For months, Chipotle loyalists have been questioning online whether the fast-casual chain has increased the spice levels of their hottest salsa option: the Tomatillo-Red Chili Salsa.
On Reddit, in the r/Chipotle thread, users have debated for more than a year whether the beloved brand ‘change[d] the hottest sauce recipe?’
TikTok users have also made a number of videos questioning the suddenly-much-hotter sauce. One user said the new sauce was so spicy as to render the food it touches ‘inedible.’
While some users were pleased with the apparent uptick on the spice-meter, other users find the new tingle to be unbearable hot.

Loyalists believe the beloved chain pumped up the heat its spiciest hot sauce, to the surprise and delight of some, and horror of others
One woman, who spoke to the Wall Street Journal about the allegedly hotter sauce, said she, at first, thought it was all in his head.
‘I thought maybe it was just in my head and it was always that spicy and maybe I was just being a wimp, I guess. I was like, maybe I can’t handle hot salsa anymore,’ said Jordan Strickland. ‘I think they should go back to the way it was. It was spicy enough.’
Others disagree and have told the haters to opt for a less spicy option if they’re dissatisfied with the new kick.
‘It’s called hot salsa. If you can’t handle it, get the medium,’ said Jordan Black.
Back in December of 2022, Kristi Howard posted a video of herself eating Chipotle tacos with the spicy sauce that she swore had recently grown hotter.
The user Sophia then responded to her video saying she used ‘to drench her Chipotle in the red sauce,’ but now says she can’t even stomach a tiny bit of the sauce on a lone chip.
‘That thing is not edible for the regular person. It should be a hot sauce challenge kind of hot sauce,’ she said.
On the 50,000 strong r/Chipotle reddit thread, users for months have speculated about the reality of their favorite sauce getting spicier.
Whereas one user enjoyed the change, writing: ‘I Get Chipotle about once a week, and I had this exact same experience a few days ago. I even submitted an online survey to say, ‘this is awesome, I hope you keep it spicy like this.”
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Other users, however, had less enthusiastic responses: ‘I’m eating the red sauce now. For the second time it has been incredibly hot. Way hotter than before. I’m dying.’
Among the heard of loyalists, some visit the restaurant multiple times a week to purchase the same bowl, burrito, or other menu offering. They believe they know the flavor profile of their favorite meal to a t.
Any change, then, is a noticeable one, including a much hotter hot sauce drizzled across their food.

One TikToker jokes that the spicy sauce is now so much hotter than it once was that she has to carefully moderate the amount that lands on her food

A Wall Street Journal analysis found that the chain’s red sauce was, on the upper end of it Scoville unit test, spicier than some of the hottest brand name hot sauces out there
The Wall Street Journal sent samples of the chain’s hot sauce to a lab in New Mexico that tested the Scoville units of chile peppers, hot sauces and salsas.
Scoville Heat Units, which measure spiciness, range from zero to more than 2million.
Samples from across the country were submitted and the lab determined that the Scoville units ranged from 2,730 to 3,420.
The higher end of that range, according to the outlet, is hotter than some popular hot sauce brands that are known to be on the spicier end of the most commonly purchased brands – including Cholula, Tapatío and Sriracha.
What the brand ultimately discovered was that some of the chiles it gets from certain regions of India had a bit more of a kick to them this season than in years past.
The company has repeatedly said that it did not alter its recipe for the hot sauce, but has continued to monitor its chile mix.