I thought I was crazy when I spent $40 for a small bottle of Oliveum Hot Sauce. In hindsight, that was nothing compared to the $200 I ended up spending for the “Oliveum Collector’s Box.” Get ready for my most detailed review yet on one of the world’s most expensive hot sauces.
How I Got Here
I’ve probably tried over 1,000 hot sauces at this point. Although I’ve been writing about more of the obscure sauces on this blog, I also enjoy the classics, Tabasco, Pete, Franks, Cholula. I’ve tasted expensive “collectible” sauces before, but I’m more interested in eating my sauce then decorating my house with it.
Around Christmas of 2024 I saw an ad for Oliveum Hot Sauce on Amazon. The small bottle was $40 (although I saved 20% at the time) and the marketing was over-the-top with beautiful pictures and outlandish claims like being “The World’s Best Hot Sauce.” I wasn’t excited to fall for this marketing, but of course I had to give it a try.
Presentation: As Pretty As The Pictures
Oliveum’s marketing is top notch and so is their packaging. Each bottle of Oliveum comes in a beautiful box that pulls out from the side to reveal the bottle. The bottle itself looks more like a perfume than a hot sauce bottle and has the brands logo embossed on the bottom. It’s hard to tell in photos, but the bottle is quite small, only 3.3oz. In comparison, an average bottle of hot sauce is 5oz. The mouth of the bottle is also very small, which is important because sauce is quite thin. The lid is actually made of real wood with a solid metal insert on the top. There’s no doubt the packaging was expensive to produce, but I’m more interested in the sauce itself.
The Flavor: Heat Meets Culinary Depth
Enough about packaging, what does Oliveum actually taste like? The aroma hits first—bright, sweet, citrus, with a depth that hints at something more than just vinegar and chilies.
I tasted the sauce directly out of a spoon first. I immediately was overwhelmed by one of the sharpest, brightest, and freshest tasting hot sauces I’ve ever tried. It’s a very vinegar forward sauce, and I personally love that, and it’s included lime adds a beautiful tang that is balanced out with a hint of sweetness (I assume from the oranges).
Although habaneros are the most abundant ingredient, it’s not extremely spicy. The heat has probably been tamed by the inclusion of both tomato and bell pepper.
Oliveum has a very unique flavor and I’m not going to be able to put it into words. If you don’t like vinegar heavy sauces, you probably won’t like Oliveum. For everyone else, you’re going to have to try it to understand what makes it so unique.
As I mentioned above, the sauce is thin. Some people will have a problem with that, I personally prefer it to the gummy texture of sauces thickend with Xanthan Gum. It’s
What to Eat It With? Let Me Count the Ways
If you’ve read any of my other reviews, you know I put hot sauce on everything and I put Oliveum on every meal until the bottle ran dry.
Of course most commoners use hot sauce on breakfast and I tried Oliveum on eggs, potatoes, sausage, grits, and toast (yes I’m weird). The spicy, tangy sauce is exactly what I look for in a sauce to enhance my breakfast.
For lunch I tried Oliveum on too many dishes to cover here but one of my favorite combinations was with pizza. Yes, I always put hot sauce on my pizza, but Oliveum might be my new favorite pairing.
For dinner Oliveum paired perfectly with chicken, steak, and veggies. One night I actually brought Oliveum with me to a fancy restaurant. Everyone at the table tried it with a range of different meals and all of them were in impressed.
Who’s Behind the Sauce?
I did a bit of digging and Oliveum Hot Sauce appears to be owned by a photographer named Lee Morris. Interestingly, Lee not only made the sauce, he also designed all of the marketing material, took all of the photographs and filmed the commercial himself.
Lee uploaded a video of himself shooting the image of his sauce for Amazon.
Who Would Pay $200 For Hot Sauce?
Ok, so you can probably tell I’m a huge fan of this hot sauce. I went to their website and learned that Lee, the owner cooks, bottles, and ships larger 12oz bottles directly to customers. These “Collector’s Boxes” come in a different, even fancier looking box, and come with a signed and dated card, as well as a metal pourer. I had to try it.
The Oliveum Collector’s Box sells for $200 but after a 30% coupon code, I paid $140 for this bottle. This was by far the most expensive hot sauce I’ve ever purchased, but interestingly, the cost/ounce was almost the exact same for both bottles at $12/ounce.
When the bottle arrived it was seal with a cork and blue wax. I removed both, added the metal pourer, and slowly poured the sauce into a spoon.
I was pleasantly surprised that this sauce was similar to the smaller bottle, but definitely not same.
Oliveum Hot Sauce Vs The Oliveum Collector’s Box
I was able to try them both back to back and they are different. Everything that I loved about the original smaller bottle was ramped up even more in the Collector’s Box. The larger bottle tasted even brighter and tangier than the original. In comparison, I tasted a hint of aged or habaneros in the smaller bottle where habanero flavor in the Collector’s Box tasted extremely fresh, almost raw.
I let a few friends try both sauces, four of them (and myself) prefered the exaggerated flavor from the Collector’s Box, but one of my friends preferred the smaller bottle which he claimed was “more complex.”
Final Thoughts
Oliveum is not your everyday hot sauce. At $40 a bottle it can’t be. For someone like me who eats it with every meal, this little bottle will only last a few days and that can get expensive fast. For the average person who might use hot sauce once a week, the bottle will probably last you months, and the price might be a bit easier to swallow.
I absolutely love Oliveum Hot Sauce, and although I can’t afford to put it on every meal, it has become one of my favorite hot sauces, and I will always have a bottle in the house for special occasions.
If you like hot sauce, you’ve got to give Oliveum a try. It has definitely lived up to the hype.
Sauce Critic 
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