Pitchfork

Next time you get the urge to reach for the Tabasco, consider reaching for the Minor Threat instead. Yep, the seminal, Ian MacKaye-fronted straight edge hardcore legends-- who, on stage and record alike, were anything but mild-- have been immortalized as a hot sauce that is, well, something less than hot.

"Made from a rare, mild breed of habanero [pepper] grown specifically for us, Minor Threat...mysteriously privileges the pepper's fruitiness over its notoriously overwhelming heat," reads the product description from Brooklyn-based sauciers (and picklers) Wheelhouse Pickles.

While "fruitiness" and Minor Threat should probably never be uttered in the same sentence, the sauce was indeed inspired by the DC giants, according to a recent Gothamist post (via The Daily Swarm). Wheelhouse chief pickler Jon Orren picked the name because of his affinity for the band, and also because it made sense (a mild pepper is, after all, less threatening than, say, a medium or hot one).

And MacKaye is into it, having asked only that an original label design parodying the famous "Bottled Violence" image be nixed. "I don't have an occasion to eat a lot of hot sauce," he's quoted in the Gothamist story as saying, "but I also thought the Minor Threat stuff was nice."

And really, who can grumble when the odd branding choice leads to descriptive gems like this one? "We may never fully understand Minor Threat's ability to take sandwiches, grilled meats, corn chips or eggs to the next level without annihilating your esophagus in the process."

Please, someone name a food product after Merzbow next.