One year to the date of the last post of this type and, once again, I find myself suffering from a slight flu. Unlike last year, I knew for quite a while, since early May this year, what the likely winner for my Sauce Of The Year would be and while there were other contenders before it, nothing else was really close after it. More on that later.
One major difference between this year and last is that while I ran this journal for an entire full year this time, due to a job shift in October, my sauce usage has dropped off notably, both due to my daily course of events (several of which see me on the road more frequently - at least for now) as well as not having the same refrigerator arrangement, which severely cuts down on my ability to enjoy the hot sauce at work. Possibly, I will start returning home for lunches (right now I'm building a database of lunch spots, both to increase the coverage on my Yelp account and to have a list of good, reliable spots to take clients) and thereby be able to start picking up again on the sauces, but for now, it's pretty much usage just at home.
I also participated in and assisted Scott Roberts with his Tournament to determine the "One True" sauce, the sauce to end all sauces, as it were, but that tourney seems to have gone by the wayside, I'm guessing because of his recent domicile move as well as a site re-design and perhaps just the normal everyday activities taking time and precedence. I also have joined the staff of a food website my wife is trying to do, though at the moment it is down for an overhaul.
Very little changed on my overall ongoing list for most of this year. Here it is, once again:
*Emeritus Everyday sauce: Trappey's Red Devil
*Everyday sauce: Blair’s Pure Death Sauce
*Grilling sauce: CaJohn's Bourbon-Infused Chipotle Habanero (BICH)
Mexican-style sauce: El Yucateco Green
*Emeritus Asian-style sauce: Huy Fong Chili-Garlic Sauce
Asian-style sauce: Wicked Cactus Wrath Of The Tiger
Louisiana-style sauce: Trappey's Red Devil
Sweet-hot sauce: CaJohn's Happy Beaver
*Wife's sauce: Danny Cash's Salvation Garlic-Serrano and/or Bottled-Up Anger
*= Not looking for a replacement
If that didn't give it away, I may as well just announce now that my Sauce Of The Year for 2013 goes to Blair's Pure Death. While my review of it covers things pretty well, I'd like to add, some months removed, that this is still one of the best-tasting sauces it has been my pleasure to have. I also have been personally and directly responsible for selling about 100 bottles of it in this area alone this year. If there is a drawback to this, it would be the price point, which would do a good job making me go broke trying to keep myself in sauce if I tried to eat this as much as I really would like. I have eaten this more than any single other sauce and it has dethroned the mighty Red Devil as my overall favorite sauce currently, no small feat, considering how many years running Red Devil held that title. Still, from the moment I tasted it, it was pretty much love from the jump and the heat level, while it could be just a touch higher, is nearly right on the level. Finding a sauce like that...it makes all the testing and all the crappy sauces endured worthwhile. Those are the moments we live for. Congratulations to Blair Lazar and I thank you tremendously for making such a fantastic sauce!
Before I go, I thought I'd throw up some site statistics:
Total posts (not counting this): 82
Total views: 2966 (should be 3K+ before the end of the year)
Total single sauce reviews: 59
Total double sauce reviews: 1
Total sauces reviewed: 61
Total unopened sauces waiting on shelf for review and/or consumption: 3
Total opened sauces waiting for review: 0
Total open bottles in fridge: 12
Door sauces: 10
Back of fridge sauces: 2
Highest viewed review: 101 - Valentina's Extra Hot
Highest viewed article, any type: 101 - Valentina's Extra Hot
Most posts, month: 10 - June 2013
Most sauces reviewed, month - 8, June 2013
Once I finish going through the sauces in the door, which will probably be mid-Jan., at the latest, I'm planning on a larger-scale shopping trip through one of the local places to pick up on some sauces I haven't gotten to yet. Unless I order direct, quite a few I'm interested in will continue to remain unobtainable to me, since I don't wind up going to the hot sauce events and probably won't be anytime soon, either. If it is the shop I've never been to, I'll probably comment on the store, if nothing else, via my Yelp account.
I don't really see sauces in 2014 being reviewed on the level they were this year, due mostly to those shifts I mentioned earlier as well as a likely domicile move of my own sometime in the near future. I'm also pretty happy with the current line-up and aside from the Mexican-style sauces, am not really looking especially hard for new sauces. I still generally will look to see what might be on the shelves everytime I visit either a new place or somewhere I haven't been in a while (and I see a lot of new labels, more and more all the time), but things are a bit less urgent currently.
At any rate, I hope you've enjoyed (and continue to enjoy) reading and thank you for coming along.
See you in 2014!
Sunday, December 22, 2013
Saturday, December 7, 2013
Wildfire Hot Sauce Review
Motherlode Provisions Wildfire Hot Sauce
This is one I found in a Whole Foods, though unlike the Archer Farms of last week, Motherlode Provisions appears to be an independent company and not an arm of Whole Foods. There were a few different hot sauce flasks on the shelf and I chose this one because it was the spiciest available.
Generally, when buying hot sauce in flasks, one can be fairly certain, with few exceptions, that they won't be particularly hot and this one is not (in a list of about 20 ingredients, no peppers of any kind show up until #7). Generally also, if you see Arbol listed in the ingredients, you can also look more towards expecting a sort of Mexican table sauce, which is probably where this would more closely fit in. With the use of Piquins, one of the most under-used peppers, along with Pepins, I somewhat had my hopes up that I would see a sort of novel or inventive flair to the sauce, but clearly, they were mostly using the Piquins (appearing here in powdered form) to spike the heat level of the sauce upward.
This is essentially a Mexican table sauce, but on the hotter end, as those things go, somewhat slightly, but still noticeably hotter than the Valentina Extra Hot (reviewed elsewhere here). It is a much smoother and tastier sauce than that one and because of the sort of blanket nature of those sauces, this one is very adaptable across a fairly wide variety of foods. It's a good-tasting sauce, but not a great one, probably closer to Cholula in terms of actual taste. Given that it's retailed at Whole Foods, I probably overpaid for it (like nearly everything else in that store), but in terms of the actual sauce itself, it's overall a pretty good value for the money.
Bottom line: If my wife likes this, it might be the Mexican table or general hot sauce we keep on hand. Most of my stuff is far too hot for her and though she doesn't eat a lot of hot sauce, she does have it often enough that a complaint is raised if we don't have some on hand. Of the Mexican table sauce style, this is probably the one I find most favorable, though far from perfect. Definitely worth a try if you haven't had it before and enjoy that kind of sauce.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 3
Flavor: 6
Flexibility: 6
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 4
Overall: 5
This is one I found in a Whole Foods, though unlike the Archer Farms of last week, Motherlode Provisions appears to be an independent company and not an arm of Whole Foods. There were a few different hot sauce flasks on the shelf and I chose this one because it was the spiciest available.Generally, when buying hot sauce in flasks, one can be fairly certain, with few exceptions, that they won't be particularly hot and this one is not (in a list of about 20 ingredients, no peppers of any kind show up until #7). Generally also, if you see Arbol listed in the ingredients, you can also look more towards expecting a sort of Mexican table sauce, which is probably where this would more closely fit in. With the use of Piquins, one of the most under-used peppers, along with Pepins, I somewhat had my hopes up that I would see a sort of novel or inventive flair to the sauce, but clearly, they were mostly using the Piquins (appearing here in powdered form) to spike the heat level of the sauce upward.
This is essentially a Mexican table sauce, but on the hotter end, as those things go, somewhat slightly, but still noticeably hotter than the Valentina Extra Hot (reviewed elsewhere here). It is a much smoother and tastier sauce than that one and because of the sort of blanket nature of those sauces, this one is very adaptable across a fairly wide variety of foods. It's a good-tasting sauce, but not a great one, probably closer to Cholula in terms of actual taste. Given that it's retailed at Whole Foods, I probably overpaid for it (like nearly everything else in that store), but in terms of the actual sauce itself, it's overall a pretty good value for the money.
