Life

This Truffle Hot Sauce Is So Instagrammy That Celebs Can't Stop Posting About It

by Lia Beck

If you're a hot sauce person, then you've already got your favorite. Crystal. Tapatío. Frank's. Hot sauce people know what they like and why they like it. But, even if you have your fave, you're still probably open to at least testing other hot sauces, and a relatively new hot sauce called Truff will either really intrigue you or you'll decide here and now that you never want to try it.

That's because Truff is quite exclusive — at least exclusive as far as hot sauce goes. As Foodbeast reports, Truff is an "it" hot sauce enjoyed by celebrity chefs and rapper Pusha T. The publication spoke with the founders of Truff, Nick Guillen and Nick Ajluni, and they want to keep it that way. Ajluni told Foodbeast, "We turn down a lot of stores. We accept the ones that we think fit our vision and our brand and where our product would do well ... We’re just very selective and we hope to continue that with our product line if we add future items."

As for what the sauce itself is like, it contains black truffles, as you might have guessed from the name. According to the Truff site, it's "a curated blend of ripe chili peppers, organic agave nectar, black truffle, and savory spices." Foodbeast reports that the consistency "isn’t watery, and is thick enough to ensure a perfect drizzle that is aesthetically pleasing for Instagram." Lycopene, which is what gives tomatoes their red color, is used to enhance the redness of Truff.

One of Truff's big focuses is its branding. The bottle is simple and sleek, and the geode-like cap is inspired by a truffle. "No one has really approached a bottle of hot sauce as something that could be eye-catching or elevated," the founders told Highsnobiety. "More importantly, we felt that the sauce that we were presenting to the world deserved to be delivered in an extremely elegant way."

The brand also has a snazzy Instagram handle, @sauce (yes, just @sauce), where its 27K followers can check out pictures of Truff dripping down food items including mozzarella sticks, breakfast sandwiches, and dumplings. "Nick Guillen was always an avid Instagram hustler and came across [@sauce's] availability a few years ago," Guillen and Ajluni told Highsnobiety. "The exact details are something we consider a trade secret but we will say that it was one of the original inspirations for creating TRUFF in the first place."

But while Truff is an "elevated" hot sauce, it's not so fancy that it has some exorbitant price point that only the super wealthy can afford. Truff goes for $15 a bottle on the company's website (so, still pricer than most hot sauces) and it has a ton of positive reviews. It is also available in select specialty stores and higher-end grocery chains like Dean & Deluca.

Now that you know about Truff, are you craving truffle-infused hot sauce and a $15 splurge, or do you just feel closer to your beloved $3 Cholula? Either reaction is totally understandable.