What is Sriracha: A tale of two sauces

Sriracha [sir-RAH-cha] is good on just about everything, from morning eggs and salads to steak, random snacks, soups, and veggie burgers too. But what is Sriracha, really? Let's take a look at the traditional condiment versus the fermented kind we make.

ORIGINS & INGREDIENTS

Traditional Sriracha has its origins rooted in Thai cuisine. Its signature recipe combines chili peppers, distilled vinegar, garlic, sugar, and salt to create a spicy-saucy-paste that will kick any meal up a notch with a couple of audible squirts. You know the sound. Our Sriracha is humbly rooted in Santa Rosa, California, which is really not as exciting as Thailand, but hey. The recipe starts with the fermented solids from our other fermented products. Depending on whether we are making the Spicy Kimchi version or the Smoky Jalapeño, we add diced garlic, green onion, sea veggies, and salt to either Gochujang Chilies or Fresno peppers… all in deliciously secret proportions, of course. Next, we seal it all up and let natural fermentation do what it does best - elevate health and flavor profiles - puree, bottle, and bam!

HEALTH BENEFITS

While delicious, the downside to traditional Sriracha is that it contains 1 gram of sugar and 100 milligrams of salt per teaspoon. Initially this may not sound like a lot, if you think about how long you spend squirting that red stuff into your ramen - it adds up pretty fast. On a positive note, the spicy red peppers in your traditional ’racha contain capsaicin, which is said to boost metabolism. In our version, we swap the vinegar for a helping of sea-salt and leave the sugar out completely.

Both of our Sriracha flavors individually contain 35 to 60 billion colony-forming units (CFU's) per bottle. For reference, for a product to even be considered a probiotic it only needs 1 billion CFU's per bottle. 60 billion

of those gut-loving lactobacilli ensures that this Sriracha is more than able to keep your microbiome well-balanced and powerful. Additionally, fermented foods, as a whole, are jam packed with vitamin C, K, iron, calcium, and potassium too. Winner!

SO WHAT IS SRIRACHA, REALLY?

At its core, Sriracha is a delicious and versatile chili-based sauce. Seriously, you can squirt it on your cornbread, sushi, mac & cheese, tacos, wraps, and more. When it comes to flavor, both the traditional and fermented are great; when it comes to health, there is a bit of a gap. But really, we aren’t trying to take the place of a classic. We've created our own lane - it's actually in the refrigerated fermented foods section. If you're curious, find us there.