Sauce – How to balance the bitterness of Habanero peppers

There are a few things that might work. I would probably just add more seeds. The majority of the capsaicin where the heat comes from is in the seeds, while the majority of the flavor is in the flesh. You could just add some seeds from a hot pepper like habanero or cayenne or even more jalapeno seeds.

You could also add some chili pepper that has heat but not a lot of flavor. Some examples include cayenne and chile de arbol. Thai bird and african bird chiles are hot and also don't have a ton of flavor in my opinion.

Another option is to try a chili extract. For example, a habenero extract will have some flavor, but a small amount will add an enormous amount of heat. So you may be able to get away with an amount small enough not to add much flavor, while at the same time kicking up your heat to the desired level.

Personally I like habenero, esp in El Yucateco sauce, which I often add straight to hot sauces.

I am Adrienne Fay, Merchandise Manager for Hot Licks, Maker of Suicide and XXX.
I just discovered this post. Unfortunately even I can not give you the Scoville rating because we have never had our sauce rated on the Scoville scale for two reasons:

1. The rating system is intended for peppers and even two peppers on the same vine will have two different ratings.
2. Everyone's perception of hot is different. So for some people,even a drop of Suicide sauce will destroy them, where some customers buy the product by the case load.

Most companies will estimate the Scoville rating by ingredients we know, but frankly we just set out to make a sauce with capsaicin extract that had flavor. Hopefully you find the taste and heat level to your liking.

If you have any further inquiries you can email me at adrienne@2hotlicks.com