Bottom line: If my wife likes this, it might be the Mexican table or general hot sauce we keep on hand. Most of my stuff is far too hot for her and though she doesn't eat a lot of hot sauce, she does have it often enough that a complaint is raised if we don't have some on hand. Of the Mexican table sauce style, this is probably the one I find most favorable, though far from perfect. Definitely worth a try if you haven't had it before and enjoy that kind of sauce.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 3
Flavor: 6
Flexibility: 6
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 4
Overall: 5
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Archer Farms Three Pepper Sauce Review
Archer Farms Three Pepper Taco Cart Sauce
Archer Farms is the food arm of Target, basically the store brand for that chain. In that line can be found everything from canned peanuts to cookies and so on. This one is marketed loosely as a hot (taco cart) sauce and contains both habanero and chipotle peppers. In point of fact, there are about 20 different individual ingredients listed on the label.
For all of those ingredients, I found it baffling that it had so little taste. Not merely in heat - I was expecting at least a slight kick from the habaneros, even if they were further down the list - but in flavor of any kind, especially given the plethora of items that are generally flavorful on their own. What little flavor there is seems to be derived mostly from tomatoes but even that is very weak. The consistency is best described as chunky, but to me, it seems very ill made, considering the bottle. It is barely pourable and I found an entire raisin in a portion I poured out. If they want it this chunky, it would ideally be in a salsa jar instead of this type of bottle (similar to the La Victoria taco sauce bottles). I can't imagine this being even in a tray on any self-respecting taco cart, though.
While I generally find Target to be overall very favorable, like with most chains, their forays into food tend to be dubious. This is a gigantic miss and even at the fairly low price of $3/bottle, a rather considerable waste of money, considering what you actually get. It's a pity, too, as this had the ingredient profiles of what could have been a very interesting sauce.
Bottom line: Avoid. This isn't good even as a condiment.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 0
Flavor: 0
Flexibility: 1
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 0
Overall: 0
Archer Farms is the food arm of Target, basically the store brand for that chain. In that line can be found everything from canned peanuts to cookies and so on. This one is marketed loosely as a hot (taco cart) sauce and contains both habanero and chipotle peppers. In point of fact, there are about 20 different individual ingredients listed on the label.
For all of those ingredients, I found it baffling that it had so little taste. Not merely in heat - I was expecting at least a slight kick from the habaneros, even if they were further down the list - but in flavor of any kind, especially given the plethora of items that are generally flavorful on their own. What little flavor there is seems to be derived mostly from tomatoes but even that is very weak. The consistency is best described as chunky, but to me, it seems very ill made, considering the bottle. It is barely pourable and I found an entire raisin in a portion I poured out. If they want it this chunky, it would ideally be in a salsa jar instead of this type of bottle (similar to the La Victoria taco sauce bottles). I can't imagine this being even in a tray on any self-respecting taco cart, though.
While I generally find Target to be overall very favorable, like with most chains, their forays into food tend to be dubious. This is a gigantic miss and even at the fairly low price of $3/bottle, a rather considerable waste of money, considering what you actually get. It's a pity, too, as this had the ingredient profiles of what could have been a very interesting sauce.
Bottom line: Avoid. This isn't good even as a condiment.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 0
Flavor: 0
Flexibility: 1
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 0
Overall: 0
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Louisiana Habanero Hot Sauce Review
Louisiana Brand Habanero Hot Sauce
Louisiana is a maker, perhaps the original maker, as the story goes, of the first vinegar-based hot sauce of Louisiana, though that name is now ubiquitous with that style, which is mostly vinegar combined with pepper mash in a thin and typically runny sauce. As the Original sauce (red dot, yellow label) falls, it is a good standby, maybe a slight step up from Crystal, but utilizing the Cayenne pepper, which puts it above Tabasco in my book, though not as tasty as Red Devil, but perhaps a touch hotter. This is their entry into the Habanero derivatives.
I've mentioned it before, but I don't find either Jalapeno or Habanero peppers to be particularly well-suited for this style of sauce. After having this sauce, again, I'm not moved from that thought. The sauce this is most similar in taste to is probably either the Amazon Habanero (though a bit less hot and not as good-tasting) or the Tabasco Habanero (hotter, but without the attendant sweetness from the Tabasco peppers).
I think a lot of my issue with those peppers in this style of sauce is the food that normally accompanies it. Mexican food, in general, does not need a lot of vinegar to "cut" anything, which renders these sauces a bit jarring when used there. The foods that are wanting a bit of that astringency to "cut" them tend to clash with the Habanero, whereas Cayenne is generally easy-going enough to blend and play nicer on the palate. Yes, it's hotter, but it too easily can dominate the dish and frankly, the sauce is not good enough tasting to carry things if that happens.
One of the issues I have with this is the actual dropper bottle itself. Having that sort of spout molded onto the bottle is fine when it's just regular Cayenne sauce, but by not restricting it more for this sauce, the chances go higher of wrecking foods due to inappropriate sauce flow. This thing can't decide if it wants to be a dropper or a free-flowing pourer and this sort of middle in-between ground is nothing more than a gigantic pain, which interferes with control and portion size.
Bottom line: After the Tabasco Habanero and Blazin' Saddles sauces (both reviewed here elsewhere), I didn't want to intentionally get this a sauce that utilizes Habanero in this manner, then along came the Amazon and now this one. This probably will be the very last of this sort of thing as I hadn't had Louisiana Brand in a while and wanted to see the results of them giving this pepper a go. The results are decidedly mixed, though my final conclusion is not. I don't see a need for this kind of sauce and once it runs out, will not be re-upping it.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 4
Flavor: 5
Flexibility: 5
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 4
Overall: 4
Louisiana is a maker, perhaps the original maker, as the story goes, of the first vinegar-based hot sauce of Louisiana, though that name is now ubiquitous with that style, which is mostly vinegar combined with pepper mash in a thin and typically runny sauce. As the Original sauce (red dot, yellow label) falls, it is a good standby, maybe a slight step up from Crystal, but utilizing the Cayenne pepper, which puts it above Tabasco in my book, though not as tasty as Red Devil, but perhaps a touch hotter. This is their entry into the Habanero derivatives.I've mentioned it before, but I don't find either Jalapeno or Habanero peppers to be particularly well-suited for this style of sauce. After having this sauce, again, I'm not moved from that thought. The sauce this is most similar in taste to is probably either the Amazon Habanero (though a bit less hot and not as good-tasting) or the Tabasco Habanero (hotter, but without the attendant sweetness from the Tabasco peppers).
I think a lot of my issue with those peppers in this style of sauce is the food that normally accompanies it. Mexican food, in general, does not need a lot of vinegar to "cut" anything, which renders these sauces a bit jarring when used there. The foods that are wanting a bit of that astringency to "cut" them tend to clash with the Habanero, whereas Cayenne is generally easy-going enough to blend and play nicer on the palate. Yes, it's hotter, but it too easily can dominate the dish and frankly, the sauce is not good enough tasting to carry things if that happens.
One of the issues I have with this is the actual dropper bottle itself. Having that sort of spout molded onto the bottle is fine when it's just regular Cayenne sauce, but by not restricting it more for this sauce, the chances go higher of wrecking foods due to inappropriate sauce flow. This thing can't decide if it wants to be a dropper or a free-flowing pourer and this sort of middle in-between ground is nothing more than a gigantic pain, which interferes with control and portion size.
Bottom line: After the Tabasco Habanero and Blazin' Saddles sauces (both reviewed here elsewhere), I didn't want to intentionally get this a sauce that utilizes Habanero in this manner, then along came the Amazon and now this one. This probably will be the very last of this sort of thing as I hadn't had Louisiana Brand in a while and wanted to see the results of them giving this pepper a go. The results are decidedly mixed, though my final conclusion is not. I don't see a need for this kind of sauce and once it runs out, will not be re-upping it.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 4
Flavor: 5
Flexibility: 5
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 4
Overall: 4
Friday, November 8, 2013
Gastronomically Correct launches
Very rarely do I post non-hot sauce related things in this blog, however, a website at which I'm a Staff Writer (covering wine) is in the process of launching and if you're interested in reading about the wine list I've built, all of which are under $20/bottle, then head on over to www.gastronomicallycorrect.com. The column is called The Happy Sippin' Companion. I also chime in on a few various other random topics here and there, so click around, see what you like, if you're so inclined. I should note it is still in the Beta phase right now, so some of the stuff may look odd...
