The Thai hot sauce has been on the rise in the last few years without even a shred of advertising or even a marketing strategy other than letting word-by-mouth do its magic - so, as everyone puts their teeth to the delicious hot sauce, here are some 5 Sriracha facts you will absolutely love!
1. Fact: Sriracha is pronounced see-rot-cha; rolling the R for the best possible pronunciation. As it's a Thai word (the sauce is named in honor of Sri Racha, a coastal town southeast of Bangkok, Thailand where a woman named Thanom Chakkapak invented the popular sauce), the pronunciation is a little tricky in English; however, it's really all about ignoring the first R and just going with it!
2. Fact: Sriracha's famous logo, the rooster, has a close affiliation to the history of the man who brought the hot sauce to the United States. David Tran, a Vietnamese man with Chinese heritage, took the logo from his year of birth: the rooster is his Chinese zodiac sign. His company, Huy Fong Foods, also has a name close to his heart: the ship that carried Tran to the United States from Vietnam (an old Panamanian freighter) in 1978.
3. Fact: Sriracha's Internet popularity came largely from an inspired wave of comics by Matthew Inman, the creator of a famous webcomic called The Oatmeal. These went from odes of love to a quiz of "how addicted to Sriracha are you?" He also has an entire Sriracha section in his website's gift shop, even going so far as to selling a lip balm flavored like the hot sauce.
4. Fact: Sriracha has only one jalapeño provider: Underwood Ranches in Amarillo, California. The company grows around 48,000 tons of chili peppers a year - enough to keep hot sauce lovers satisfied!
5. Fact: Bon Apetit magazine declared the Sriracha Hot Sauce the "Ingredient of the Year" in 2010 - and even created a "Sriracha Week" in 2013! You can celebrate it in the first week of May.
