Orange Krush Hot Sauce Review

Orange Krush

My first impression, on peeling back the plastic, was that this was an older bottle. After cleaning out the neck carefully of some discolored sauce, I shook it up and went for the straight test. It immediately reminded me on the El Yucateco red, though noticeably more initial heat. At 9,400 SHU, it's not quite double the El Yucateco, but most of the heat here is what I call the "flash" variety, meaning it hits immediately but has little to no staying power.

Despite having a laundry list of ingredients, the main star here is the "bright" taste of the sauce, again, very similar to El Yucateco. You won't be marveling at being able to flush out the celery seed taste or pondering how nicely the mace is integrated or how well the cardamom shines through, but that complexity does a nice job of smoothing and mellowing the flavor, which adds greatly to the flexibility here, unlike the El Yucateco, which is somewhat of a one-trick pony. Unfortunately, this sauce does not taste as good as the El Yucateco, so it's decidedly advantageous that it is not as overpowering and backs off a bit in intensity there.

I ran this through the usual suspects, up to and including a Subway sandwich and at times it would blend well enough to blunt and mask the initial taste and blend and accent in a way to add a nice degree of heat to whatever it was, from microwaved macaroni & cheese on to stepping up a few other more mundane sauces. Also like the El Yucateco, this did not do well with flavors not prominent enough to hold their own and this is not a good enough tasting sauce to either keep around or ever buy again, ultimately. At $5.99 for a 5 oz. bottle (they have since changed the bottle size), the cost to enjoyment ratio is not staggeringly low, but low nonetheless. There are simply better and more enjoyable sauces out there.

Of course, no review of this particular product would be complete without mentioning the absurd disclaimer on the bottle label about Experienced Chileheads Only! As if 9K SHU would be anything any self-respecting chilehead would ever bat an eye about...it does do a nice job of frightening off several people I work with, since I've moved the bottle to work instead of home. I guess there's that...

Bottom line: This is one of those products that's been out a while, that has generated some noise for itself, but is not in any way what I would consider a high-end product. The taste is not bad, certainly, but not good enough to make me want to use it frequently. It doesn't really fit into any particular area of sauces I would keep on hand nor go especially well with dishes I would normally cook/eat and it's not particularly available easily. I'm not unhappy I tried it, but this is a one-and-done sauce.

Breakdown:

Heat level: 4
Flavor: 4
Flexibility: 5
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 3

Overall: 4