[DanT]

When I was a college freshman, back in 1988-89, I guzzled about 8 ounces of Tabasco in a very short amount of time and then went a long amount of time without any food or drink in order to win a challenge from my dormitory housemates. I forget the exact details, but the short amount of time was 10 seconds or so and the longer time was either 20 or 30 minutes. The amount of Tabasco was what remained in a partially used 12-ounce "food service" bottle, which was about two-thirds full.

It was fairly easy money. I only made $28, but that was nice to have. The challenge came at the end of a spaghetti dinner in the dormitory. The dinner included some Italian bread, which somehow led to a discussion of food bets--there's a famous challenge where the consumer had to down a slice of Wonder Bread in 60 seconds without aid of beverage, something much harder than it sounds. Anyway, I did this in front of about 20 witnesses or so. (This was at the University of Chicago.) About 15 years later, I learned that the supposed Tabasco Sauce world record was some piddlin' amount, something like 2 2.75 ounce bottles, which I easily beat. However, when I drank the bottle, I first removed the stopper, whereas the Guinness record holders sucked the sauce through the stoppers, on TV, which would be harder. I'm sure the actual world record is way higher than what Guinness thinks it is, but it was probably witnessed by just some friends being silly.

Anyway, even though I like hot sauce, I don't see much point in having hot sauce so hot that it can't be used liberally over the food. If a drop or two is too hot to enjoy, what's the point? I like to use lots of hot sauce, preferably stuff with some flavor. I like Franks Red Hot and Tabasco. I'm starting to like Cholula and Tapatio, which are common in California and which I used to think were not flavorful. Sriacha is good, too, though I use it slightly differently than the other kinds of hot sauce.