On the day that the foundation of Craig Underwood’s business collapsed, he was on vacation—at the beach with his wife, daughters, and grandchildren in Hawaii.
It was November 2016, and the fourth-generation California farmer had just completed a perfect pepper harvest—another high point for a business, Underwood Ranches, that had grown exponentially over three decades on the strength of a single crop. As the sole supplier of the juicy red jalapeños for sriracha, Huy Fong Foods’ iconic fiery-red chili-garlic sauce, Underwood’s empire of peppers had spread from a 400-acre family farm in the 1980s to 3,000 acres across two counties outside Los Angeles.
Sriracha’s rise had by then become the stuff of business legend. That spicy, slightly sweet, good-on-everything sauce, in the instantly recognizable bottle with its white rooster emblem and bright green nozzle, was the brainchild of David Tran, who had first devised the recipe and sold the stuff in L.A. in 1980 as a Vietnamese refugee starting a new life for his family.
Tran’s business motto is “make product, and not profit,” but Huy Fong had become the No. 3 hot sauce brand in America—all as a private company, without selling even the smallest share to the country’s Big Food titans. At the time, Tran’s green-tipped bottles could be found in one in 10 American kitchens and on the International Space Station.
Boooo paywall
Meh. Get with the program, citizen. There are SO many options to choose from, you shouldn’t have any difficulty with paywalls et all these days, FFS.
Underwood Farms sells sauces on their website that are really good. I loved their Carolina gold sauce. As for Sriracha, Huy Fong brand was good but its peppers and garlic so it can be easily replicated. Other brands use different ratios, maybe add an ingredient here and there so some will be better than others.
It’s clearly not easily replicated. Like others here, I’ve tried numerous brands, and somehow they’re all comically, depressingly off-base.
Great article, thanks. It’s amazing they would choose to mutually lose so much money over a personal spat. RIP rooster sauce.
It looks like Underwood Ranch is making their own sriracha now, wonder if it tastes the same.
From the comments I saw on Reddit everytime this was posted, no, it doesn’t.
well so is it coming back ever? when?
It shows up at my local grocery store every now and then for the normal price. They still have the tag for it, with all the rest of the knock offs, but it does sell out quick when it comes in. I snagged a bottle a month or so ago, as none of the replacements scratch the same itch and my kids only like the real stuff.
I couldn’t find a good Sriracha knockoff, so I’ve been using Yellow Bird habanero sauce instead
If you’re in the states, also give Secret Aardvark a try. It’s not a Sriracha copy or anything but for me it really scratches that itch of a hot sauce that you really wanna squirt a lot of on anything. It’s fucking delicious.
Secret Aardvark got their start in Portland via guerrilla marketing: literally leaving full bottles on restaurant tables with the salt, sugar, jam, etc. after their meal. I noticed it happening at a small diner, but didn’t out them at the time — just asked the server if she’d seen the hot sauce before. “Nope. That’s not yours? Hunh. Is it any good?” From that point on, it kept popping up in more and more places until it was a local point of pride. Genius. 🤌🏼
Fellow Portlander here with tons of Secret Aardvark sauce in my fridge. I’ve never heard that. That’s brilliant.
Yeah they may have done that in Seattle too because I first noticed them randomly popping up on tables in small diner sorta spots around town when I was living there.
It definitely worked, I went home the first time I tried it and ordered multiple bottles and recommend it all the time. I live in the EU now and it’s harder to come by here but I did just find a site that sells it today so I am for sure ordering some.
My wife likes their blue agave sriracha, I think it’s OK but personally I like their serrano sauce. I think the flavors in the heat blend well with a wider variety of food.
Personally I don’t worry about the heat, because you can always use different amounts.
I have different hot sauces based on consistency. Like for a chili or on bread for a sandwich liquid is fine, but if I’m doing something in a tortilla then I need that Sriracha thickness, and Yellow Bird fits that niche.
