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Dave’s Gourmet Insanity Hot Sauce – How Hot is it Really?

By: Author Jeff Campbell

Posted on  - Last updated:

Categories Products

You know how a drop of hot sauce brings out the flavor in some meals. And if you enjoy that kick that comes from that peppery aftertaste, you’ve probably wondered, how hot is Dave’s Insanity sauce?

Dave’s Gourmet Insanity Hot Sauce is extremely hot, with a Scoville rating of 180,000. In fact, it’s the only sauce to be banned at the National Fiery Foods Show. The Scoville rating is a measure of capsaicin, the agent responsible for the hotness of peppers.

To put this in perspective, consider that Frank’s hot sauce has Scoville units of just 450. So, at Scoville heat units of 180,000, Dave’s is really hot.

If you’re into the hottest hot sauces, you’ll enjoy this piece because we’ll explore what pepper is in Dave’s Insanity sauce and compare Dave’s Insanity Sauce vs. Da Bomb.

We’ll also find out how hot is Dave’s Insanity sauce Carolina Reaper and other riveting themes around Dave’s Gourmet Insanity Hot Sauce.

Let’s get started.

What pepper is in Dave’s Insanity sauce?

Red habanero and red chiles are the peppers in Dave’s Insanity Sauce. Its full ingredient list includes red habanero, red chiles, hot pepper extract, tomato paste, salt, onions, cane vinegar, acetic acid, garlic, vegetable oil, xanthan gum, and citric acid.

Red habanero, red chiles, and hot pepper extract are obviously what gives Dave’s Insanity Sauce its insane kick.

Dave’s Insanity sauce is great for enhancing the flavor profile of your food.

It is a great cooking ingredient and is the original hottest sauce. The habanero and the red chiles in it are the main culprits, if you will. Now, let’s find out a bit about both hot peppers.

Habaneros are very hot, but there are hotter peppers. Some species can be 12 to 100 times hotter than a Jalapeno, and it has a Scoville rating of 100,000 to 350,000. Some varieties even have higher ratings. So, don’t say you’ve not been warned.

Habaneros originated in the Brazilian rainforest about 8,500 years ago.

The Mayans, in their travels, took it to several places. It’s grown so much in Mexico that it’s become a part of the culture. Interestingly, the name comes from Havana (Habana).

Mexico is the largest producer in the world, from which it’s imported into the states.

Red chili pepper, another ingredient, is known for its hot flavor and is often used as a spice. They have a Scoville rating of between 100,000 to 350,000. Jalapeno and Cayenne are popular varieties of red chili.

They provide some carbs, fiber, vitamins, minerals, and protein. But because we take them in small amounts, their contribution is naturally small. Not everyone can tolerate them. In fact, they have an adverse effect on some people.

Dave’s Insanity Sauce vs. Da Bomb: Which is hotter?

Dave’s Insanity Sauce is hotter than Da Bomb. Dave’s is rated 180,000 on the Scoville scale, while Da Bomb is rated 135,600. Insanity is made directly from capsaicin extract, while Da Bomb is made from habaneros and chipotle peppers and is flavored with orange juice.

Dave’s Insanity is the only sauce that has been banned from the Fiery Foods Show for being too hot.

That’s saying something, right?

Talk about an insane heat level. To know what makes both sauces hot and Insanity hotter, let’s check out what they’re made of.

Dave’s Insanity has the following ingredients:

  • Hot pepper
  • Tomato paste
  • Hot pepper extract
  • Salt
  • Cane vinegar
  • Onion
  • Xanthan gum
  • Garlic
  • Citric acid
  • Spices

It’s got a good blend of tomato freshness, but its effect is mild.

Capsaicin, the hot pepper extract, is what makes it hotter than Da Bomb, which is essentially habanero based. Capsaicin is what gives it that “lethal” touch of pungency.

The following are Da Bomb Beyond Insanity’s ingredients:

  • Habanero peppers (habaneros, salt)
  • Chipotle puree (chipotles, water, salt, citric acid)
  • Water
  • Orange juice concentrate
  • Natural pepper flavoring
  • Tomato paste
  • Potassium sorbate (to preserve freshness)
  • Sodium benzoate (to preserve freshness)

Natural pepper extract is used to crank up its Scoville rating. So, if you like hot heat sauces, you know what to go for.

Dave’s Hot Sauce is one of the first sauces that comes to mind when one thinks of delicious cooking, and yet, it also removes driveway grease stains.

How hot is Dave’s Insanity sauce Carolina Reaper?

