Seemingly overnight a new light pink sauce made by a small business exploded on TikTok. The $20 sauce is now mired in controversy, but part of the marketability of the sauce is its shocking color, which looks like Pepto Bismal. The hue is unappetizing, but that’s part of the allure. It’s a mystery sauce and even the creator has a hard time describing the flavor.
The sauce is made by creator @chef.pii on TikTok (Carly Pii on YouTube,) who used to own a restaurant called Flavor Crazy in Miami that served the sauce. Flavor Crazy Inc. is also the name of her company that produces the sauce.
The pink color of the sauce comes from dragon fruit, not food coloring, and Carly Pii says she has a special connection to dragon fruit. She credits dragon fruit with giving her relief from anxiety. She says color of the product has changed from a dark pink to a lighter pink based on customer feedback.
Below is a photo of the original darker pink sauce drizzled on some lamb chops in a Door Dash menu for the now-defunct Flavor Crazy restaurant.
So, what does Pink Sauce taste like?
Oddly enough, Chef Pii says she can’t really describe what it tastes like, although she has said it’s like the mayonnaise-based Yum Yum sauce in that it’s spicy, but also tangy. Creators who have tried the sauce have trouble describing the taste too, but it does seem to have a ranch dressing base.
There is an image on thepinksauce.com that shows some of the flavors in the sauce: dragonfruit (called pitaya,) sunflower seed oil, chili, honey, and garlic.
The ingredients list printed on the bottles reads as follows:
“Water
Sunflower Seed Oil
Raw Honey
Distilled Vinegar
Garlic
Pitaya (dragonfruit)
Pink Himalayan Sea Salt
Less than 2% of:
Dried Spices
Lemon Juice
Milk
Citric Acid”
It has arrived to some customers in a chunky consistency, but it usually looks very watery in reviews.
@chrissamone struggled to say what it tastes like. “It’s really good, but I really hate how runny it is,” she says. “It literally tastes like a sweet ranch with a dash of seasoned salt. But it’s good though. It’s weird.”
@chrissamone Not $20 worth but it literally taste like sweet ranch! 4/10! I have a extra bottle if anyone wants it! #ShowUrGrillSkillz #pinksauce #pinksaucereview #mukbang #viral #trending
@chrissamone says she wouldn’t buy it again, mostly because it is so watery.
@jade.amberrrrr also describes it as “good.” She says she wouldn’t buy it again because of the price and the fact that it tastes so familiar. Still, it’s unique enough that she can’t pinpoint what it is. She says it’s a lot more buttery than ranch. She also compares it to a seafood boil when a bunch of different sauces combine together.
@jade.amberrrrr Reply to @useranderson27 IG: jadeamberrrr
Struggling to find how to describe the taste, @jade.amberrrrr says it reminds her of a sweet version of the blackened ranch from PopeEye’s. She didn’t mention the watery consistency, but it’s visible in her video how watery the sauce is.
In another video, @jade.amberrrrr attempts to recreate the sauce with ranch, Italian dressing, seasoning salt, cayenne pepper, and honey, but it didn’t taste like the pink sauce. She says that she would keep using it on her food. She says people say she’s being paid to make these videos, but she says she bought the $20 bottle with her own money.
Is the pink sauce FDA approved?
During a livestream on YouTube, Chef Pii revealed that the sauce is made in an FDA-approved commercial kitchen. The sauce itself, however, is not currently FDA approved. It is going through testing at the moment.
“Yes, we are following FDA standard,” Chef Carly Pii said in her Thursday (July 21, 2022) livestream, “we are currently in lab testing, so once we go through lab testing, we will be able to pitch to stores, to put the Pink Sauce in stores.”
However, Chef Pii seems to have a misunderstanding about what the FDA is. “What do you mean, ‘FDA approved’?” she said in the livestream “I don’t sell medical products. The Pink Sauce is not a medical product. The Pink Sauce don’t contribute to your health.” Of course, if you consume pink sauce and it makes you sick, it might negatively affect your health, which is why people are concerned about how pink sauce is made and bottled.
A lot of dressing and condiments are sold “shelf-stable” which means they don’t have to be refrigerated before opening. However, they need to have the right preservatives to prevent the ingredients inside from spoiling. The fact that Pink Sauce as “milk” as one of the ingredients has been a major point of concern.
Chef Pii spoke with Vice’s Motherboard about the FDA situation, clarifying that they recently visiting her facility. “The F, f’ing, DA, federal, came to my business yesterday. I am 100% compliant, I’m abiding with the FDA…I’m not in trouble. I’m not going to jail. Nobody can accuse the Pink Sauce of anything going forward,” she told the website.
Packaging problems
Initially, the sauce was being sent out in bubble mailers, and would sometimes arrive damaged and open. Currently, customers are receiving the sauce in boxes.
@officialtashaa Pink Sauce Unboxing 💗 Follow @Officialtashaa2.0 #officialtashaa #pinksauce #explore #watchmeeat
Because of the myriad of problems with the sauce so far, and the fact that it is not yet FDA approved, many people are wary about consuming Pink Sauce. It’s become a meme to joke about getting sick from pink sauce, but there have not yet been any verifiable illnesses related to pink sauce consumption.