Of course, I also have the Yelp page: http://d-dub.yelp.com/ and have added a Yelp widget to this blog as well. If you're interested in my commentary and ratings on mostly restaurants, but some other random stuff, feel free to check it out and add me, if you want.
Of course, I also have the Yelp page: http://d-dub.yelp.com/ and have added a Yelp widget to this blog as well. If you're interested in my commentary and ratings on mostly restaurants, but some other random stuff, feel free to check it out and add me, if you want.
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Castillo Salsa Habanera (Green) Hot Sauce Review
Castillo Salsa Habanera (Green) Hot Sauce
I got this one at the same time as I got the Red from Castillo (reviewed elsewhere here) and while I expected the Red to be somewhere along the lines of the Valentina, I wasn't sure what to expect from the Green. Greens can range from fairly mild to hotter than the Reds, so it was kind of a crap shoot.
In this case, the Green is more similar to the Red version, but has a very unripe "greenish" aspect to it that I didn't find particularly pleasant upfront. Unlike the El Yucateco Red vs. Green (both reviewed elsewhere here), we have a Red that is overall fairly decent and a Green that is notably less tasty and somewhat less hot, which differs from the El Yucateco in that both of them are pretty good tasting, but the Red is a blast upfront and the Green comes on slower and the Green is one of the best-tasting sauces of that type around, despite its very odd coloring. Here we have the Red with a slow build and the Green with more of a punch, but overall, the Red is hotter. Neither one of them quite reach the El Yucateco Green, though, not in heat and certainly not in flavor.
That aside, this one does do slightly better with milder meats, such as chicken and pork, than does the Red, which overall has a much wider gamut. I nearly threw out the Green, in fact, the first time I had it, due to the unripe, nearly sour aspect of it, but it's not quite to that level. I probably will use the bottle, but don't see that I'll ever get another.
Bottom line: If you're deciding which of the two Castillos to get and there's nothing else around, opt for the Red. The Green is just not that good of a sauce and while it's probably better than nothing, it's probably not much more than that.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 3
Flavor: 4
Flexibility: 3
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 5
Overall: 4
I got this one at the same time as I got the Red from Castillo (reviewed elsewhere here) and while I expected the Red to be somewhere along the lines of the Valentina, I wasn't sure what to expect from the Green. Greens can range from fairly mild to hotter than the Reds, so it was kind of a crap shoot.
In this case, the Green is more similar to the Red version, but has a very unripe "greenish" aspect to it that I didn't find particularly pleasant upfront. Unlike the El Yucateco Red vs. Green (both reviewed elsewhere here), we have a Red that is overall fairly decent and a Green that is notably less tasty and somewhat less hot, which differs from the El Yucateco in that both of them are pretty good tasting, but the Red is a blast upfront and the Green comes on slower and the Green is one of the best-tasting sauces of that type around, despite its very odd coloring. Here we have the Red with a slow build and the Green with more of a punch, but overall, the Red is hotter. Neither one of them quite reach the El Yucateco Green, though, not in heat and certainly not in flavor.
That aside, this one does do slightly better with milder meats, such as chicken and pork, than does the Red, which overall has a much wider gamut. I nearly threw out the Green, in fact, the first time I had it, due to the unripe, nearly sour aspect of it, but it's not quite to that level. I probably will use the bottle, but don't see that I'll ever get another.
Bottom line: If you're deciding which of the two Castillos to get and there's nothing else around, opt for the Red. The Green is just not that good of a sauce and while it's probably better than nothing, it's probably not much more than that.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 3
Flavor: 4
Flexibility: 3
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 5
Overall: 4
Saturday, October 26, 2013
Amazon Habanero Hot Sauce
Amazon Habanero Hot Sauce
This is the fourth (and final) bottle from the Amazon 4-pack that I've been reviewing and conclusively, after fairly exhaustive testing, I can say the only dud in that 4 pack was that awful Mango sauce that I wound up tossing.
This particular one is another Louisiana-style sauce, substituting Habaneros instead of the usual Cayenne or Jalapeno, somewhat similar to the Tabasco Habanero, minus the actual tabasco part of it. This cuts out a lot of the sweetness from the Tabascos and just leaves a strong red Habanero flavor, tempered by the vinegar. I find the taste of this to be refreshing overall, but a bit confusing, since it functions about halfway as a Louisiana-style sauce (Habaneros are maybe not the most suitable pepper for this style) and functions halfway as a sort of Mexican-ish sauce, where Habaneros tend to be used more frequently.
The heat is about on part with the green Amazon pepper sauce, perhaps a bit hotter, but less vinegary, right around the level of the aforementioned Tabasco Habanero. The dropper is built right into the bottle, but the design is a bit pour because frequently more will come out than necessarily intended. It isn't a bad taste, by any means, but not exactly stellar, either. I think this one meshes better across a wider variety of food than does the green, but not by a landslide or anything. All in all, with that 4-pack, we had 2 pretty good sauces, 1 that was basically liquified smoke in a pepper sauce and 1 total misfire that needed to be tossed. Not too bad and definitely worth getting to check out, but I'm not sure I will ever repeat it.
Bottom line: By a razor thin margin, this one emerges as the best sauce of the 4-pack, very narrowly beating out the green Amazon sauce. Still not enough for a repeat purchase, but definitely enjoyable while the bottle lasts.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 4
Flavor: 7
Flexibility: 7
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 6
Overall: 6
This is the fourth (and final) bottle from the Amazon 4-pack that I've been reviewing and conclusively, after fairly exhaustive testing, I can say the only dud in that 4 pack was that awful Mango sauce that I wound up tossing.
This particular one is another Louisiana-style sauce, substituting Habaneros instead of the usual Cayenne or Jalapeno, somewhat similar to the Tabasco Habanero, minus the actual tabasco part of it. This cuts out a lot of the sweetness from the Tabascos and just leaves a strong red Habanero flavor, tempered by the vinegar. I find the taste of this to be refreshing overall, but a bit confusing, since it functions about halfway as a Louisiana-style sauce (Habaneros are maybe not the most suitable pepper for this style) and functions halfway as a sort of Mexican-ish sauce, where Habaneros tend to be used more frequently.
The heat is about on part with the green Amazon pepper sauce, perhaps a bit hotter, but less vinegary, right around the level of the aforementioned Tabasco Habanero. The dropper is built right into the bottle, but the design is a bit pour because frequently more will come out than necessarily intended. It isn't a bad taste, by any means, but not exactly stellar, either. I think this one meshes better across a wider variety of food than does the green, but not by a landslide or anything. All in all, with that 4-pack, we had 2 pretty good sauces, 1 that was basically liquified smoke in a pepper sauce and 1 total misfire that needed to be tossed. Not too bad and definitely worth getting to check out, but I'm not sure I will ever repeat it.
Bottom line: By a razor thin margin, this one emerges as the best sauce of the 4-pack, very narrowly beating out the green Amazon sauce. Still not enough for a repeat purchase, but definitely enjoyable while the bottle lasts.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 4
Flavor: 7
Flexibility: 7
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 6
Overall: 6
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Amazon Chipotle Hot Sauce Review
Amazon Chipotle Hot Sauce
This is the third entry in an Amazon hot sauce 4 pack I got a while back from putting together a free shipping order. The other two entries (both reviewed elsewhere here) went 1 - 1, with the Mango being wretched and the Green sauce being somewhat interesting, enough so that it's one that I consider worthwhile. With the score tied overall for the box, it's now on to the Chipotle.
I actually opened this one before the Green sauce from last week, but the Green sauce was something I could pick up on right away and wanted to review that right away. For this one, despite it's apparent simplicity (sort of a liquified version of McCormick's Chipotle powder), I wanted to kick it around a bit more first.
