The Most Popular Hot Sauce In Each State

For many Americans, few meals feel complete without a little — or a lot of — hot sauce. But there are geographic preferences when it comes to the specific hot sauce brands they tend to choose.

In honor of National Hot Sauce Day on Jan. 22, the folks at the online grocery platform Instacart analyzed its purchase data to identify the most popular hot sauce in each state. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Huy Fong Sriracha is a big favorite, especially out West.

According to sales data between December 2020 and November 2021, Huy Fong Sriracha is the most purchased hot sauce in the United States overall and in 31 states, based on volume. The second most popular is Frank’s RedHot, which is No. 1 in 14 states including New York, Kentucky and Missouri.

Beyond those two big brands, Burman’s takes the top spot in Iowa, while Bueno and Village Hot Sauce dominate in their respective home states of New Mexico and North Dakota. Ironically, Original Louisiana is the most popular in Mississippi but not Louisiana, and Texas Pete is No. 1 in North and South Carolina but not Texas. (Although in perhaps the biggest irony of all, the latter is unsurprising because the brand actually hails from Winston-Salem, far from the Lone Star State).

Instacart also identified the states that buy the most hot sauce (North Dakota, New Mexico, Colorado, California and North Carolina) and the ones that purchase the least amount of hot sauce (Hawaii, Iowa, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Rhode Island).

In addition to analyzing sales data, Instacart also teamed up with The Harris Poll to conduct an online survey of around 2,000 adults about their hot sauce preferences.

Based on the results, 74% of Americans eat hot sauce with their food and 45% typically add it to a meal at least once a week. Among those who use hot sauce, 67% said they are passionate about their preferred brand.

Still, 83% of hot sauce users reported being very or somewhat open to trying new hot sauce brands. Instacart also reported that Maya Kaimal and Truff are the fastest growing hot sauce brands.

For more information about the methodology and additional hot sauce insights (like the most popular month to buy hot sauce, heat level preferences and nontraditional food pairings), check out Instacart’s blog post about the report.