Take a deep breath, Sriracha lovers—trying times may shortly be upon you. Those ubiquitous bottles of the widely beloved hot sauce may soon be in short supply, according to a new message from Huy Fong Foods, which has been a major manufacturer of its own brand of the condiment for decades. The company tells Axios that a chile pepper shortage is "affecting our production supply" of Sriracha, mainly because Mexico, where it gets the bulk of its peppers from, is in the midst of a major drought.
In a letter to customers in mid-April, Huy Fong noted that any orders for its Sriracha sauce and other products submitted after that point won't be fulfilled until after Labor Day, in the order that the orders are received. The company confirmed to Axios that it hopes to "resume production as normal" in the fall; Axios poked around the internet and found that people are indeed starting to have trouble finding the hot sauce, or are discovering that there are limits to the number of bottles they can pick up.
Consumers aren't taking the news well, with some hyperbolically calling it the "worst news of the year" and "the end of days," per Bloomberg. "This is what fear looks like in a sriracha shortage," one aficionado lamented on Twitter, showing a shopping cart filled with Sriracha bottles. If you're already going through withdrawal, the Takeout offers a few alternatives to the Huy Fong brand of hot sauce to get you through this tough spot. (Across America, a more serious shortage is wreaking havoc.)
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