Global Flavors Drive Hot Sauce Trends in 2019

2019 is going to be a great year for hot sauce trends. With our global love for spicy food continuing to grow, we're seeing an explosion of new sauces and flavors from all over the world.As with most trends, we're also seeing a boomerang effect. Some hot sauce trends from the past are coming back in vogue. No big surprise here, it's just the way of things. We're currently seeing this with the revitalization of Char Siu, or Chinese BBQ sauce.So let's take a look at some 2019 hot sauce trends based on the regions they stem from.

Global Hot Sauce Trends in 2019

Africa

Known for it's spicy meats and aromatic rubs, the country of Africa gives us a diverse and unique set of hot sauces. The size of the country promotes regional differences and interpretations of similar sauces. Some have gained notoriety more quickly than others, however.The most notable at this moment is harissa. Hailing from North Africa, harissa often comes as a thick sauce or paste. Made from multiple chilies, including baklouti and serrano, along with roasted red peppers, garlic, and seasonings, harissa has found a huge market in the food industry. It's not uncommon to find this sauce on foods like falafel, burgers, loaded fries, roasted cauliflower, or baked eggs. Personally, I love it in a thick hummus.Other African flavors popping up on the radar are berbere and pili pili, which, as it turns out, are both really fun to say. Pili pili is made from the piri piri chili pepper native to Southeastern Africa and is not to be confused with the Portuguese Piri Piri sauce. It tends to be scorching hot and a little goes a long way.Berbere, however, reigns from Ethopia and is most familiar in its powdered seasoning form. But, we're starting to see a rise in the "Awaze" sauce, which blends berbere seasoning with spicy chilies like habanero or cayenne. Don't be surprised to see this item show up on chicken wings and pizzas soon.

Middle East

The Middle East is no stranger to spicy foods. But they also don't shy away from herbs, spices, and other aromatics. So, when those characteristics come together, we get delicious chili sauces like zhug. Commonly compared to a Brazilian chimichurri sauce, this Yemenite paste is made from onion, garlic, parsley, cilantro, and lots of spicy chilies, like Serrano or Thai.Another new/old face in the hot sauce world is shatta. Like zhug, shatta uses cilantro and parsley along with serrano or Thai chilies. What makes it different is the use of red jalapenos and tomato, for a bit sweeter of a profile.Finally, we're seeing the hot sauce trend sneak into other Middle Eastern foods that aren't traditionally spicy. The best example of this is Spicy Za'atar sauce. Za'atar, an herbaceous blend of thyme, sumac, and sesame, is a ubiquitous Middle Eastern condiment used on everything from meat and eggs to bread and salad. The spicy variation takes the flavor and impact to a whole new level.

Asia

Never to be outdone by the other countries, Asia continues to make waves with new sauces. Asian sauces are most noteworthy for their fermented characteristics. A great example of this would be la doubanjiang. This is another classic sauce, common in Sichuan cuisine, that's finding new life in our spice crazy generation. Made from fermented broad beans and soybeans, this sauce is seasoned with salt, spices, and red chili peppers. It's often eaten simply with sticky rice or noodles, but you're likely to see it start popping up in stir fried and crossover foods, like sushi burritos or Asian style pizzas.Another spicy Asian sauce on the comeback is karashi, or Japanese hot mustard. Different from the previous sauces, karashi gets its heat from ground mustard seeds and horseradish or wasabi, depending on the maker. This one is the quietest of the current trends, but there's uniqueness in it that could harness quite the cult following.

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Thanks for reading along with our 2019 hot sauce trends blog. Next up we're going to see how these trendy new sauces are making their way into the broader culinary culture.Cheers!