Over the last few years, though, Huy Fong fans have noticed that something is amiss inside their beloved green-topped bottle. Is it just their imaginations, or could Huy Fong really have changed its formula?
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00:00Hui Fong, the original Sriracha sauce, has been around for 30 years, although its seeming
00:04ubiquity and status as a cultural icon has only blossomed over the last decade.
00:09While the foodies and hipsters who first crowned Hui Fong Sriracha as the king of condiments
00:13back in 2013 had declared it dead just a few years later, it still has legions of dedicated
00:19enthusiasts who will accept no-knock-off Sriracha sauces, even those produced by the likes of
00:23Tabasco or Texas Pete.
00:25Over the last few years, though, Hui Fong fans have noticed that something is amiss
00:29inside their beloved green-topped bottle.
00:31Is it just their imaginations, or could Hui Fong really have changed its formula?
00:35You can rest easy.
00:36It really isn't you.
00:37It's them.
00:38They didn't want to, but they, and their iconic sauce, have changed, and we're all just going
00:42to have to get used to it.
00:43If you don't like my product, what happened with you, okay?
00:48Something wrong."
00:49When Hui Fong founder David Tran started the company, he needed to find a source of fresh
00:53red jalapeno peppers, which turned out to be surprisingly difficult to do.
00:57While jalapenos naturally ripen to the bright red color that gives Sriracha its distinctive
01:02hue, it is cheaper for farmers to harvest them early when they are still green.
01:06He was finally able to arrive at an exclusive red pepper production arrangement with Underwood
01:11Ranches, and as Hui Fong prospered, so did Underwood.
01:14By 2014, Underwood was producing 100 million pounds of peppers per year, and about 75 percent
01:20of their income came from Hui Fong.
01:22In 2016, all of this came to an abrupt halt.
01:26By arrangement, Hui Fong would prepay Underwood Ranches for each year's harvest so as to cover
01:30the production costs.
01:32But in the fall of 2016, Hui Fong demanded that Underwood Ranches repay over $1 million
01:38of what it claimed to have been an overpayment for that year's harvest.
01:41When Underwood disputed this charge, this put the two companies on such bad terms that
01:45they ceased their mutually beneficial business partnership, thus forcing Hui Fong to find
01:49a new source of peppers for its Sriracha.
01:51Wherever they are currently sourcing their jalapenos from, these peppers obviously don't
01:55taste exactly the same as the Underwood Ranches ones.
01:58This change alone is what has caused Hui Fong Sriracha to taste different now than it did
02:02just a few years ago.
02:03But the company has also had bigger problems.
02:06When Hui Fong took Underwood Ranches to court over what it claimed to have been a $1.46
02:11million overpayment, Underwood promptly countersued for the multiple millions worth of business
02:16they'd lost.
02:17According to Craig Underwood, who manages the family-owned pepper farm,
02:20The aftermath of the breakup has been really hard.
02:22All of a sudden, we had 1,700 acres and nothing to grow on it.
02:26In July 2019, the state of California finally determined that Underwood Ranches was the
02:30winner.
02:31The Los Angeles Times reported Underwood was awarded a $23.3 million settlement to be paid
02:36by Hui Fong Foods, although Hui Fong has vowed to appeal the verdict.
02:40As if this wasn't enough of a blow for Hui Fong, Underwood Ranches had already added
02:44insult to injury by developing their own version of Sriracha and marketing it with the slogan,
02:49The pepper makes the product.
02:50Ouch.
02:51I really like Sriracha.
02:54And I don't know if you heard, but they were thinking of closing the plant.
02:59And the hits just keep coming for poor Hui Fong.
03:01According to news outlets, an entire batch of their Sriracha distributed to Asia, Australia,
03:05New Zealand, and Europe was recalled due to the possibility that the bottles may explode
03:09upon opening.
03:10It seems this bad batch, which had a sell-by date of March 2021, contained an excess amount
03:15of lactic acid, which could continue to ferment in the bottles, causing an increase in pressure,
03:20which could lead to a Sriracha volcano once the cap is unscrewed.
03:24That's definitely not the kind of publicity a company needs or wants, especially with
03:28everything else going on.
03:29Looks like tough times for the poor old rooster, but we doubt Hui Fong's going to chicken out.
03:33Our prediction for the coming decade is that they will rebound and be as popular as ever,
03:37new peppers and all.
03:38Check it out.