There are no hidden subtleties or complexities here. This is more or less chipotle flavoring in a liquid form. It has the attendant degree of spiciness (as in not much) for that type of pepper and even though it's based in vinegar, by far the dominant characteristic is that smoke. So, a little goes a long way, but unlike the liquified adobo sauce from Wicked Cactus put out (Smoking Gun, I think? It's reviewed elsewhere here), this one has no additional anything other than the taste of chipotle.
Bottom line: There's not a great deal to say about this. It's liquified chipotle and a fairly strong taste at that, so a little goes a long way. It doesn't add a great degree of heat and it would be overpowering with the smokiness long before you got there. I guess you could use this as an additive, like that McCormick's dry chipotle powder, but it functions not particularly well on it's own as a sauce. I'm going to be generous and call this a hit, but just barely, raising the box record to 2 - 1, with one more left to go.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 2
Flavor: 5
Flexibility: 4
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 6
Overall: 4
This is the third entry in an Amazon hot sauce 4 pack I got a while back from putting together a free shipping order. The other two entries (both reviewed elsewhere here) went 1 - 1, with the Mango being wretched and the Green sauce being somewhat interesting, enough so that it's one that I consider worthwhile. With the score tied overall for the box, it's now on to the Chipotle.
I actually opened this one before the Green sauce from last week, but the Green sauce was something I could pick up on right away and wanted to review that right away. For this one, despite it's apparent simplicity (sort of a liquified version of McCormick's Chipotle powder), I wanted to kick it around a bit more first.
There are no hidden subtleties or complexities here. This is more or less chipotle flavoring in a liquid form. It has the attendant degree of spiciness (as in not much) for that type of pepper and even though it's based in vinegar, by far the dominant characteristic is that smoke. So, a little goes a long way, but unlike the liquified adobo sauce from Wicked Cactus put out (Smoking Gun, I think? It's reviewed elsewhere here), this one has no additional anything other than the taste of chipotle.
Bottom line: There's not a great deal to say about this. It's liquified chipotle and a fairly strong taste at that, so a little goes a long way. It doesn't add a great degree of heat and it would be overpowering with the smokiness long before you got there. I guess you could use this as an additive, like that McCormick's dry chipotle powder, but it functions not particularly well on it's own as a sauce. I'm going to be generous and call this a hit, but just barely, raising the box record to 2 - 1, with one more left to go.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 2
Flavor: 5
Flexibility: 4
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 6
Overall: 4
Friday, October 11, 2013
Amazon Green Hot Sauce Review
Amazon Green Hot Sauce
Like the Hot'N Sweet Mango sauce I reviewed not too long ago, this was part of a 4 pack I got to kick my order into free shipping. This one, with the Salsa Amazon Verde label, instantly brought to mind something along the lines of chili verde, which is sorely tempting me to make now, actually, but checking out the bottle, it is the wrong color thing and the wrong consistency entirely.
On the back of the box, there is an amusing blurb (most of the sauces have something interesting enough to read once in the blurb section) by some guy from Reader's Digest, who called this the best hot sauce he'd ever tried, which some heat, but not too hot. Despite that tepid endorsement (I would usually consider Reader's Digest fairly low on the list of sources I would trust for hot sauce), what we have here is not a bad little find. It's by no means great, either, though and certainly not competition, either heat-wise or taste-wise, for some of the ringers on my Standard List.
What we do have here amounts to basically a Louisiana-style sauce by way of Columbia (like all the Amazon brand sauces) using Amazon peppers instead of Cayenne, Tabasco or Jalapeno. It is maybe slightly hotter than regular Tabasco, though not greatly and the flavoring is different, of course, due to the use of the Amazon peppers instead of any of those others. I found it to be a pretty good change of pace, yet familiar enough to be comfortable and it's something I wouldn't mind eating again. It is not, however, even remotely a game-changer or anything I would consider best of anything, except for maybe best "Louisiana-style sauce by way of Columbia using Amazon peppers", mostly because it would have no direct competition for that title.
Bottom line: As Louisiana-styles are among some of my consistent favorites, I liked this sauce considerably in that it can be used interchangeably with any of those, has an ok amount of heat and has a generally good taste. It's nothing I have to have, by any means, but I'm enjoying what's here and so far, it is by far the best of the lot for the Amazon box, which is now 1-1 with 2 more sauces to go.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 3
Flavor: 7
Flexibility: 7
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 6
Overall: 6
Like the Hot'N Sweet Mango sauce I reviewed not too long ago, this was part of a 4 pack I got to kick my order into free shipping. This one, with the Salsa Amazon Verde label, instantly brought to mind something along the lines of chili verde, which is sorely tempting me to make now, actually, but checking out the bottle, it is the wrong color thing and the wrong consistency entirely.
On the back of the box, there is an amusing blurb (most of the sauces have something interesting enough to read once in the blurb section) by some guy from Reader's Digest, who called this the best hot sauce he'd ever tried, which some heat, but not too hot. Despite that tepid endorsement (I would usually consider Reader's Digest fairly low on the list of sources I would trust for hot sauce), what we have here is not a bad little find. It's by no means great, either, though and certainly not competition, either heat-wise or taste-wise, for some of the ringers on my Standard List.
What we do have here amounts to basically a Louisiana-style sauce by way of Columbia (like all the Amazon brand sauces) using Amazon peppers instead of Cayenne, Tabasco or Jalapeno. It is maybe slightly hotter than regular Tabasco, though not greatly and the flavoring is different, of course, due to the use of the Amazon peppers instead of any of those others. I found it to be a pretty good change of pace, yet familiar enough to be comfortable and it's something I wouldn't mind eating again. It is not, however, even remotely a game-changer or anything I would consider best of anything, except for maybe best "Louisiana-style sauce by way of Columbia using Amazon peppers", mostly because it would have no direct competition for that title.
Bottom line: As Louisiana-styles are among some of my consistent favorites, I liked this sauce considerably in that it can be used interchangeably with any of those, has an ok amount of heat and has a generally good taste. It's nothing I have to have, by any means, but I'm enjoying what's here and so far, it is by far the best of the lot for the Amazon box, which is now 1-1 with 2 more sauces to go.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 3
Flavor: 7
Flexibility: 7
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 6
Overall: 6
Saturday, October 5, 2013
Castillo Salsa Habanera (Red) Hot Sauce Review
Castillo Salsa Habanera (Red) Hot Sauce
While casting about in a grocery store I very rarely drive by, let alone frequent, I happened down the condiment aisle, as is my usual wont, on the off-chance there was something there I hadn't tried yet and had an actual interest in doing so. Most of the sauces I skip because I either have already tried them or can read the label and generally extrapolate they will be of insufficient heat for me to bother with (I say this now, as I have a backlog of sauces still to go -- that might change as I run lower). In this case, it is yet another in the series of Mexican table sauces and the use of habanero means it will generally be in the right (or close enough) area heat-wise for it to be worthwhile.
The first time I tried this (at the same time as (reviewed last week) Born To Hula & more of the Zaaschila on some Taco Bell dreck -- same pepper, but 3 very different sauces, all failures in elevating the nasty tacos), it was a bust. But, keeping in mind that Mexican table sauces are designed largely with one specific style of food in mind, I kept at it.
If I had to try to pigeonhole the flavor, I would say it was a far smoother and much hotter version of the Valentina Xtra Hot (also reviewed in this blog). This is one of the first sauces based on habanero that actually acts as I expect it to, based on how the pepper reacts, namely, very low initial heat, but a constantly building presence. That is exactly what this one does. Instead of using the habanero hammer like El Yucateco Red (also reviewed in this blog) does, the heat comes on in waves. The flavor is much closer to the Valentina, though, as this is clearly intended to be a table sauce, albeit a much hotter one than normal for that category. It is not sizzling hot or anything; most chileheads will find this to be no challenge at all. Comparatively, it is probably slightly hotter at full blast than the El Yucateco Green, but not notably so.
