There’s a lot of ways folks make themselves feel more ALIVE.  Maybe it’s something incredibly painful, like training for a marathon.  Or maybe it’s something risky, like skydiving or running away from bulls?  These sorts of things have never held much appeal for me.  I mean, I haven’t ever felt much thrill in risking my life, especially after meeting a really handsome life copilot and creating small humans that depend on me and I’m rather fond of.  And I’ve never found long-distance running to be much fun.  Give me a nice 5K and I feel challenged enough.  Anyway, I digress.  

There have been challenging times when I really needed to get out of my head and into my body.  Grad school was one, when I took up dancing.  And then of course, there’s the year 2020 and beyond, when the world became an even scarier place and every day felt very much the same.  This time around, my weapon of choice to wake myself up, to feel alive on a daily basis, was to start getting into hot sauce.
It’s not a very revolutionary or shocking idea.  I get it.  Stick with me though.  If mindfulness is a thing that’s good for you, then the right hot sauce will shake you out of your stupor and focus on how much you need a glass of milk.  If you work through anxious thoughts by noting how your body is experiencing your world through the 5 senses, then a slow-building pepper sauce will encourage you to note just how much heat you can stand until you start to sweat.  Exploring hot sauce as a mindfulness technique is what I’m talking about here.  And the bonus is that it’s a delicious technique that will help you learn your limits, and sometimes take a punch and get back up again.  I’m thinking it’s sort of like Fight Club for your tastebuds, minus the black eyes and cults.  

But please, do not jump off the deep end here.  Super-spicy hot sauces are truly punishing and potentially dangerous depending on your health condition.  I’d encourage you to start with “mild” hot sauces and work your way up charts over time.  For sure there are a great diversity of mild hot sauces, with plenty of options for exploring your favorite flavor profile.  Do you like sweet and spicy?  Smoky?  Vinegar’s punch or mustard’s tang?  This is all about you and your palate.  

I started at what I’d consider a mild-medium hot sauce tolerance, and over a couple of weeks I’ve found myself creeping up into Heatonist’s “Medium” category more and more.  I like to consider how good a given hot sauce is on eggs, pierogies, and soup–if I do some reviews in the future please expect these to be specific criteria I’ll call out for a given sauce.  Look, this world is scary sometimes, and it’s nice to give yourself a way to get your heart pumping that is fully in your control.  I’ll leave the skydiving to others.  Give me eggs with hot sauce, and a lovely dark-brew coffee with cream to take the edge off, and I’m a happier human.  

Where are my hot sauce peeps out there?  What are you trying these days?  Right now I’m living for Queen Majesty Red Habenero & Black Coffee.  https://heatonist.com/products/queen-majesty-red-habanero-black-coffee?variant=378299973641