NOTE: This sauce appeared in Season Four of The Hot Ones. UPDATE: Support video now available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmQFL0N77xk
Along with Cholula and Tapatio, this is the third leg of the triumvirate of large-scale Mexican-oriented hot sauces. It is probably the oldest of the three and easily the least popular (at least in Salt Lake). Cholula, in the United States, is far and away the king there, running away with a strong nationwide distribution and near-ubiquitous presence in so many places I've not lost count. They are also the only one, to my knowledge, to make the transition into sauce packets, which is a much bigger deal than it sounds. It's also probably the mildest of the three, though to my mind, it is also the best-tasting. So, to get to the point, if you've tried either of the others, you've basically tried this, though I think Valentina and Tapatio are closer to each other than to Cholula.
For $.99, I got a 12.5 oz. bottle and was very excited about it. This possibly could have been the prime standby Mexican sauce for which I've been searching, but sadly, oh so sadly, not to be. While it does have moderately more heat than either of the other two (Tapatio has an SHU of 3000, so I'd say this is maybe 3500 - 4000 somewhere), it is comparably less than a good jalapeno. The taste isn't good or bad; it's that same sort of "standard" Mexican sauce taste, which I've understood is malleable enough to use on almost everything.
So, while this is ok for what it is, which is for those people who want hotter versions of one of those sauce variations, I think my taste has moved on. It's very difficult eating this sauce on Mexican food when I have some El Yucateco left. It's doesn't even compare favorably to Texas Pete in several instances and despite it not being at all a bad-tasting sauce, it's a flavor that I find incredibly easy to tire of. The value is almost incomparable, except for it being almost entirely unpalatable to me. I can't imagine an instance in which I would intentionally choose it and unless my wife likes it (she likes the other two in the triumvirate), I may wind up having to pitch a mostly full bottle to make room for other and better sauces.
Bottom line: This is one of those sauces I call a "desert isle" sauce, not meaning that I would take it with me to a deserted island, but if I was cast adrift with nothing else (ignoring the more obvious larger concerns), this would do in a pinch. If I still ate ramen noodles, this is probably what I would use it for, assuming I was out of Red Devil or any other better-tasting sauce or if whatever Mexican restaurant I was at didn't have some good homemade sauce and was out of either of the other two in their table bottles.
Breakdown (Original):
Heat level: 2
Flavor: 2
Flexibility: 4
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 2
Overall: 2
** Update 04/17/13 **
As I am wont to do ever so often, I've decided, after spending a lot more unexpected time with the Valentina lately -- for all its faults, it was one of the few palatable during my recent bout with food poisoning -- that I probably did it a bit of a disservice rating it as low as I did. I stand by most of my comments. This will never be mistaken for an actual good sauce and it remains mostly one of those "better than nothing" sauces, yet it does have its uses and in the interests of fairness, I'm giving it a re-rate. This should not be taken to mean I'm going to rush right out and buy more, but you could have worse things in the fridge.
Breakdown (Re-rate):
Heat level: 2
Flavor: 4
Flexibility: 6
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 4
Overall: 4
I am a big fan of this sauce. And I have tasted it next to Cholula. It has a very similar taste profile. So you get a much larger volume at a smaller price. To me it is a very classic, authentic Mexican taco sauce. It is one of my favorites. I propose doing a double blind taste test and see if you can tell the difference, and more importantly, what you like best. Also, I like many sauces....each sauce has its place. Example. I dont put Sriracha sauce on mexican food and I dont put Valentina on asian food.
ReplyDeleteId like to add one additional comment.....I dont think ranking a sauce just by heat scale is good. A sauce has to be blended, balanced and find its own context. Any company can come out and make one hotter. There is a myriad of that type of sauce on the market now.
Thank you for the commentary. The overall rating is a rough average between the 4 criteria, thus something that would rate a 10 on the heat scale, such as one of Blair's 16 million SHU concoctions, would rate at most a 3, if the other factors were zero. In this way, no one factor can "run the table", so to speak, for the overall rating. Taste is by far the biggest consideration, but if I wasn't interested in heat, I really have no business chasing after picante sauces at all.
ReplyDeleteI think the double-blind is fine for assessing things for folks just getting into this, but I've had probably more Cholula than any other single Mexican-style sauce and I suspect the same is true for most people, let alone chileheads, so the point of such an experiment is largely lost on the more experienced.
Valentina is a solid table sauce, no question and this particular review is by far the most viewed of any in this blog, which speaks to its great popularity. Fans of Mexican table sauce would do well to give a bottle a spin.
How does it feel on the bunghole!
ReplyDeleteNo impact on the poop chute. This is a relatively tame sauce.
ReplyDelete