Bottom line: Depending on if the fairly recent UNLV study on lead in Mexican table sauces concerns you (this sauce was one of those listed - one of the El Yucatecos was also), this may be a viable option if you want a table sauce with a lot more bite. The flavor is almost muted at first, compared to some of the other, but comes on nicely with the heat. I found a little goes a long way, not because it tastes bad, but because that allows it to mesh flavors well. It's something I wouldn't mind having again, but honestly don't see myself going out of my way to get, either.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 4
Flavor: 6
Flexibility: 5
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 7
Overall: 5
While casting about in a grocery store I very rarely drive by, let alone frequent, I happened down the condiment aisle, as is my usual wont, on the off-chance there was something there I hadn't tried yet and had an actual interest in doing so. Most of the sauces I skip because I either have already tried them or can read the label and generally extrapolate they will be of insufficient heat for me to bother with (I say this now, as I have a backlog of sauces still to go -- that might change as I run lower). In this case, it is yet another in the series of Mexican table sauces and the use of habanero means it will generally be in the right (or close enough) area heat-wise for it to be worthwhile.
The first time I tried this (at the same time as (reviewed last week) Born To Hula & more of the Zaaschila on some Taco Bell dreck -- same pepper, but 3 very different sauces, all failures in elevating the nasty tacos), it was a bust. But, keeping in mind that Mexican table sauces are designed largely with one specific style of food in mind, I kept at it.
If I had to try to pigeonhole the flavor, I would say it was a far smoother and much hotter version of the Valentina Xtra Hot (also reviewed in this blog). This is one of the first sauces based on habanero that actually acts as I expect it to, based on how the pepper reacts, namely, very low initial heat, but a constantly building presence. That is exactly what this one does. Instead of using the habanero hammer like El Yucateco Red (also reviewed in this blog) does, the heat comes on in waves. The flavor is much closer to the Valentina, though, as this is clearly intended to be a table sauce, albeit a much hotter one than normal for that category. It is not sizzling hot or anything; most chileheads will find this to be no challenge at all. Comparatively, it is probably slightly hotter at full blast than the El Yucateco Green, but not notably so.
Bottom line: Depending on if the fairly recent UNLV study on lead in Mexican table sauces concerns you (this sauce was one of those listed - one of the El Yucatecos was also), this may be a viable option if you want a table sauce with a lot more bite. The flavor is almost muted at first, compared to some of the other, but comes on nicely with the heat. I found a little goes a long way, not because it tastes bad, but because that allows it to mesh flavors well. It's something I wouldn't mind having again, but honestly don't see myself going out of my way to get, either.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 4
Flavor: 6
Flexibility: 5
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 7
Overall: 5
Sunday, September 29, 2013
Born To Hula Habanero Ancho Hot Sauce Review
Born To Hula Habanero Ancho Hot Sauce
Born To Hula is one of the companies I've been really interested in trying for a while (I keep a list - truly), due, again, in no small part to Scott's comments on their fine wares. This one is one that struck me as sort of interesting at first, but given that Ancho peppers are used fairly frequently in a variety of items, once I tried it, the glamour wore off pretty quickly.
I can sum this sauce up fairly quickly and easily by saying that it is more or less like the liquid from a really good bowl of chili, distilled down with a touch of vinegar and hint of lime, down into a hot sauce. I don't mean they actually did that, but with the Anchos and the cumin making their presence very heavily known, it is most reminiscent of that. Habanero is the fourth ingredient here and in no way dominates the taste, so probably the order of peppers in the sauce's name is backward, but there is enough heat to give it a small bite and a good little punch, but not really enough that I would consider it especially hot. The label calls it "MEDIUM" heat, but I think they're being fairly generous in that level description.
It is, however, a fantastic-tasting sauce (in fact, it is one of those rare sauces that is frequently better alone than with something) that is overall pretty flexible. I've been able to use this with success on taco salads and casseroles and a few other items, though, of course, the more oriented to either chili or Mexican food (not counting Taco Bell and that assorted ilk, which barely qualifies as food) you get, the better it works. It's a sauce that I'm enjoying and having a lot of fun with but not one I consider especially necessary.
Bottom line: Good craftsmanship in the creation of the sauce, good flavor, pretty decent flexibility and an ok amount of heat. I don't mind supporting the company at all because they're unquestionably one of the "good guys" out there, but it's hard for me to see a place for this in my line-up.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 4
Flavor: 8
Flexibility: 7
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 5
Overall: 6
Born To Hula is one of the companies I've been really interested in trying for a while (I keep a list - truly), due, again, in no small part to Scott's comments on their fine wares. This one is one that struck me as sort of interesting at first, but given that Ancho peppers are used fairly frequently in a variety of items, once I tried it, the glamour wore off pretty quickly.I can sum this sauce up fairly quickly and easily by saying that it is more or less like the liquid from a really good bowl of chili, distilled down with a touch of vinegar and hint of lime, down into a hot sauce. I don't mean they actually did that, but with the Anchos and the cumin making their presence very heavily known, it is most reminiscent of that. Habanero is the fourth ingredient here and in no way dominates the taste, so probably the order of peppers in the sauce's name is backward, but there is enough heat to give it a small bite and a good little punch, but not really enough that I would consider it especially hot. The label calls it "MEDIUM" heat, but I think they're being fairly generous in that level description.
It is, however, a fantastic-tasting sauce (in fact, it is one of those rare sauces that is frequently better alone than with something) that is overall pretty flexible. I've been able to use this with success on taco salads and casseroles and a few other items, though, of course, the more oriented to either chili or Mexican food (not counting Taco Bell and that assorted ilk, which barely qualifies as food) you get, the better it works. It's a sauce that I'm enjoying and having a lot of fun with but not one I consider especially necessary.
Bottom line: Good craftsmanship in the creation of the sauce, good flavor, pretty decent flexibility and an ok amount of heat. I don't mind supporting the company at all because they're unquestionably one of the "good guys" out there, but it's hard for me to see a place for this in my line-up.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 4
Flavor: 8
Flexibility: 7
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 5
Overall: 6
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Yelp + Misc.
After a bit of a layoff due to traveling for vacation, I should be back in order with reviews in the near future. I wanted to mention a couple items of note.
The first is that I have started a Yelp account. I have added it to my profile for this blog, but here it is again: http://d-dub.yelp.com/
The second item is that I've been leaning away from spicy foods a bit (travel generally not being the optimal time to gamble with gastrointestinal distress), but I had occasion recently to try the Spicy Doritos Locos tacos things at Taco Bell. When I saw Spicy Doritos, I thought they meant like the Spicy Nacho chips, but evidently they meant more like the noxious red powder they slop all over Cheeto-s and such. These are not worth eating. The Cool Ranch Doritos Locos tacos are still the best of the lot, but even those are no great shakes. The Spicy Doritos Locos tacos are, as expected, not hot at all. You'd be far better off sticking with the Volcanos, both in terms of taste and heat.
The first is that I have started a Yelp account. I have added it to my profile for this blog, but here it is again: http://d-dub.yelp.com/
The second item is that I've been leaning away from spicy foods a bit (travel generally not being the optimal time to gamble with gastrointestinal distress), but I had occasion recently to try the Spicy Doritos Locos tacos things at Taco Bell. When I saw Spicy Doritos, I thought they meant like the Spicy Nacho chips, but evidently they meant more like the noxious red powder they slop all over Cheeto-s and such. These are not worth eating. The Cool Ranch Doritos Locos tacos are still the best of the lot, but even those are no great shakes. The Spicy Doritos Locos tacos are, as expected, not hot at all. You'd be far better off sticking with the Volcanos, both in terms of taste and heat.
Friday, August 23, 2013
Amazon Hot'N Sweet Mango Hot Sauce Review
Amazon Hot 'N Sweet Mango Sauce
I got this one as part of a 4 pack, itself something I ordered to basically hit free freight from peppers.com on my last order, figuring if I got one sauce that I liked it, it would be better than paying freight. As it stands, so far I'm thinking I should have just ordered another bottle of Pure Death (reviewed elsewhere in this blog).
