The Aldi Hot Sauce That's A Total Franks Red Hot Copycat

I am a very loyal Aldi shopper. It's my go-to grocery store and the first one I hit up on my weekly shopping trips. I'm even a member of the Aldi Aisle of Shame Community on Facebook. Despite my allegiance, I will say that there are some house products I've bought and never purchased again. It's rare, but certain brand-name items are just better than Aldi brands, in my humble opinion. 

For example, when it comes to steak sauce, A-1 brand is simply superior. And while Aldi's Clancy's brand white cheddar popcorn is super popular, I will deliberately spend more on the SmartFood brand any day. But some Aldi products are so close to the brands they're mimicking you might not notice the difference in a blind taste test. One such example is Burman's Original Cayenne Pepper Sauce, Aldi's dupe for Frank's Red Hot sauce.

Let's start with the shape of the bottle. Burman's 12-ounce bottle isn't an exact replica of Frank's, but it's pretty close. The labels, too, basically share the same color scheme. Outside of aesthetics, the flavor of Burman's is spicy, tangy, sharp, and thin with just enough thickness to coat a buffalo wing. In essence, it tastes just like Frank's. 

I've used it to coat air-fried chicken wings and in buffalo chicken dip (which is even tastier when you use rotisserie chicken). The ingredient lists of the two brands are very similar, though not identical. But when it comes to price point, the difference is stark. A 12-ounce bottle of Frank's was $3.64 at my local Walmart while the same size of Burman's was $1.65 at Aldi (on sale from $2.09).

When it comes to food products, opinions about whether brand A or B is better is subjective. But for the most part, if someone finds a less expensive item that tastes just like a more expensive name brand, they're going to at least consider making a permanent switch. Over 90% of products sold at Aldi are the company's own brands, so there are a lot of products to potentially compare to others. 

Burman's Hot Sauce is a great example of a product bearing an uncanny resemblance to a wider known brand, but it's not the only one of its kind at Aldi. From the company's L'oven Fresh Hawaiian Sweet Rolls (dupe for King's Hawaiian Rolls) to Girl Scout cookie look-alikes to Clancy's Kettle Chips (dupe for Kettle brand chips, but priced below $2 a pop), shoppers practically swear by the quality that Aldi brings to the table.

From personal experience, I've found that Aldi Countryside Creamery Pure Irish Butter is a dead-ringer for the Kerrygold brand. And several cereals, like its dupes for Frosted Mini Wheats, Honey Bunches of Oats, and Rice Krispies, are spot on when it comes to flavor. I can't say the same for Aldi's Honey Nut Cheerios imposter, though, and I believe Aldi's Savoritz Baked Cheese Crackers don't hold a candle to Cheez-Its. But, of course, others can and do disagree.