Salty: ⭐✰✰✰✰
Sour/Tangy: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✰
Sweet: ⭐✰✰✰✰
Umami: ⭐⭐✰✰✰
Heat: ⭐✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰
Quick Flavor Notes: Tart, earthy, fresh, Indian, sour
Recommended: Yes
Texture: Thin and watery with some bits of herbs inside
Ingredients: Lemon Juice, Water, Cilantro, Raw Sugar, Olive Oil, Green Chili Peppers, Spices, Salt, Curry Leaves, Mint Leaves, Chili Powder, Turmeric
My Spice Buds, based out of Wesley Chapel, FL near Tampa, is a family-run hot sauce company. This is their original sauce which has a recipe dating back over 50 years. Dr. Balasa Prasad, then a teenager in India, created the recipe for himself and his cricket buddies, the sauce eventually becoming a family tradition. His daughter Bindu Grandhi now runs the company along with her husband and parents. I first tasted this sauce at the 2025 Pinellas Pepper Fest where it was part of a lineup guests could vote on for Best of Show. After my first taste I knew I had to go buy a bottle so I sought out their booth. Apparently I wasn’t the only one impressed as this sauce also one first place in the 2026 Scovie Awards in the verde sauce category.
When it comes to ingredients one of the most notable things is what is missing – this sauce is vinegar free. Instead it relies on lemon juice for its acidity. Beyond that we see Indian herbs and spices used in abundance here with cilantro, mint, turmeric, and curry leaves. Curry leaves are an ingredient I can’t recall seeing in an hot sauce before. They’re the leaves of the curry tree which is a member of the citrus family and native to India and Southeast Asia. The leaves themselves have an earthy and citrusy flavor and are used in a variety of Indian dishes. The green chilies in this sauce are where the “mirchi” part of the name comes from, mirchi being the Hindi word for chiles. This sauce also contains various Indian spices some of which being cumin, coriander seed, and turmeric. Coriander seed, which has an aromatic warm and citrusy flavor, is actually the seed from which cilantro grows (and the reason the British call cilantro coriander). Olive oil for some added richness and turmeric for earthiness round it out. The consistency of this sauce is very thin but there are some obvious bits of leaves and herbs inside. The aroma is tart and reminiscent of Indian cuisine.
Super Mirchi has a flavor that at once tasted exotic and familiar on the first try. One of my favorite Indian chutneys is the cilantro mint chutney, it’s a must for me to get (along with the onion chutney and raita) whenever I order Indian food. This does have flavors that remind me of that, which makes sense with cilantro and mint being key ingredients, but it also goes beyond that. It took me a bit to put my finger on it but this has a flavor that’s very close to achar, or Indian pickles. I believe it’s the lemon juice combined with the turmeric and curry leaves that’s giving me that vibe. If you haven’t had the chance to try Indian achar they’re simultaneously earthy and tangy with an almost metallic (in a good way) flavor along with a bit of funk, they’re quite different from any other pickles out there. My Spice Buds Super Mirchi has freshness from the cilantro, mint, and green chiles, earthiness from the turmeric, curry leaves, and cumin, and citrusy notes from the curry leaves, coriander seed, and lemon juice. It’s bright, earthy, tangy, sour, and fresh tasting all at once. Freshness is something I have to have in a verde sauce and this one delivers on that, especially impressive as cilantro is an herb that often comes across as muted or spoiled in many hot sauces. My only real complaint with this sauce is how thin it is. I don’t typically mind a thin sauce but this one is quite watery in texture if not in flavor. In terms of heat this is on the mild side, I’d say warm rather than hot, with no lingering burn at all, but you can tell chilies are used.
With strong Indian flavors this sauce isn’t as universal as some. I did very much enjoy this with a chicken salad sandwich, and chicken salad with Indian flavors is always a good time. I also thought this worked very well with wings though it does need some butter added for a wing sauce to make it adhere since it’s watery on its own. I succumbed to the temptation to buy a large tray of shrimp at Costco and found this to be great as a dip for them, the freshness of the sauce is a perfect pairing with seafood.