This is a sauce listed as mild and I busted it out since I was having Chick Fil-A chicken nuggets. I very quickly abandoned it as it took a fairly good-tasting breading and made it atrocious. I next tried it a few days later on a different chicken dish and later on fish and the taste is simply not good. It's a sour vaguely-mango-ish slightly-vinegary sauce with an hint of what is almost like spoiled habaneros. This is a sauce that detracts from whatever it's put on and the heat is entirely absent. There is literally no reason to use this sauce for anything and so far, the Amazon 4-pack is batting .000. 1 down, 3 to go...
Bottom line: As the conclusion of me posting this review, I'm going to toss this mostly full 3.3 fl. oz. bottle into the trash, which pretty much says it all, I think. In case it doesn't, this is a complete bust.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 0
Flavor: 0
Flexibility: 0
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 0
Overall: 0
I got this one as part of a 4 pack, itself something I ordered to basically hit free freight from peppers.com on my last order, figuring if I got one sauce that I liked it, it would be better than paying freight. As it stands, so far I'm thinking I should have just ordered another bottle of Pure Death (reviewed elsewhere in this blog).
This is a sauce listed as mild and I busted it out since I was having Chick Fil-A chicken nuggets. I very quickly abandoned it as it took a fairly good-tasting breading and made it atrocious. I next tried it a few days later on a different chicken dish and later on fish and the taste is simply not good. It's a sour vaguely-mango-ish slightly-vinegary sauce with an hint of what is almost like spoiled habaneros. This is a sauce that detracts from whatever it's put on and the heat is entirely absent. There is literally no reason to use this sauce for anything and so far, the Amazon 4-pack is batting .000. 1 down, 3 to go...
Bottom line: As the conclusion of me posting this review, I'm going to toss this mostly full 3.3 fl. oz. bottle into the trash, which pretty much says it all, I think. In case it doesn't, this is a complete bust.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 0
Flavor: 0
Flexibility: 0
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 0
Overall: 0
Saturday, August 17, 2013
Widow Maker Hot Sauce Review
Dan's Prime Widow Maker Hot Sauce
Saw this one while cruising the aisles of a grocery store I don't typically frequent and while I'm reluctant to throw down $3.50 for anything in a commercial grocery store (but will throw $7 at peppers.com for a same size bottle -- go figure), I decided to give this a whirl. For not typically having carrots in my sauce, I have run across it a lot lately. This is either the 4th or 5th in a row after a dry spell lasting literally years.
Widowmaker. The name confers something usually deadly or at least hazardous. While I would not expect that from any orange hab sauce, I thought maybe this one would be a nice surprise, ala the Habanero Hot Sauce From Hell I recently just finished (reviewed elsewhere in this blog). No such luck here. This is not a particularly bad-tasting sauce, but it frankly doesn't rise above marginal. The vinegar is a bit on the heavy side and while that doesn't usually put me off, the habaneros here are very slight and considerably blunted further by the carrots.
I think part of my irritation at this sauce is the disingenuous nature of it. Widowmaker has a large number of connotations, but none of them that I recall referred to a somewhat bland, pedestrian pepper sauce. The heat here is basically nonexistent. I suppose it is slightly hotter than nothing at all, but the astringency of the vinegar easily dominates any piquancy.
Bottom line: I don't see a future where I would ever buy this again. Even at $3.50/bottle, it is vastly overpriced for what it actually is. I suppose it is better than nothing at all, but only very slightly so.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 1
Flavor: 4
Flexibility: 4
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 0
Overall: 2
Saw this one while cruising the aisles of a grocery store I don't typically frequent and while I'm reluctant to throw down $3.50 for anything in a commercial grocery store (but will throw $7 at peppers.com for a same size bottle -- go figure), I decided to give this a whirl. For not typically having carrots in my sauce, I have run across it a lot lately. This is either the 4th or 5th in a row after a dry spell lasting literally years.
Widowmaker. The name confers something usually deadly or at least hazardous. While I would not expect that from any orange hab sauce, I thought maybe this one would be a nice surprise, ala the Habanero Hot Sauce From Hell I recently just finished (reviewed elsewhere in this blog). No such luck here. This is not a particularly bad-tasting sauce, but it frankly doesn't rise above marginal. The vinegar is a bit on the heavy side and while that doesn't usually put me off, the habaneros here are very slight and considerably blunted further by the carrots.
I think part of my irritation at this sauce is the disingenuous nature of it. Widowmaker has a large number of connotations, but none of them that I recall referred to a somewhat bland, pedestrian pepper sauce. The heat here is basically nonexistent. I suppose it is slightly hotter than nothing at all, but the astringency of the vinegar easily dominates any piquancy.
Bottom line: I don't see a future where I would ever buy this again. Even at $3.50/bottle, it is vastly overpriced for what it actually is. I suppose it is better than nothing at all, but only very slightly so.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 1
Flavor: 4
Flexibility: 4
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 0
Overall: 2
Zaaschila Habanero Hot Sauce Review
Zaaschila Habanero Hot Sauce
If you're like me, if you happen to be shopping at a place that has food, inevitably you'll hit the clearance rack or perhaps make it a point, which would be more like me. Case in point, this little gem, which I found at Wal-Mart for a buck. A buck for a new and untried hot sauce adventure is nearly always a gamble I'll take and though this one was not any great shakes, I've also had a lot worse.
This is another, like the Panola I reviewed here earlier, that I'm leaning towards calling Louisiana-by-way-of-Mexico style sauces in that they rely heavily on vinegar, but instead of using peppers like Cayenne or Tabasco, they're using orange habanero. Orange habanero, as well we know, has a very distinctive taste and they mostly just let it go here. There's a good amount of water, to thin things out beyond the vinegar and some carrots, to smooth out the harshness of those orange habs, but there's no mistaking what you're eating.
Despite this being the hottest in Zaaschila's line, there is nothing to give any chilehead worry or even the slightest of pause. This is relatively tame, around the level of El Yucateco Green (also reviewed elsewhere in this blog) but nowhere near that great flavor. It seems to work acceptably, again, not great and not bad, on a variety of foods, but it's not a sauce that will take a day-in, day-out pounding, like one would need in a go-to sauce. This is more like a "ok pick up at the clearance rack" type sauce. Nice to have on hand, but nothing world shattering if not and if you have something better in your refrigerator door, odds are you'll be reaching for it.
Bottom line: Yet another in an increasingly long line of "will do in a pinch" sauces. If it had slightly more heat, it would be basically an across the board average to slightly above average sauce. As it is, it's not anything I will be looking to replace when I run out. I'll enjoy it moderately while it's here and when it's gone, it's gone.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 2
Flavor: 5
Flexibility: 7
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 7
Overall: 5
If you're like me, if you happen to be shopping at a place that has food, inevitably you'll hit the clearance rack or perhaps make it a point, which would be more like me. Case in point, this little gem, which I found at Wal-Mart for a buck. A buck for a new and untried hot sauce adventure is nearly always a gamble I'll take and though this one was not any great shakes, I've also had a lot worse.This is another, like the Panola I reviewed here earlier, that I'm leaning towards calling Louisiana-by-way-of-Mexico style sauces in that they rely heavily on vinegar, but instead of using peppers like Cayenne or Tabasco, they're using orange habanero. Orange habanero, as well we know, has a very distinctive taste and they mostly just let it go here. There's a good amount of water, to thin things out beyond the vinegar and some carrots, to smooth out the harshness of those orange habs, but there's no mistaking what you're eating.
Despite this being the hottest in Zaaschila's line, there is nothing to give any chilehead worry or even the slightest of pause. This is relatively tame, around the level of El Yucateco Green (also reviewed elsewhere in this blog) but nowhere near that great flavor. It seems to work acceptably, again, not great and not bad, on a variety of foods, but it's not a sauce that will take a day-in, day-out pounding, like one would need in a go-to sauce. This is more like a "ok pick up at the clearance rack" type sauce. Nice to have on hand, but nothing world shattering if not and if you have something better in your refrigerator door, odds are you'll be reaching for it.
