Has Huy Fong Sriracha changed color?
Saw a bunch of bottles at the store today, but instead of their usual brick-red color, the sauce was almost brown. I checked the expiration dates on a few bottles – the date was June of 2026 (or there abouts, don’t remember the exact date), so they weren’t expired. Anyone know if these Sriracha bottles are unusual, or is Sriracha brown now?
My understanding is that there is always color variation because they don’t color their sauces with food coloring, and as a result, the sauces made at the beginning of harvest season will have a different color than the sauces made at the end of harvest season.
But also they no longer use the same chili due to greed, so that may not apply anymore
they don’t color their sauces with food coloring
Ah. Good to know. That might explain it. I’ve just never seen this shade in Sriracha before.
I do know that they had problems with their pepper suppliers due to corporate greed. Perhaps they’re using a different pepper now.
I stopped buying it when they tried selling bottles for $10 during the shortage. Switched completely to lao gan ma and have no regrats.
Regratulations!
It varies. It also turns brown naturally if exposed to air for too long, though, so hopefully it’s not that. My dad would leave it in the cupboard still open and it turned brown in no time— but in a store, they better not be opened!
Huy Fong has had production issues for a while now that may have impacted the color, but not the flavor or the quality.
https://6amcity.com/culture/sriracha-shortage-2024
https://www.foodandwine.com/huy-fong-sriracha-sauce-shortage-2024-8645753
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/sriracha-sauce-shortage-pepper-drought/
I’ve been told the Kikkoman Sriracha is a good substitute, but I haven’t personally tried it. I just wanted an excuse to drop the Kikkoman video:
I bought some about three weeks back and it was its regular color.
Huy Fong has halted production for the summer because the peppers were not ripe enough. Some of the bottles will be more brown because the red/green of the pepper. It’s not a bad product, they just had underripe product this season. If you love Sriracha, buy it now because last year (2023) they said they were suspending until the fall and it ended up being 9 months, not 3.
