A Tale of Two Srirachas

Sriracha certainly has become the "It" condiment lately. From being in the news on the verge of being shut down, to home cooks coming up with emergency recipes to make your own, seems like I'm seeing sriracha, or "rooster sauce", everywhere. The Chef loves the stuff. He puts it on everything I swear. Without sriracha, Dragon Noodles would be just........noodles. No spicy mayo for my sushi or my Asian slaw for burgers. What a dull and ketchupy place this would be.

A while ago I happened upon a Kickstarter campaign for a new product and it really peaked my interest.  A few student athletes from Colorado Mesa University were partnering with a local business person to creat a new, fresh and all natural sriracha sauce. No processed sugar, no preservatives, but tons of flavor. They chose to raise money via Kickstarter, a popular crowdfunding resource for entrepreneurs, and had no problem reaching their goal. 

Photo courtesy of RMS's Kickstarter campaign.

Fast forward to production- the initial fund raising drive allowed the students to join a business incubator in Grand Junction with a commercial kitchen, and off they go. They wisely made use of local ingredients such as organic garlic from the Hobbs Family Farm in Avondale, rare Fresno peppers, organic agave nectar and natural sea salt to create their version of sriracha sauce. They also made their sauce more unique with the addition of 100% organic turmeric, cumin and rosemary. I had no idea these spices were in sriracha sauce!

And how does it compare? First off, let's talk about the original Rooster sauce. It's pungent. Smooth. Vinegary. Hot. The vinegar taste is apparent immediately and the heat quickly takes over. It's obviously blended and strained as it's very very smooth. It's good. It's familiar.

Rocky Mountain on the left, Rooster on the right.

Then I tasted the Rocky Mountain Sriracha. What a refreshing change! Now, if you want sriracha strictly for heat, this is not going to be your go-to sauce, but if you want great fresh pepper flavor, more of a chunky consistency with bits of pepper and seeds throughout, less vinegar and more pepper flavor this is the sauce for you. It's not as hot as the other sriracha but it more than makes up for less heat with better flavor. This stuff is amazing. AAAAAAmazing.

You can get your own Rocky Mountain Sriracha by clicking HERE. I highly recommend you try it. I'd also like to mention that a portion of their proceeds are donated to charity, so that makes me appreciate what these guys are doing even more.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 55: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."