Hot Ones is a YouTube sensation that has taken the internet by storm. It is produced by First We Feast and Complex Media and is hosted by Sean Evans.
First debuting in March 2015 the show’s format consists of host Sean Evans interviewing a celebrity guest while both eat 10 chicken wings, each served with a progressively hotter hot sauce and culminating in The Last Dab, a sauce produced by Hot Ones themselves with a Scoville rating of 2,000,000+ units. The Last Dab was developed by legendary chilehead Smokin’ Ed Currie of PuckerButt Pepper Co., the creator of the infamous Carolina Reaper, the world’s hottest pepper.
The show’s tagline, stated by Evans at the beginning of each episode, is “The show with hot questions, and even hotter wings.”
As of 21 May 2022 there has been seventeen seasons of Hot Ones produced with a total of 254 episodes. In 2018 Hot Ones won Best Non-Fiction Series at the Streamy Awards and the episodes on YouTube have been viewed more than a billion times in total.
The Season 18 Lineup of Hot Ones hot sauces was announced by Sean Evans on 20 May 2022 with the first episode of Hot Ones Season 18 scheduled to premiere on Thursday, 26 May.
Each season the lineup of hot sauces is changed with new sauces introduced, although some sauces have appeared in multiple seasons, notably Mad Dog 357, Blair’s Mega Death Sauce, Hot Ones The Classic Hot Sauce, Hot Ones Los Calientes Hot Sauce, Da’ Bomb Beyond Insanity and, of course, the sauce in the perennial ten spot, Hot Ones The Last Dab.
You can check out all the Hot Ones episodes on YouTube here: Hot Ones on YouTube
In November 2019 Hot Ones: The Game Show, also hosted by Sean Evans, was announced by WarnerMedia’s TruTV with a release date scheduled for early 2020. The first episode was broadcast on 18 February 2020.
Hot Ones: The Game Show takes place in “The Pepperdome” where two-person teams of contestants go head to head, competing through three rounds of pop-culture trivia questions while also eating hot wings. The winning team then moves to the final round, “The Ring of Fire”, where they play a password game in the hope of winning the $25,000 grand prize.
Three new hot sauces were created especially for Hot Ones: The Game Show; Brain Burner, Eye of the Scorpion and The Constrictor. Heatonist enlisted tattoo artists Natalia Garcia Briceno, Matthew Henning and BJ Betts to bring to life the label art for each of the three sauces.
On a scale of 1-10, Brain Burner rates an 8, Eye of the Scorpion a 9 and The Constrictor a 10. Initially, Heatonist did not announce official Scoville ratings for these three new hot sauces. However, a year after its release, Eye of the Scorpion was added to the Hot Ones Season 14 Lineup in the number nine spot with a Scoville rating of 676,000 SHU.
Below we have assembled a complete list of all the hot sauces featured on the Hot Ones YouTube series, along with their rating in Scoville Heat Units (SHU). Many of these sauces are available for purchase at Sauce Mania.
Hot Ones Hot Sauces Season One
| # | Hot Sauce | Scoville Rating (SHU) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hot Ones The Classic Garlic Fresno Hot Sauce | 1,700 |
| 2 | Steel City Sauce Co Jade Jaguar Hot Sauce | 3,600 |
| 3 | Fresno Sauce Company Chipotle & Habanero Hot Sauce | 12,400 |
| 4 | Hotter Than El Ghost Sauce | 39,000 |
| 5 | Hot Ones Los Calientes Rojo Hot Sauce | 49,000 |
| 6 | Seafire Gourmet Reaper Hot Sauce | 72,000 |
| 7 | Volcanic Peppers Thors Hammer Super Hot Sauce | 121,000 |
| 8 | Da Bomb Beyond Insanity Hot Sauce | 135,600 |
| 9 | Chile Monoloco Pierde Almas Hot Sauce | 665,000 |
| 10 | Hot Ones The Last Dab XXX Hot Sauce | 2,000,000+ |
Hot Ones Hot Sauces Season Sixteen
| # | Hot Sauce | Scoville Rating (SHU) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hot Ones The Classic Hot Sauce | 1,700 |
| 2 | Yellowbird Bliss & Vinegar Hot Sauce | 6,200 |
| 3 | Hoff & Pepper Hoffs House Sauce Hot Sauce | 14,500 |
| 4 | Hot Ones Los Calientes Verde Hot Sauce | 36,000 |
| 5 | Hot Heads Official Revolutionary Hot Sauce | 57,000 |
| 6 | Señor Lechuga .718 Hot Sauce | 67,000 |
| 7 | Chile Lengua De Fuego Bhutila Fire Hot Sauce | 118,000 |
| 8 | Da Bomb Beyond Insanity Hot Sauce | 135,600 |
| 9 | Hellfire Hot Sauce Kranked Hot Sauce | 699,000 |
| 10 | Hot Ones The Last Dab Apollo Hot Sauce | 2,000,000+ |
The Last Dab: Apollo joins the Hot Ones lineup as the new king of Mt. Scoville, hero of hot sauces, and crusher of celebrities and chilliheads alike. The Apollo Pepper has been carefully bred and nurtured by Guinness World Record holding chilli breeder Smokin’ Ed Currie from prized strains of his famed Carolina Reaper and Pepper X. The Apollo brings this heritage to new heights of capsaicin, packing a more concentrated punch than any of its forebears. The flavour of The Apollo comes from the sweetness of Carolina Reaper, tinged with the earthiness of Pepper X – it’s a culinary powerhouse. The heat profile of The Apollo Pepper is akin to having your head slowly lit aflame. You feel the fire consume your entire skull, your tongue smoulders, burning tears pour from your eyes. And then, five minutes later, the ride is over, your heart rate returns to normal, the panic subsides. This pepper is like no other.
The Last Dab: Apollo is the only sauce in the world made with the Apollo Pepper. This sauce is made from only The Apollo Pepper and very little vinegar. The pepper takes three forms in this sauce: fresh peppers, dried peppers, and distilled pepper oil (made using CO2 extraction, similar to how the highest quality essential oils are made).
FAQ
How many Scoville units is an Apollo pepper?
What peppers are in the Apollo last dab?
