HotSauceDB is built from public maker and retailer pages. Every row in the catalog stores the address of the page that confirms it, and a blank field means no source published that value. This page explains how rows are added and where the published figures disagree.
How a sauce gets into the catalog
A sauce is listed when a maker or retailer page shows it for sale or describes it. That page is the row's source, and it appears at the bottom of every sauce page. The one-sentence descriptions are written by HotSauceDB.
Flags such as vegan, fermented and gluten-free are set to yes only when the maker or a retailer says so. The pepper extract flag is also set to yes when the published ingredient list includes an extract. It is set to no only when a full ingredient list without an extract was found.
Current status comes from the source page. A sauce listed on a current maker or retailer page is marked as listed. Sauces known only from past Hot Ones seasons have no status yet.
Scoville figures are claims
A measure of how much capsaicin a pepper or sauce contains. Wilbur Scoville introduced the scale in 1912 as a taste test on diluted extracts. Labs now measure capsaicinoids with high-performance liquid chromatography and convert the result to SHU.
The figure on a sauce page is whatever the maker or a retailer published. It is stored as text so it can hold a single number, a range or a floor such as 2,000,000+. 119 of the 224 sauces have one.
Some superhot sauce figures describe the pepper in the sauce. Hot Ones The Last Dab Xperience is listed at 2,693,000 SHU, which is the Guinness World Records average for Pepper X itself. The catalog keeps the figure because a retailer publishes it, and the sauce page carries a note.
Where published figures conflict
| Entry | Figures published | What the catalog stores |
|---|---|---|
| Carolina Reaper (pepper) | 1,569,300 average (Guinness, 2013); 1.64 million average (Guinness, 2023); 2.2 million (RHS) | 1,569,300 to 2,200,000 |
| Hot Ones Los Calientes Rojo | 49,000 in one season list, 39,000 in a later one | 39,000 to 49,000 |
| Hot Ones Los Calientes Verde | 36,000 in one season list, 34,000 in a later one | 34,000 to 36,000 |
| Hot Ones The Last Dab Xperience | 2,693,000, the Guinness average for Pepper X itself | 2,693,000, with a note on the page |
| TorchBearer Zombie Apocalypse | 100,00 (a typo) in Season 3, 100,000 in Season 4 | 100,000 |
| Hot Ones The Last Dab Apollo | 2,5000,000+ (a typo) | Blank |
Heat bands
To make long tables easy to scan, HotSauceDB groups claims into five heat bands. A sauce with a range is banded by the top of the range, and a floor such as 7,000+ is banded by its floor. Makers do not use these bands.
| Band | Meter | Claimed SHU | Sauces |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mild | 0-2,499 | 15 | |
| Medium | 2,500-24,999 | 34 | |
| Hot | 25,000-99,999 | 32 | |
| Very hot | 100,000-499,999 | 14 | |
| Superhot | 500,000+ | 24 |
HEATONIST publishes its own 1 to 10 rating for some sauces. The catalog shows it for the 11 sauces where HEATONIST lists one. Other scales, such as a maker's 5-point rating or a mild, medium and hot label, are not converted, because any conversion would be a guess.
Pepper ranges
Pepper ranges come from the Royal Horticultural Society, Texas A&M AgriLife, the Chile Pepper Institute at New Mexico State University, University of Arizona Extension, UF/IFAS, HortScience and Guinness World Records where possible. 17 of the 37 ranges rest on a commercial or wiki source, and each of those pepper pages says so.
A blank low figure means the source gives only one value or a peak. Morita has no published range and is shown without a bar. Figures for superhot peppers are contested, and the Apollo and Dragon's Breath figures have not been certified by Guinness World Records.
Coverage
Version 1 is a starter catalog of 224 sauces. Coverage is strongest for large US and Mexican brands, Belize and the Hot Ones lineups. It is thin for Asia apart from Lao Gan Ma and Huy Fong, and for harissa, gochujang, Peru, Brazil, Australia and the United Kingdom.
Fields filled
| Field | Sauces | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Sauces with a published Scoville figure | 119 | 53% |
| Sauces with a retailer 1 to 10 rating | 11 | 5% |
| Sauces with a bottle size | 139 | 62% |
| Sauces with a country stated | 166 | 74% |
| Sauces with a full ingredient list | 63 | 28% |
| Sauces with the peppers on the label recorded | 49 | 22% |
Sauces by country
| Country | Sauces |
|---|---|
| United States | 111 |
| Not stated | 58 |
| Mexico | 17 |
| Belize | 12 |
| New Zealand | 5 |
| South Africa | 5 |
| Jamaica | 3 |
| Australia | 2 |
| Canada | 2 |
| China | 2 |
| India | 2 |
| Trinidad & Tobago | 2 |
| Peru | 1 |
| Spain | 1 |
| Thailand | 1 |
Many craft sauces have no country because no source page stated where the maker is based. Several sauces from past Hot Ones seasons rest on one retailer list. That list matches HEATONIST figures where the two were compared, but it has visible typos, which are recorded in the conflicts table above.
Changes
| Version | Date | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | September 28, 2026 | Starter catalog of 224 sauces, 71 brands, 37 peppers, 27 styles and 152 ingredients. |
Frequently asked questions
Does HotSauceDB test sauces?
No. Every Scoville figure is copied from a maker or retailer page, and the sauce page links to that page. The figures are labelled as claims everywhere they appear.
Why is a field blank?
A blank field means no source in the catalog published that value. A blank never means no or zero. The vegan, fermented and gluten-free flags are set only when a maker or retailer states them.
Why do some sauces show a range?
Some makers publish a range, and some sauces have different published figures in different places. When two sources conflict, the catalog keeps both figures as a range so the conflict stays visible.
How are heat bands assigned?
Each sauce with a published figure is placed in one of five bands by the top of its range. The bands are HotSauceDB's own grouping for scanning a table, and no maker uses them.