7 Best Hot Sauces On Walmart Shelves, According To Reviews

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Condiments are an interesting phenomenon. Most of the time, when it comes to the classics like ketchup or mustard, you either love them or hate them. But hot sauce is something entirely different; for many, it's a daily fascination. It's a way of life for many who are passionate about spice and love the challenge of a highly powerful, well-balanced hot sauce.

Hot sauce is generally available wherever you get your groceries, and Walmart shoppers in particular have plenty of options when it comes to purchasing both lesser-known brands and staples. We compiled a list of seven of the best hot sauces Walmart has to offer, based on flavor and spice level, combining reviews from the store's official site as well as insights from aficionados across social media. Walmart devotees who love using hot sauce for their favorite foods should read on to find out what sauces they might want to have on their grocery list. 

Cholula's original hot sauce is definitely a popular one, known for having a more mild spice level derived from arbol and piquín peppers. Cholula is often considered one of those hot sauces you should always keep in your pantry. Walmart reviewers seem to love it as well, using it regularly on a variety of foods. One Walmart reviewer emphasized that Cholula was the "best hot sauce around," and the only one they buy. Others noted that it has "just the right amount of heat," and that Cholula was "not just hot to be hot" but had a "good flavor" as well.

Over on Reddit, hot sauce lovers expressed similar sentiments. While it's not the spiciest of sauces, at between 1,000 and 2,000 Scoville units (due to its dilution from high water content), its flavor was particularly good. One Reddit reviewer said it was "damn tasty" despite it not being overly hot. Ultimately, in the words of a passionate Reddit reviewer: "Cholula is more about the taste than the heat." This is one hot sauce you should always pick up at Walmart.

Frank's RedHot , one of the more recognizable hot sauce companies on the market, has a line of sauces that vary in hotness, ranging from a mild-heat original all the way to its Xtra Hot. But its classic original recipe consists of a hot sauce made with core ingredients like vinegar, salt, garlic powder, cayenne peppers, and water) up a bunch to rank as the spiciest they have. The original, Frank's RedHot Original Cayenne Pepper Hot Sauce, tends to hold up the best among reviewers, however. Walmart shoppers and hot sauce enthusiasts on Reddit praise its flavor and balanced heat as big selling points for this hot sauce staple. 

Over on the Walmart review page, one consumer said that Frank's was a "reliable, flavorful, and versatile condiment for everyday cooking," citing its reasonable heat and pleasurable flavor profile. Reddit users agreed that the sauce was an "absolute classic," and one Redditor even called it a "gateway to the hot sauce world." Expanding on why it has such a flavor-centric appeal, another Reddit reviewer said the "secret" of Frank's was that "most home cooks don't add professional levels of salt to their food, and Frank's is salty enough to bring food to that level." 

Another brand that many swear by is Valentina, a Mexican hot sauce that many look to for its balance of heat and "rich flavor." Valentina was introduced in the 1960s, named after a woman who fought in the Mexican Revolution dressed as a man. It has since become a staple for Mexican food, and even chefs love it; Chef Jesús Méndez considers it one of his favorite store-bought hot sauces, adding it to his cooking and pairing it with a large variety of foods.

As for Walmart shoppers, people really like the flavor of the sauce and its medium-level heat, in addition to praising it for its price point. One particular Walmart shopper said its flavor was particularly good due to it having the "lowest sodium content" among Mexican hot sauces, as well as having a "higher viscosity than most hot sauces." Over on Reddit, one consumer called it the "Pabst Blue Ribbon of hot sauce," while another Redditor said they "love Valentina on skillets and breakfast foods" and that it was "also good with chorizo and egg." Ultimately, it seems like it's a great buy at Walmart if you're looking for a cheaper sauce with good flavor.

It shouldn't surprise many people to know that Tabasco made the list of the most popular hot sauces on Walmart shelves. It is, after all, a name that so many people know. It was even the preferred hot sauce of the late Queen Elizabeth II, who awarded it a coveted royal warrant in 2009. Tabasco is something you're likely to see these iconic red bottles on restaurant tables around the country, and is known for its simple recipe: Tabasco peppers, vinegar, and salt.

This classic sauce (with a classic logo as well) is a favorite among Walmart shoppers, including one who said it was a "staple of the Southern tradition." Another praised its vinegar-centric flavor. And over on Reddit, users praised the sauce for its ability to add "something to the food without taking over," and one Redditor in particular noted that its ingredients made the flavor "more complex" than comparable sauces.

Hot sauce is a great additive to so many different dishes, and can be surprisingly great on things like pizza — even enhancing the flavor depending on which ones you buy. One of the sauces you might have at home already is Tapatio, another staple that people who love brands like Cholula also use regularly. Among Walmart shoppers, this was reviewed as one of the best for many reasons.

Some Walmart reviewers noted that the sauce was similar to Cholula in terms of flavor and spice level, but a bit better in price. And one even praised Tapatio for its "good consistency, always on the nose in taste." On Reddit, there was agreement around Tapatio's taste, and in particular that the flavor was less "sour" than other Mexican hot sauces due to its lack of vinegar. More broadly, enthusiasts called it "so damn good," and another called it "one of the best." If you're looking for a cheap sauce with great flavor that rivals its reasonably-spiced competitors, Tapatio might be the one for you.

Now for some lesser-known sauces that are on the hotter side. For a time, the Carolina Reaper was considered the hottest pepper ever –  with a staggering 2.2 million Scoville rating. That has since been taken over by Pepper X, but the Reaper is still an unbelievably hot pepper that hot sauce lovers covet. If you're getting into hot sauce and want a Reaper sauce you can find at Walmart, look no further than the Torchbearer Garlic Reaper sauce.

This name almost says it all: It's a uniquely flavored sauce that Walmart shoppers who've tried it really love. One reviewer went so far as to say it's "beautiful, almost poetic," and called the flavor "out of this world." And over on Reddit, one aficionado raved that the Garlic Reaper is "a fantastic sauce with a punch." With praise like that, the Torchbearer should be a great find at Walmart for the hot sauce lover in your life.

Whether you want something mild with some good flavor or a sauce with some serious heat, hot sauce is all about preference. There's really something for everyone out there, but real hot sauce lovers chase the feeling and the flavor. Elijah's Xtreme Regret Reserve Hot Sauce is one of those sauces that seems to live up to its name, and is the perfect Walmart buy for someone who loves the rush of a super hot pepper.

Walmart reviewers agreed that the sauce is good for its ability to "pack a punch," which is definitely what you'd hope for given its bold and confident branding. On Reddit, one user said it was "one of the hottest and most flavorful non-extract super-hot sauces you can buy," while another Redditor praised it as having great taste and even better heat. Pick it up next time you're shopping if you're looking for a serious kick.

To compile this list of the best hot sauces you can buy at Walmart, we combed reviews from the grocery giant's website as well as on social media sites like Reddit to see what hot sauce lovers thought of some of the classics, as well as some lesser-known kickers. We considered taste, spice level, and overall sentiment when putting together the final list, and relied on reviews from the past one to two years to determine which sauces made the cut.