Review: Melinda’s Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce

Bottom Line: Melinda’s Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce has some similarities to the Huy Fong stuff, but some people may actually like it better.

Huy Fong Sriracha sauce is back on the shelves after a period when it was hard to find consistently (more on that here). However, the damage may have already been done, as many people started searching for substitutes during the shortage—only to discover that there are quite a few good alternatives out there. I’ve been making recommendations here, and I’m continuing to explore different sriracha options now that I’ve realized Rooster Sauce is not the only game in town.

Melinda’s brand is known for its wide variety of hot sauces, which you can now find in most grocery stores. In 2021, they introduced their own version of sriracha—almost as if they anticipated that an opportunity was about to present itself. Like many other sriracha sauces, it is made from simple ingredients: red pepper mash, vinegar, water, seasonings, and xanthan gum for thickening. I recently noticed it on the shelf at HEB and decided to give it a try.

This one has an immediate garlic kick, along with the tang you expect from this type of sauce. It has some sweetness, though not as much as Huy Fong’s, and it’s balanced by a salty kick. The expected sriracha funk from fermented peppers is present, but it’s not too strong. And if you don’t like that funkiness, you may prefer this over the Rooster Sauce.

The heat level on this reaches Mild on my scale, or maybe just a bit higher. I would have expected a little hotter from Melinda’s, but they show two out of three flames on the bottle, so they are leaning milder with this one. It costs around five bucks for a 12 oz bottle, making it slightly pricier than Huy Fong’s version. However, some people may like this one more and consider it worth the extra cost. You should be able to find it in most stores that carry the Melinda’s brand, or you can buy it online from their Amazon store.