My Spice Buds Super Mirchi gets my recommendation. It’s unique in flavor, I can’t recall a hot sauce I’ve ever had with these same flavors, and I love the story of this being a recipe that’s traveled from India and been a family secret for decades. My only real complaint is how runny it is, but that just means it takes some planning on how you put it on things. Being vinegar free is a nice bullet point for those who are very sensitive to the flavor of vinegar. This sauce is also all natural with no artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, or thickeners.
by MagnusAlbusPater
1 Comment
Salty: ⭐✰✰✰✰
Sour/Tangy: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✰
Sweet: ⭐✰✰✰✰
Umami: ⭐⭐✰✰✰
Heat: ⭐✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰
Quick Flavor Notes: Tart, earthy, fresh, Indian, sour
Recommended: Yes
Texture: Thin and watery with some bits of herbs inside
Ingredients: Lemon Juice, Water, Cilantro, Raw Sugar, Olive Oil, Green Chili Peppers, Spices, Salt, Curry Leaves, Mint Leaves, Chili Powder, Turmeric
My Spice Buds, based out of Wesley Chapel, FL near Tampa, is a family-run hot sauce company. This is their original sauce which has a recipe dating back over 50 years. Dr. Balasa Prasad, then a teenager in India, created the recipe for himself and his cricket buddies, the sauce eventually becoming a family tradition. His daughter Bindu Grandhi now runs the company along with her husband and parents. I first tasted this sauce at the 2025 Pinellas Pepper Fest where it was part of a lineup guests could vote on for Best of Show. After my first taste I knew I had to go buy a bottle so I sought out their booth. Apparently I wasn’t the only one impressed as this sauce also one first place in the 2026 Scovie Awards in the verde sauce category.
When it comes to ingredients one of the most notable things is what is missing – this sauce is vinegar free. Instead it relies on lemon juice for its acidity. Beyond that we see Indian herbs and spices used in abundance here with cilantro, mint, turmeric, and curry leaves. Curry leaves are an ingredient I can’t recall seeing in an hot sauce before. They’re the leaves of the curry tree which is a member of the citrus family and native to India and Southeast Asia. The leaves themselves have an earthy and citrusy flavor and are used in a variety of Indian dishes. The green chilies in this sauce are where the “mirchi” part of the name comes from, mirchi being the Hindi word for chiles. This sauce also contains various Indian spices some of which being cumin, coriander seed, and turmeric. Coriander seed, which has an aromatic warm and citrusy flavor, is actually the seed from which cilantro grows (and the reason the British call cilantro coriander). Olive oil for some added richness and turmeric for earthiness round it out. The consistency of this sauce is very thin but there are some obvious bits of leaves and herbs inside. The aroma is tart and reminiscent of Indian cuisine.
Super Mirchi has a flavor that at once tasted exotic and familiar on the first try. One of my favorite Indian chutneys is the cilantro mint chutney, it’s a must for me to get (along with the onion chutney and raita) whenever I order Indian food. This does have flavors that remind me of that, which makes sense with cilantro and mint being key ingredients, but it also goes beyond that. It took me a bit to put my finger on it but this has a flavor that’s very close to achar, or Indian pickles. I believe it’s the lemon juice combined with the turmeric and curry leaves that’s giving me that vibe. If you haven’t had the chance to try Indian achar they’re simultaneously earthy and tangy with an almost metallic (in a good way) flavor along with a bit of funk, they’re quite different from any other pickles out there. My Spice Buds Super Mirchi has freshness from the cilantro, mint, and green chiles, earthiness from the turmeric, curry leaves, and cumin, and citrusy notes from the curry leaves, coriander seed, and lemon juice. It’s bright, earthy, tangy, sour, and fresh tasting all at once. Freshness is something I have to have in a verde sauce and this one delivers on that, especially impressive as cilantro is an herb that often comes across as muted or spoiled in many hot sauces. My only real complaint with this sauce is how thin it is. I don’t typically mind a thin sauce but this one is quite watery in texture if not in flavor. In terms of heat this is on the mild side, I’d say warm rather than hot, with no lingering burn at all, but you can tell chilies are used.
With strong Indian flavors this sauce isn’t as universal as some. I did very much enjoy this with a chicken salad sandwich, and chicken salad with Indian flavors is always a good time. I also thought this worked very well with wings though it does need some butter added for a wing sauce to make it adhere since it’s watery on its own. I succumbed to the temptation to buy a large tray of shrimp at Costco and found this to be great as a dip for them, the freshness of the sauce is a perfect pairing with seafood.
My Spice Buds Super Mirchi gets my recommendation. It’s unique in flavor, I can’t recall a hot sauce I’ve ever had with these same flavors, and I love the story of this being a recipe that’s traveled from India and been a family secret for decades. My only real complaint is how runny it is, but that just means it takes some planning on how you put it on things. Being vinegar free is a nice bullet point for those who are very sensitive to the flavor of vinegar. This sauce is also all natural with no artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, or thickeners.