Bottom line: Yet another in an increasingly long line of "will do in a pinch" sauces. If it had slightly more heat, it would be basically an across the board average to slightly above average sauce. As it is, it's not anything I will be looking to replace when I run out. I'll enjoy it moderately while it's here and when it's gone, it's gone.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 2
Flavor: 5
Flexibility: 7
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 7
Overall: 5
Saturday, August 10, 2013
Bad Brains Fire Burn Babylon Hot Sauce Review
Heartbreaking Dawn's Bad Brains Fire Burn Babylon Hot Sauce
This is a sauce of firsts for me, first sauce I've had with the Scotch Bonnet pepper (I think the only major one yet I haven't hit is the 7-Pot) and first from Heartbreaking Dawn. This is another of the so-called "celebrity" sauces, this one from punk legends Bad Brains and it's designed to be a sort of Jamaican-type sauce.
Combining several elements as diverse as papaya (which is not one of my most-liked fruits) and dry mustard, the flavor concoction here is short of mind-blowing. I may as well just come right out and say it -- this is far and away the best fruit-based sauce I've ever had. The balance of the vinegar and Scotch Bonnets and mustard is done so amazingly skillfully that it's never sweet or cloying and all of the flavors are there, somehow, front and center and distinguishable. I'd say that is a major, major accomplishment.
Much like the Pure Death (reviewed elsewhere in this blog), this is such a good tasting sauce that it can be put on nearly anything (I'd say skip the milk and cereal) and it will positively enhance the flavor. It is also subtle and unlike the Pure Death, does not override the flavors as much as mesh with them. Also unlike Pure Death, this has very little heat, which is the only real downside here. The score of 2 I'm giving it is very generous...
Bottom line: Easily the best fruit-based sauce I've had, it has redeemed the papaya and fruit-based sauces in general for me. This is a sauce that is borderline drinkable and were it to have some decent modicum of heat, would be a strong contender to knock the current runaway favorite for sauce of the year in 2013, Pure Death, off its perch.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 2
Flavor: 9
Flexibility: 10
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 9
Overall: 8
This is a sauce of firsts for me, first sauce I've had with the Scotch Bonnet pepper (I think the only major one yet I haven't hit is the 7-Pot) and first from Heartbreaking Dawn. This is another of the so-called "celebrity" sauces, this one from punk legends Bad Brains and it's designed to be a sort of Jamaican-type sauce.
Combining several elements as diverse as papaya (which is not one of my most-liked fruits) and dry mustard, the flavor concoction here is short of mind-blowing. I may as well just come right out and say it -- this is far and away the best fruit-based sauce I've ever had. The balance of the vinegar and Scotch Bonnets and mustard is done so amazingly skillfully that it's never sweet or cloying and all of the flavors are there, somehow, front and center and distinguishable. I'd say that is a major, major accomplishment.
Much like the Pure Death (reviewed elsewhere in this blog), this is such a good tasting sauce that it can be put on nearly anything (I'd say skip the milk and cereal) and it will positively enhance the flavor. It is also subtle and unlike the Pure Death, does not override the flavors as much as mesh with them. Also unlike Pure Death, this has very little heat, which is the only real downside here. The score of 2 I'm giving it is very generous...
Bottom line: Easily the best fruit-based sauce I've had, it has redeemed the papaya and fruit-based sauces in general for me. This is a sauce that is borderline drinkable and were it to have some decent modicum of heat, would be a strong contender to knock the current runaway favorite for sauce of the year in 2013, Pure Death, off its perch.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 2
Flavor: 9
Flexibility: 10
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 9
Overall: 8
Friday, August 2, 2013
Sudden Death Hot Sauce Review
Blair's Sudden Death Hot Sauce
I had a list of all of the Blair's sauces I wanted to try because I think he's a very gifted sauce chef. I may not be in love with the majority of what he has done and for bringing extract to the fore as much as he has done, but I recognize and admire his skill and when he nails it, such as on the Pure Death (reviewed elsewhere here), he is nearly untouchable.
Not so much with Sudden Death. In fact, Sudden Death is what I call a "damn shame" sauce. I like the packaging and the coffin bit and so on, but when I opened the bottle, the contents had very clearly separated. I find that annoying, but not too big of a problem (most of the Wicked Cactus products need to be agitated basically before every pour), but it was off to a bad start. I tried the taste solo, a bit more than the suggested "microdrop" and found the flavor to be very intriguing. I liked where he was going for the 1.5 seconds before the extract hammer hit. I pressed on, though, undaunted, trying to get a handle on the flavor and here is the biggest fault of this sauce. There is a very good-tasting and flavorful sauce buried in there...somewhere, which is difficult to get in the smaller amounts, but increasing the dose just means you will be subject to a gigantic extract hit.
Rinse, wash, repeat.
When I saw extract (as pepper resin) in the ingredients (not sure how I missed it when I ordered), I figured I would probably be giving this one away, since the Stronger Than Death Berzerker sauce turned me completely off extract. I tried it anyway, just out of curiosity and will probably give it another shot or two, but the sauce, while good until the extract kicks in (not very long) is absolutely nasty once it does. After 3 or 4 bites, my thought was that I don't need to do this and I stopped shortly after that.
The heat, as might be expected, is up there quite a bit. I think this is Blair's 3 hottest Death sauce. I saw somewhere it was rated at 105K SHU and I don't doubt it. This is the hottest sauce I can remember purchasing (this puts me over the 100K mark) and the heat is pretty much immediate. It wasn't hot enough to make me hiccup -- not found anything that does that yet...should be an interesting effect if I ever do, but the heat is not really the issue here. It is the disgusting taste of extract.
Bottom line: I would keep this site around for drunken challenges at parties (parties that I no longer throw and haven't for years) and that's about it. I wouldn't purposely consume it, aside from curiosity (satisfied now) and to continue testing it until I get the chance to pass it on to someone else who may enjoy it more. It's too bad the extract is so forceful. The small part I was able to taste before that hit was pretty enjoyable, just not enough to endure the extract. I'm hopeful this will be the last sauce using extract I ever buy.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 8
Flavor: 1
Flexibility: 0
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 0
Overall: 2
I had a list of all of the Blair's sauces I wanted to try because I think he's a very gifted sauce chef. I may not be in love with the majority of what he has done and for bringing extract to the fore as much as he has done, but I recognize and admire his skill and when he nails it, such as on the Pure Death (reviewed elsewhere here), he is nearly untouchable.
Not so much with Sudden Death. In fact, Sudden Death is what I call a "damn shame" sauce. I like the packaging and the coffin bit and so on, but when I opened the bottle, the contents had very clearly separated. I find that annoying, but not too big of a problem (most of the Wicked Cactus products need to be agitated basically before every pour), but it was off to a bad start. I tried the taste solo, a bit more than the suggested "microdrop" and found the flavor to be very intriguing. I liked where he was going for the 1.5 seconds before the extract hammer hit. I pressed on, though, undaunted, trying to get a handle on the flavor and here is the biggest fault of this sauce. There is a very good-tasting and flavorful sauce buried in there...somewhere, which is difficult to get in the smaller amounts, but increasing the dose just means you will be subject to a gigantic extract hit.
Rinse, wash, repeat.
When I saw extract (as pepper resin) in the ingredients (not sure how I missed it when I ordered), I figured I would probably be giving this one away, since the Stronger Than Death Berzerker sauce turned me completely off extract. I tried it anyway, just out of curiosity and will probably give it another shot or two, but the sauce, while good until the extract kicks in (not very long) is absolutely nasty once it does. After 3 or 4 bites, my thought was that I don't need to do this and I stopped shortly after that.
The heat, as might be expected, is up there quite a bit. I think this is Blair's 3 hottest Death sauce. I saw somewhere it was rated at 105K SHU and I don't doubt it. This is the hottest sauce I can remember purchasing (this puts me over the 100K mark) and the heat is pretty much immediate. It wasn't hot enough to make me hiccup -- not found anything that does that yet...should be an interesting effect if I ever do, but the heat is not really the issue here. It is the disgusting taste of extract.
