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Comment by rattray | Hacker News Reader

I've tried three or four competing Sriracha sauces from Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, etc, and to my taste all are much less enjoyable than Huy Fong.

It remains a differentiated product based on its core feature, taste.

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I'm the same, all of the knock off's don't taste very good. Mostly it seems they have much more vinegar flavor which I don't like and is most of the time the main reason why I think they are inferior.

Why are those knock offs? Sriracha has been an Asian sauce for a long time before Huy Fong.

Because they aren't as good as the only US based sriracha maker I like. :)

Have you tried Sriraja Panich Sriracha?[1] It's one of the many sauces that claims to be the original Thai version. I liked the taste pretty well, just as much as the version manufactured here although they are different. It doesn't taste anything like Sriracha but I prefer Bachan's BBQ Sauce to Sriracha. [2]

[1] https://www.amazon.com/Sriraja-Panich-Sriracha-Chili-Sauce/d...

[2] https://bachans.com/

Yes, I have tried Sriraja Panich. To me it's a "better ketchup" but too sweet for most applications.

I might give Bachan's a try!

I like the Shark brand. I get it at a local Asian market, but you can also find it online [0].

[0] https://importfood.com/products/thai-sauces-condiments/item/...

Yes, to me this is a Coke like product. There are other sriracha sauces, just like there's other cola drinks, but so far there's only one Huy Fong Sriracha.

There’s something about competitors that tastes off to me. Almost like they picked the peppers too green?

True though it's in the substantial economic interest of house brand teams to make it good enough, so they will keep trying. TJ in particular is quite good at this.

Trader Joe's incredible ability to pull this off in general, and inability to replicate Huy Fong (at least, last I tried) is a big part of what convinces me that Huy Fong must be doing something really special in how they make their sauce.

I haven't done a side by side with it, but the red dragon sauce is damn good.

Maybe a bit different than Huy Fong, but it checks the box for me.

Side note, the main mechanism TJs and other store brands use to pull off this trick is to have the original manufacturers produce the product for them as a white label product.

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