9 Zesty Pickle Brands to Tantalize Your Taste Buds

If you love the acidic zing of a pickle plucked straight from the brine, you need to tune into the world of spicy pickles. The combination of a crunchy sour pickle and a flash of heat is so spot on, you’ll be wondering why you weren’t always buying the spicy version. The bracing acidity and spice create a supercharged flavor. If you’re new to the spicy pickle game, you might think it’s somewhat niche. However, if you walk down certain grocery store aisles, you’ll find there are numerous brands that have at least one spicy version to their name. From chips to spears to whole dill pickles, the spice takes hold on a spectrum, ranging from something a little edgy to full-on habanero heat levels. 

In search of some of the best spicy pickles on the market, I tried a handful from numerous brands. Whatever shape and heat intensity you’re in search of on your pickle journey, you will find it here. The following brands make a spicy pickle that will convert you and have you coming back for more.

Grillo’s Pickles come in a clear tube with funky and endearing illustrations of a pickle lounging back in a beach chair. Needless to say, Grillo’s has been bringing good vibes ever since launching in 2008 by selling pickles in the center of Boston from a quaint little cart. Today, it’s one of those pickle brands that’s relatively widely available at grocery store chains across the country. Grillo’s keeps it simple, in a good way, only using a naturally flavor-packed brine to pickle, avoiding artificial preservatives and other additives. It uses the cold pickling method through and through to ensure big flavor and crisper, crunchier pickles.

Grillo’s has two spicy pickles in its line-up. The first are hot spears (or chips). Infused with fresh habanero and jalapeño peppers, the heat starts off subtle, builds, and then mellows. Make no mistake, it’s there and lingers, but it isn’t totally overwhelming. You also get great dill and garlic flavor. The pickles fall somewhere mid-scale in terms of crunch, with the long spears calling to be placed alongside any sort of American summer grilling situation you are doing. 

If you’re looking to up the heat, check out the brand’s blazing hot pickle chips. Same set of hot peppers and aromatics, just more.

The Yee-Haw Pickle Company was started by Allison and Drew Cesati in 2011 in the small-batch vein right in their home in Colorado. After launching the business at the farmers market, it’s only grown from there, and Yee-Haw pickles are now stocked on the shelves of grocery stores across the country. Excluding all the artificial nonsense, Yee-Haw pickles are made up of spices, brine, and cucumbers. The pickles aren’t excessively salty and don’t contain any sugar, keeping them simple and straight-up good.

Hot Damn Dills was one of the brand’s early creations. These dill pickle spears, spiked with chili pepper, have a nuanced brine with whole garlic cloves and a bit of mustard seed. The heat is pretty in your face from the get-go and carries on well after you’ve finished, flushing your cheeks and burning your tongue. Big chunks of fresh chili pepper are packed into the mix, too. The crunch is about mid-level, but good for a spear. Yee-Haw also makes a spicy pickle chip, with heat coming from habanero, and a sweet-and-spicy jar of stackers. Overall, this is a great pickles brand that is doing all the right things to make a tasty spicy pickle.

Founded in 2011 by artist-turned-pickle-maker David van Alphen, SuckerPunch makes a handful of pickles, all of which are based on a water and vinegar brine with aromatics, peppers, and a bit of sugar, avoiding artificial colorings. Due to the hint of sugar in the brine, this Chicago-based brand’s pickles have that oh-so-perfect balance of sour, zingy, subtle sweetness, and lingering heat.

Arguably, SuckerPunch focuses most on the spiced pickle, though the brand does also offer classic dill and bread and butter pickle options. The versions that bring the heat include flavors like fiery heat three pepper, arbol pepper spicy dill, original spicy garlic, and sweet ‘n heat three pepper crunch. I went with the former fiery heat flavor, which comes in both spears and chips, with the three hot peppers referring to habanero, jalapeño, and arbol chile (there’s also crushed red pepper and garlic featured in this spicy sweet pickle recipe). This trifecta of hot peppers brings more than just punchy heat; together, they deliver layered flavors while meeting the sweetness in the brine with kickback. 

These SuckerPunch spicy pickles are delightfully crisp and crunchy and deliver so much flavor with the perfect edge of heat. A real standout amongst spicy pickle brands! Conveniently, the pickles come in a classic glass jar or a to-go pouch for more adventurous snacking. On that note, there’s even a shot of spicy pickle juice available in a little jar geared towards endurance athletes — or just the downright pickle-obsessed.

Cleveland Kitchen is based in, you guessed it, Cleveland, Ohio. The brand formed out of a passion for fermentation and gut health, resulting in numerous naturally fermented products like kraut, kimchi, dressings, and pickles. Ingredients are sourced locally, and a sustainable ethos has shaped its packaging strategy. On top of this, the pickles are downright good.

When it comes to spicy pickles, the Cleveland Kitchen ones are slightly unconventional yet have a depth of flavor. While the brand offers some snackable hot-and-spicy pickle chips, I want to focus on the kimchi pickles. This iteration comes in either spears or chips, with both featuring a zesty portion of kimchi that flavors the whole brine and pickles in a distinct but subtle way. The fermented blend of garlic, carrots, green onions, apple, red pepper, ginger, and gochugaru add so much flavor and zing to the pickles. In particular, the combination of the red pepper, ginger, and Korean red chili, gochugaru, makes for a nuanced heat that hits just right. The pickles have a pleasant crunch. All around, Cleveland Kitchen’s spicy pickles are just outside the box and nailing it.

