People point to Romeo and Juliet as a perfect match, but that’s nonsense. Instead, point to gochujang. “Okay, gochujang and what?” Nothing. Gochujang is, itself, the ideal pairing. The flavorful paste combines my two loves of spice and umami. Bonus, it does it without dragging two families through grief and strife because of teenage hormones. But what’s the best gochujang brand to give you that satisfaction? I tried nine brands to find out.
Gochujang is common in Korean cooking and is made from red chili peppers, soybeans, rice, and salt. While it’s a key ingredient in Korean dishes like bibimbap, you can use it in sauces or marinades, or use it as a standalone sauce or dip. (Check out our full gochujang explainer if you want to go deep.)
It is all the savory, ferment-astic umami that I grew up adoring because, while my Japanese mother loves my brother and I equally, she loves miso paste more than either of us. But gochujang also appeals to the masochistic tendencies that had me stoked on taste testing ghost pepper hot sauces. While it’s not going to sear your tastebuds off in the way that many hot sauces do, it has an addictive kick of heat and pop of flavor that made tasting nine gochujang brands a breeze.
To test these gochujang brands in search of the best gochujang brands, I tried each one over rice as well as straight off of a spoon. This is because I figured most people will use gochujang as an accompaniment or ingredient, but I also believe that anybody that doesn’t lick a little rogue paste off their spoon or fingers is a toxic presence.
After consuming copious amounts of spicy fermented bean, here are the best gochujang brands.
The following article contains affiliate links that may generate a small commission to us when you make a purchase through the link. Learn more about how we work with affiliates here.
- Mother-In-Law’s Garlic Gochujang
-
Every ‘90s sitcom has led me to believe that mothers-in-law are controversial, so I guess it makes sense that this gochujang brand was a wildcard. It’s advertised as gochujang, fermented chile sauce, garlic flavored, and a marinade, so I didn’t really know what to think going into it. But I appreciate a company that covers all of its bases. While the texture is definitely more sauce or marinade than paste, it’s delicious. It misses on the fermentation factor and the addictive smokiness of traditional gochujang, but I’m not mad at how sesame- and garlic-forward it is. I don’t know that I’d be able to identify it as gochujang if I was blindfolded, but it does make for a dang tasty bowl of rice. If you want a little gochujang flavor but aren’t ready for the full fermented funk bomb, this is the best gochujang sauce to buy.
Credit: Liv Averett / Thrive Market
- Wang Gochujang
-
I apologize in advance to gochujang purists who I’m about to upset, but this tastes like beef jerky. Well, it tastes like everything I love about beef jerky, minus all the stuff I don’t (such as jaw fatigue and protein-induced constipation). This gochujang paste is fairly smoky, a little spicy, and assertive enough to flavor a dish without being overpowering. It won’t stand up to a million other ingredients in a sauce, but it does taste enough like good ol’ gochujang that it’s fantastic as a dressing or dipping sauce on its own.
Credit: Liv Averett / Amazon
- CJ Foods Gochujang Hot Pepper Paste
-
This showstopping flavor bomb did not come to play, it came to win. Of all the gochujang brands I tested, this one was the smokiest, most fermented, and deepest flavored without ever feeling unbalanced. It’s deep, rich, complex, and happily thriving without the cloying sweetness that we found in a number of the other brands. While it’s not particularly spicy but more “tingly,” it has so many layers of flavor that you don’t need the spice factor. (That means a lot coming from me, a person with more hot sauces on my fridge door than contacts in my phone.) With such an assertive flavor, this is the best gochujang brand to buy if you need a shortcut to make entire pots of soup or batches of sauces taste amazing.
Credit: Liv Averett / Amazon
- K-CHUP Gochujang
-
The first thing I wrote in my notes was, “I’d put that sh*t on everything,” and I stand by it. I stand by it now, having finished almost the entire bottle by, in fact, putting that sh*t on everything. It doesn’t necessarily taste like the most traditional gochujang, but hot diggity dog it’s delicious. Speaking of, it’s also great on hot dogs, because it’s basically spicy sesame ketchup. Of all the gochujang sauces I sampled, this struck the perfect balance of sweet, spice,and funk. I also have to give props for the incredibly clever name. If you’re looking for a jack-of-all-trades, this is the best brand of gochujang to buy.
Credit: Liv Averett / Amazon
Best Garlic Gochujang
Best Dip
Best for Cooking
Best of the Best
Other gochujang sauces we tried: O’food, Mother-in-Law’s, Lucky, Bibigo, Roland
Thoughts? Questions? Complete disagreement? Leave a comment!