Does Your Sriracha Taste Off? Here’s Why the Sauce May Not Seem the Way You Remember It

Those who like to add a little extra heat to their meals have typically reached for their favorite hot sauce. And while there have been plenty of brands who have held the top spot when it comes to the type people reach for most (we're looking at you, Tabasco), sriracha has been a fan favorite for a while.

But, like all good things, sriracha's reign had to come to an end after many people started asking what had happened to the hot sauce after some people began to note inconsistencies.

People have began speculating about a change to the formula that the company uses after noting that the sauce didn't quite taste the same as it once did. And, it sounds like their suspicions are well founded, since the storied rise and fall of Sriracha has been well documented over the years.

Curious to find out why the sauce no longer carries the same punch (and flavor) that it once did? Keep reading as we break down what happened to the famed hot sauce.

Unfortunately for hot sauce aficionados, Huy Fong's Sriracha has indeed changed over the years. According to The Takeout, it all started back in 2020, when Covid-era supply chain issues began to spell trouble for the brand. In the years that followed, it was hard for fans to find their favorite brand of the hot sauce (the one with the rooster on the front) in stores, and they sometimes even turned to black market deals to get their hands on the good stuff.

In 2022, the company blamed unprecedented droughts, and stopped production of the beloved sauce.

However, The Takeout notes that the company's main supplier of chili peppers, Underwood Ranches, may actually be to blame. That's because the two had a falling out in 2016, which led to the end of the partnership between the two companies. After that, Huy Fong was forced to look elsewhere for its peppers, and eventually turned to jalapeños from Mexico. This lead many people to stop using the sauce.

A Reddit user was surprised to find a bottle of green Huy Fong Sriracha on the shelf, and asked their followers for advice on what was going on with the company.

According to commenters, the different colored sauce was a product of the pepper change up. "The company claims they got more green peppers in their shipment and this changed the color of the final product without changing the quality (or something)," Redditor @charming-bad1869 wrote. "Don't know whether any of that is true."

As of 2023, David Tran and family is credited with owning the Huy Fong Sriracha company. Forbes has the company listed as being worth a billion dollars as of April, 4, 2024, with Tran being listed as both the founder and owner of the company.

Forbes also says that Sriracha is the third-largest U.S. hot sauce brand, following closely behind Frank's RedHot and Tabasco.