I've seen a lot of hype about this one, probably because it features somewhat prominently the current record holder for SHU, the Trinidad Moruga Scorpion pepper. I've seen it rated online at as many as a million SHU. Another facet, which I really like, is that a portion of the proceeds go to funding chile research and education at the Chile Pepper Institute in New Mexico. I'm all for furthering science!Here's where the hype sort of de-rails, though. When talking about Lousiana-style hot sauce, which this is definitely in family of, we're always talking a couple universal factors. First is that it will be a vinegar-based sauce. Second is that it will come with a dropper cap, due to the thinness of the sauce. Check on both counts here, though this is thicker than the Cayenne or Tabasco-based sauces.
So, we're looking at a Trinidad Moruga Scorpion Lousiana-style sauce. No shame in that game, though this is a slightly more complex sauce than many of those I've seen, such as my beloved Red Devil.We have some sugar, lemon and garlic rounding out the bill, which do a nice job of balancing this, but we're talking vinegar and the Scorpion peppers as the respective stars of this show.
You know what you're getting as regards taste, generally, with Lousiana-style sauces and with Trinidad Moruga peppers and this doesn't stray from the path much on either count. We have the nice bite of the vinegar charge and we have the somewhat bitter and flowery taste of the pepper. On first taste, the pepper is more of a grace note, but as is the case with many of the superhot chiles, repeated applications will continue to build and frequently become dominating, which is the case here.
It's using the current recordholder for chile heat in a pepper, so there is definitely some heat here, but it starts subtle and mild initially and builds from there. It never got to the point of uncomfortability or intolerance, even when I used quite a lot of it at once, but rather ascended to a slow and steady nice smooth even heat that was quite pleasant. The heat of this is not rated online (at least not accurately) anywhere I've seen, so I'd put it in the 40K range somewhere, probably in the mids to lower.
Bottom line: If you like Louisiana-style sauces and/or Trinidad Moruga Scorpion peppers, this would be right up your alley. I like the Louisiana sauces, but I'm not quite sure on the peppers yet. I will know by the end of the bottle. I do like the extra kick, but I don't like terribly the residual taste of the Trinidads, which linger a bit longer than I care for and are also dominant during the after-eating belches. I like the thickness of the sauce and the flavor overall, but at $10/5 oz., it's hard to see where, even after I factor in all of the positives of this sauce, that I could realistically find a place for it in my regular rotation. That doesn't mean I wouldn't buy it again (I would), but it's not quite all the way to the point where I would make it a staple.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 6
Flavor: 7
Flexibility: 8
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 6
Overall: 7
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