Seattle Pickle Company is a Pacific Northwest staple founded by Chris Coburn in 2015. With the influence of the salty Puget Sound waters and access to incredible fresh produce, Coburn started sourcing high-quality ingredients from around the state, with the brand also using sea salt harvested locally to make up the brine. From there, the brining includes a pinch of sugar, whole garlic cloves, dill, mustard seeds, celery seeds, and coriander to layer in the flavor.

The brand’s pickle line-up includes one main spicy iteration: dill spears with habanero peppers. There are big chunks of the orange pepper (seeds included) floating around the brine that look like little jewels on the bottom of the sea floor amongst the pickles. This infusion in the brine gives the pickles a perfectly consistent heat that lingers just enough to have you reaching for your next spear. The small addition of sugar goes unnoticed but probably steps in to tame the heat from the habanero. These spears hit that perfect level of fire, and the crunch factor is chef’s kiss, making these spicy pickles some of the best around.

Famous Dave’s feels about as American as it gets, which makes sense since the brand takes inspiration from BBQ styles and flavors across the Midwest and Southern U.S. While it makes BBQ sauce, seasoning, and even a decent corn bread mix, Famous Dave’s is probably most famous for its pickles.

The brand has a handful of pickles, most with a fiery kick, from spicy dill chips, to sweet ‘n spicy chips and spears, to the wildly hot and delicious Devil’s Spit pickle chips. Famous Dave’s has a little heat spectrum on the label of their pickles, and this last iteration hits a four out of five flames — as in, they are extra hot. Indeed, these are legitimately spicy pickles. So, if you can’t take the heat, look elsewhere. However, if you are after a pickle that tinges your palate and lingers with waves of flavor and heat, these are for you. 

The Devil’s Spit pickles seem to get all their heat from the dehydrated red chili pepper. There are additional sweeteners and other ingredients at work, which have a real punch of flavor and keep things crunchy. The bit of sweet complements the intensity of the spice just right, making these pickles a hit among pickle lovers. Stocked in a wide variety of grocery stores, Famous Dave’s delivers on your spicy pickle needs with a palate punch.

McClure’s Pickles is a family affair. It’s the story of two brothers reviving a family recipe and bringing it to life as a business grounded in their home state of Michigan, with an offshoot in Brooklyn, New York. Working with many local farms, McClure’s sources Midwest-grown cucumbers and concocts a brine that gives its pickles just what they need to be delicious without a bunch of extra nonsense.

In addition to its garlic dill and bread and butter pickle options, the brand makes small, whole spicy dill pickles and sweet and spicy dill pickle chips. The whole pickles, which is what I went with, are some of the smallest on the market, almost like a big cornichon. Staying small and whole is part of what makes these outstandingly crunchy. Meanwhile, the chili-derived heat is perfectly subtle — it’s there but doesn’t burn up your palate. Honestly, if you are pickle-obsessed and looking for the perfect mildly spiced pickle, this is most likely it!

Bubbies has a bit of a cult following. Founded in the early 1980s in San Francisco, California, the brand has maintained a long tradition of making high-quality fermented foods for well over 40 years. Bubbies are naturally fermented pickles, meaning naturally occurring lactobacillus bacteria work to transform the cucumbers through lacto-fermentation. The brine is cloudy, and the pickles are particularly flavorful and zingy thanks to this process. Not to mention, both the brine and the pickles are chock-full of a bunch of good gut bacteria.

Bubbies has four different spicy iterations: spicy kosher dill pickle chips, spicy bread and butter chips, spicy kosher dill pickles, and horseradish bread and butter chips. The first three are naturally fermented with pickled hot peppers that add that punch to the pickle, while the latter’s added heat comes from horseradish root. 

But let’s focus on the spicy kosher dill pickles: Whatever the magic combination of additional spices and aromatics is, it’s good. There’s dill, garlic, mustard seed, and the rest is a secret. These medium-sized whole pickles are crunchy and so subtly spiced that it doesn’t overwhelm; rather, it just layers into the rest of the flavors infused in the brine. Bubbies truly taste like a crunchy homemade pickle. If you are cautiously looking to get into the spicy pickle world, Bubbies pickles are your gateway.

Oh Snap! Pickles started in 2015 with the goal of making cold-brined pickles in easy, accessible packaging for eating on the go. The concept and pickles were a hit, and the brand has only grown in size and product inventory since, with the inclusion of pickled veggies like carrots and snap peas, as well as pickled fruit like cranberries. There aren’t heaps of preservatives or extras in Oh Snap! Pickles, but plenty of flavor coming from an unknown spice infusion.

In addition to the more traditional dill pickle products, which come in straight-cut snacking chips and a single, whole pickle, Oh Snap! offers three types of spicy pickles: the hot n’ spicy dill-flavored Hottie (whole pickle) and Hottie Bites (snacking chips), and the slightly spiced-up sweet pickle Sassy Bites. While the Hottie version (which I tried) isn’t overtly spicy either, the heat is there mid-palate, lingering a bit. The snacking bite-sized pieces are chunky and have a good crunch. They aren’t floating in a whole lot of brine, as the point is they are an easy-to-eat snack while out and about or to pack for your next picnic. It’s a great option if you’re looking to get your spicy, tangy pickle fix on the go.

All of these pickle brands are readably available through mainstream grocery stores, specialty grocers, and/or online retailers. With nearly all of the brands offering up more than one spicy pickle iteration, there are a lot to choose from. After trying at least one spicy pickle from these brands and a few others, these are the ones that hit the heat, flavor complexity, and crunch just right. So, go get your spicy pickle fix already.