Dave’s Insanity Sauce Caroline Reaper is insanely hot. It has a Scoville rating of 2.2 million! Little wonder, it’s one of the hottest sauces in the world.

Its ingredients are Carolina reaper peppers, water, salt, cane vinegar, hot pepper extract, acetic acid, garlic, and xanthan gum.

To have an inkling of how hot Dave’s Insanity Sauce Caroline Reaper is, it helps to know that Carolina Reaper (CR) was once written up in the Guinness Book of Records as the hottest pepper in the world.

Also, compare it to the popular Tabasco sauce, which has a Scoville rating of 100,000 to 350,000 units.

In point of fact, it’s probably the second hottest pepper in the world, with a Scoville rating of 2.2 million. But Dragon’s Breath Pepper is hotter, with a SHU of 2.4 million!

The sauce is so hot that the burn lasts (which is not surprising when considering the Scoville rating). Caroline Reaper is a crossbreed, a mix of two peppers, a Bhut Jolokia (the ghost pepper), and a red habanero.

If you have regulatory or heart conditions, you want to stay off because the sauce is insanely hot!

If you think habanero is hot, consider that ghost pepper is about 5 times hotter. And that Caroline Reaper is 2 times hotter than ghost pepper. Ghost pepper’s Scoville rating is 1 million (while CR is 2.2 million).

What about Louisiana hot sauce? How hot is it?

This is what I got into in a recent article I published. In it, I looked at whether Scoville ratings are accurate and whether Louisiana hot sauce is hotter than Franks. I even revealed what makes Louisiana hot sauce different.

Just click that link to read it on my site.

Which Dave’s Insanity Hot Sauce is hottest?

Dave’s Gourmet Ultimate Insanity Hot Sauce is the hottest of all Dave’s hot sauces. Red Savina Habaneros are the secret of its incredible heat, and it’s no accident that it bears the word “ultimate” in its name.

It’s not for the faint of heart.

On the product’s Amazon page, the manufacturer offered a chart to help one choose their sauces. “Ultimate” was categorized as “insanely hot.” It’s understandable, seeing as it has Scoville ratings of 250,000.

It’s even hotter than the legendary original Dave’s Insanity Sauce, which has a Scoville rating of 180,000. Dave’s Gourmet Insanity Sauce’s ingredients are red habaneros, hot pepper extract, red chilies, tomato paste, salt, onions, cane vinegar, acetic acid, garlic, vegetable oil, xanthan gum, and citric acid.

The following are Dave’s sauces, from the mild to the insanely hot:

  • Dave’s Gourmet Ginger Peach Hot Sauce
  • Dave’s Gourmet Cool Cayenne Hot Sauce
  • Dave’s Gourmet Scotch Bonnet Hot Sauce
  • Dave’s Gourmet Scorpion Pepper Hot Sauce
  • Dave’s Gourmet Ultimate Insanity Sauce

What is the hottest hot sauce in the world?

Regret Hot Sauce is the hottest sauce in the world. It’s undoubtedly the hottest because it’s rated 12 million Scoville Units! No other hot sauce comes close. Its ingredients are tomato, cider vinegar, bourbon, garlic, lime, ghost pepper, habanero, salt, and herbs.

The Scoville scale measures the heat in chili peppers and other spicy foods. Considering how hot Regret is, the common green chili pepper has a rating of between 350 to 1,500 Scoville units.

Habanero and ghost pepper, the peppers that give Regret its searing heat, have Scoville units of 150,000 to 575,000 and a little over 1,000,000, respectively! It also has a touch of garlic, which may have contributed, even if in a small way, to its pungency.

At the risk of stating the obvious, the hot sauce is not for the faint of heart. In fact, I read about a pizzeria that requires folks to sign a disclaimer if they want to try it with their pizza.

Even if you’re a chili-head, now and then, you may want to try tomato sauce or pasta sauces when you’re not in the mood for the hottest habanero-pepper sauces of the day.

Conclusion

In this article, we found out what pepper is in Dave’s Insanity sauce and compared Dave’s Insanity with Da Bomb.

We also found out how hot Dave’s Insanity sauce Carolina Reaper is and which of Dave’s products is the hottest. Lastly, we wrapped things up by considering the hottest hot sauce in the world.

Photo which requires attribution:

Lots of hot sauces at Firehouse Subs by sylvar is licensed under CC2.0 and was cropped, edited, and had a text overlay added.

Jeff Campbell
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By Author Jeff Campbell

Posted on  - Last updated:

Categories Products