What Is Valentina Hot Sauce And Why Is It So Popular Among Spice Lovers?

In the not too distant past, eating spicy food was not necessarily common among U.S. consumers. But now, thanks to the millions of immigrants from cultures where hot and spicy food is an everyday necessity, adding chile heat to our everyday meals is now commonplace. Just go to any supermarket these days and you'll find a wide selection of bottled hot sauces, in every heat level, that go beyond the standard Tabasco. One of the most popular bottled hot sauces is Mexico's Salsa Valentina, which a Reddit post labeled as "the Pabst Blue Ribbon of hot sauce." 

There are many reasons for its popularity. Valentina is very flavorful, with a mild, pleasant heat that keeps you coming back for more, making it super versatile to add a piquant hint to anything and everything beyond Mexican food. It is similar in texture and spice level to Cholula, but with a thicker consistency than most vinegar-based bottled hot sauces, so it sticks to things like fries and chips much better. In Mexico, it is the go-to sauce for snacks such as chicharrones, and no fruit cup street stand worth its weight in salt would be caught without it.

Salsa Valentina was founded in 1960 in Tamazula, in the Mexican state of Jalisco. The sauce was originally named after the city and the company that created it, Grupo Tamazula, but it was later changed to Valentina in honor of Valentina Ramírez Avitia, a female soldier who joined the Maderista troops during the Mexican Revolution while only 17 years old. 

Unlike Cholula, which comes in many different flavors, Valentina only comes in two versions: the original yellow label and a black label, which is hotter. The original is made with chile puya, which is similar to guajillo and widely used in Mexico's west coast states of Jalisco, Nayarit, and Sinaloa. Valentina black label uses chile de arbol, which is notoriously hotter. There is a wide variety of chiles in Mexico, each with its own flavor and heat characteristics. Puya is a dry, brick red chile which is medium hot but flavorful, with hints of fruit and smoke.

In Mexico, Salsa Valentina it is typically used to add a spicy punch to pizzas, hamburgers, hot dogs, or to season snacks such as fries and chips, as well as popular street food like the aforementioned fruit cups and elotes. It is commonly found in seafood restaurants, and it is excellent to spice up a shrimp cocktail or add a dash to season your michelada. Next time you see Salsa Valentina on the shelf, give it a try; you might just find your new favorite bottled heat.