UPDATE: Video support now available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpA1yKLl-FA Too often, I think, reviews always start off with a negative. I think reviewers do this so they come across as a "hard sell" or cynical or neutral, any of which is viewed as being better than a pimp or cheerleader. I'm no coward and I've been waiting on writing this for a while while I relentlessly tested it, so let me just say it up front: this sauce is utterly fantastic. This is another first: the first sauce I've had directly recommended to me from a friend.
Now, with that out of the way, despite all the overwhelming (and other less so) positives, there is one gigantic detraction and that is the color. The bright pea-green color is very disconcerting and putting it on food tends to make it look less appetizing. Even as I type this, it sounds borderline remarkably stupid and petty, but it is nonetheless true. I wish they would have ticked over for an orange sauce if they wanted to differentiate. I get they were going for a green sauce echoing throes of tomatillo sauce, but that color is seriously distracting and it's taken me a while to get over that, to a degree, which is a shame, as this is a quite remarkable sauce.
At 9, 000 SHU, like the red, it's not particularly hot, but it is at least noticeable. What is less noticeable is that "bright" taste that habanero sauces seem to frequently have. That is very muted and subdued and the burn, when it comes, is delayed, as I expect from habaneros in general. The flavor is fantastic and despite it not working well on pizza, nearly everything I tried it on was better for having it there.That is the function of sauces after all, to improve the eating experience. I could use more heat, but as far as blending and having lovely flavor, this is a very difficult sauce to beat. Even when eaten directly, it doesn't taste overpowering and while the flavor is not good enough for me to want to have by itself in great amounts, quite a lot of this can be used. At $2.59 for a 4 oz. bottle and a dollar more to double it up to an 8 oz. bottle, the value per cost ratio may just be the highest of any sauce I've reviewed so far.
As noted, the heat amount is not great or particularly significant, but enough to be moderately respectable. The mild burn hangs in there for a good little bit and I would be endlessly pleased if they dropped something out with a higher boost, but all in all, I'm very pleased and this is the current heavy leader for my standby Mexican sauce.
Bottom line: There's still more to test, of course, slated upcoming, but I have reservations that anything will overtake this for my standby Mexican sauce. Like the Red Devil, the taste is wonderful and like the Red Devil, while it tastes acceptable on almost everything, it definitely excels on specific things more considerably. The most ringing endorsement I can ever make about a sauce is that I intend to buy it again and as soon as the last remnants of what's in the current bottle are gone, I'm going out to secure one of those larger bottles immediately. Standby or not, this one is necessary to have on hand.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 1
Flavor: 9
Flexibility: 8
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 10
Overall: 7
thanks for sharing..
ReplyDelete