Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I'm Korean American, born and raised in Korea. I've had anything from authentic, homemade gochujang to nasty, cheap store bought. I've had very mild to volcano hot gochujang and I must say that this one was very spicy and I love spicy food. On a scale of 1-10, I would easily give this a 7.5. I eat spicy food almost every day and I've even owned and used one of the hottest hot sauces in the world, so when I say this is pretty spicy trust me on this. Granted, when I opened my package the color was darker than most other gochujang, which means the sauce has ripened while sitting in the warehouse. Personally, I feel that ripened gochujang presents better flavor than a nice, bright orange color gochujang. Mine was almost maroon. Overall, the flavors were amazing, but I was caught way off guard when I took my first bite of my homemade tteokbokki because of how spicy it was. I had to fight through the occasional tear (maybe it was dust in my eyes) while I ate it. However, it didn't give me a stomach ache nor did I have any burning issues later on that day. If you're like me and love spicy, flavorful food then I highly recommend this. If spicy isn't your thing, I'm not sure that this sauce will help in any way.