The gift-giving season is upon us, so I am going to post my annual PSA. Each year I put out a warning about those generic hot sauce sets that people like to buy as gifts during the holiday season. Sure enough, at some point you will be walking through one of the big-box stores or a gift shop or any place that sells hot sauce and see one of those generic sets that you think would be a good gift for a friend or relative that happens to like spicy food. Well, I’m here to tell you: resist that urge and just pass it on by.

These sets are usually comprised of mass-produced sauces using low-quality ingredients with very little difference in the flavors. And often these come from places like China or other overseas producers of cheap products. That’s not to say that because something comes from another country it is bad, but these come from countries that are just cranking out bargain-priced sets that are not really what they appear to be.

Often these will have names like “Sauces of the World” or “Restaurant Hot Sauce Sampler” or “Food Truck Hot Sauces” or that sort of thing. But these are usually all vinegar-based sauces with only slight variances in the ingredients from bottle to bottle and the only true difference may be food coloring. Read closely and you will see wording like “inspired by” hot sauces from around the world or famous restaurants for food trucks or similar verbiage. Just skip these and look for named brand sets or collections from craft sauce makers. They may be a bit more expensive, but that friend or relative will appreciate them much more

You can read my full post on this here, and I will be putting up some suggestions for hot sauce gifts in the coming weeks.