Bottom line: I would keep this site around for drunken challenges at parties (parties that I no longer throw and haven't for years) and that's about it. I wouldn't purposely consume it, aside from curiosity (satisfied now) and to continue testing it until I get the chance to pass it on to someone else who may enjoy it more. It's too bad the extract is so forceful. The small part I was able to taste before that hit was pretty enjoyable, just not enough to endure the extract. I'm hopeful this will be the last sauce using extract I ever buy.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 8
Flavor: 1
Flexibility: 0
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 0
Overall: 2
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Ghost Of The Samurai Hot Sauce Review
Wicked Cactus Ghost Of The Samurai Hot Sauce
This is one of the few remaining of the buy I did because of the Ultimate Hot Sauce showdown devised by Scott Roberts. With it, I noticed an emerging pattern that seems to frequently show up with with Wicked Cactus, which I can describe by them taking a sauce already in existence and, in this case, stepping on it first, and then re-bottling it. I have less of an issue with this than some of the other, since I like Teriyaki and keep some Yoshida's on hand, but part of me feels like this is a huge cheat. I step on BBQ sauce all the time and I suppose it wouldn't take much to go get some ghost chili powder and mix it into the Yoshida's.
This is a fairly fierce sauce and given that it is predominantly a teriyaki sauce (although the consistency is closer to soy sauce), its applications are inherently limited. Try and think of the last time you had a bad teriyaki sauce and I imagine you'll have difficulty. It's a fairly safe sauce choice, but think of how many times you use it. I do fully plan on this being something I try on the grill, once I get more fuel and if I run out of BICH, but despite it being overall a pretty decent-tasting sauce, I don't know that I would buy it again.
Bottom line: I can forgive them for taking existing items and blending them together when it's a good-tasting sauce -- and this one is definitely that...if nothing else, they seem to be using a high quality base -- but I don't think it demonstrates much skill or originality. I won't go so far as to say it's a cheat, but it gives me enough pause that I don't expect to be buying too many more sauces from Wicked Cactus...unless it's something I can't get elsewhere or is so well-done, like Wrath Of The Tiger (reviewed elsewhere in the blog) that it can overcome that.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 7
Flavor: 8
Flexibility: 4
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 6
Overall: 6
This is one of the few remaining of the buy I did because of the Ultimate Hot Sauce showdown devised by Scott Roberts. With it, I noticed an emerging pattern that seems to frequently show up with with Wicked Cactus, which I can describe by them taking a sauce already in existence and, in this case, stepping on it first, and then re-bottling it. I have less of an issue with this than some of the other, since I like Teriyaki and keep some Yoshida's on hand, but part of me feels like this is a huge cheat. I step on BBQ sauce all the time and I suppose it wouldn't take much to go get some ghost chili powder and mix it into the Yoshida's.
This is a fairly fierce sauce and given that it is predominantly a teriyaki sauce (although the consistency is closer to soy sauce), its applications are inherently limited. Try and think of the last time you had a bad teriyaki sauce and I imagine you'll have difficulty. It's a fairly safe sauce choice, but think of how many times you use it. I do fully plan on this being something I try on the grill, once I get more fuel and if I run out of BICH, but despite it being overall a pretty decent-tasting sauce, I don't know that I would buy it again.
Bottom line: I can forgive them for taking existing items and blending them together when it's a good-tasting sauce -- and this one is definitely that...if nothing else, they seem to be using a high quality base -- but I don't think it demonstrates much skill or originality. I won't go so far as to say it's a cheat, but it gives me enough pause that I don't expect to be buying too many more sauces from Wicked Cactus...unless it's something I can't get elsewhere or is so well-done, like Wrath Of The Tiger (reviewed elsewhere in the blog) that it can overcome that.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 7
Flavor: 8
Flexibility: 4
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 6
Overall: 6
Saturday, July 20, 2013
Maggi Sweet Chili Sauce Review
Maggi Mild Sweet Chili Sauce
In my quest to find the mystery sweet hot chili sauce that had eluded me for so long, I picked up this bottle as soon as I saw it and congratulated myself for being a dunce. Of course! Maggi, a name synonymous (to me) with Asian cuisine, that brown bottle of a sauce called simply "Seasoning" with the yellow and red label in the cupboard or on the table of nearly every Asian home I ever visited or restaurant I frequented. This had to be it! Now, I bought this before I tried the Wicked Cactus Wrath Of The Tiger hot sauce (also reviewed elsewhere in this blog) and that one came pretty close to how I remembered that sauce and I enjoyed it a great deal, enough so that I will buy it again, but if this turned out to be the actual thing...
Short story shorter, no, it is not. This one is a lot chunkier and midway between the gloppy sauces like Thai Kitchen and the more runny versions, like the aforementioned Wrath Of The Tiger. The taste is excellent, exactly what a sweet chili/garlic sauce should be, not too sweet and not too heavy on the garlic side. If it was just a bit runnier, the consistency would be nearly dead on the money. The heat level is probably a bit higher to non-chileheads, but for me, it was just enough to be there, nothing major, but a nice little sizzle to give it just a touch of bite. The labeling is mostly Chinese, Mandarin, if I'm reading it right, was probably imported and intended for one of those grocers or possibly a Thai or Vietnamese market.
Bottom line: In researching Maggi (still not sure how I could have forgotten them as a potential source -- at one time, I was eating their products daily), they have several other variations that appear to be a bit runnier, including a Thai chili sauce, so I may try to hunt those down. While this is not the one I had in mind, it is a wonderfully tasty sauce, albeit a bit on the thicker side for my liking.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 1
Flavor: 8
Flexibility: 7
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 8
Overall: 6
In my quest to find the mystery sweet hot chili sauce that had eluded me for so long, I picked up this bottle as soon as I saw it and congratulated myself for being a dunce. Of course! Maggi, a name synonymous (to me) with Asian cuisine, that brown bottle of a sauce called simply "Seasoning" with the yellow and red label in the cupboard or on the table of nearly every Asian home I ever visited or restaurant I frequented. This had to be it! Now, I bought this before I tried the Wicked Cactus Wrath Of The Tiger hot sauce (also reviewed elsewhere in this blog) and that one came pretty close to how I remembered that sauce and I enjoyed it a great deal, enough so that I will buy it again, but if this turned out to be the actual thing...Short story shorter, no, it is not. This one is a lot chunkier and midway between the gloppy sauces like Thai Kitchen and the more runny versions, like the aforementioned Wrath Of The Tiger. The taste is excellent, exactly what a sweet chili/garlic sauce should be, not too sweet and not too heavy on the garlic side. If it was just a bit runnier, the consistency would be nearly dead on the money. The heat level is probably a bit higher to non-chileheads, but for me, it was just enough to be there, nothing major, but a nice little sizzle to give it just a touch of bite. The labeling is mostly Chinese, Mandarin, if I'm reading it right, was probably imported and intended for one of those grocers or possibly a Thai or Vietnamese market.
Bottom line: In researching Maggi (still not sure how I could have forgotten them as a potential source -- at one time, I was eating their products daily), they have several other variations that appear to be a bit runnier, including a Thai chili sauce, so I may try to hunt those down. While this is not the one I had in mind, it is a wonderfully tasty sauce, albeit a bit on the thicker side for my liking.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 1
Flavor: 8
Flexibility: 7
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 8
Overall: 6
Saturday, July 13, 2013
Habanero Hot Sauce From Hell Review
Habanero Hot Sauce From Hell
Oddly enough, this is the first sauce I've had with carrot as ingredient. I've been very curious about trying one of the carrot sauces, but idly and this one was sort of by surprise. I got this during one of my initial "waves" of hot sauce buying (I typically buy around $75 at a time or whatever it takes for free shipping) during a Black Friday sale, if memory serves right and it sat there and sat there on my shelf, staring at me with its hokey packaging until I finally ran through almost of all of my most recent wave and I finally threw down and said to Hell with it and cracked it open.
I was, of course, immediately regretful I waited that long. What I found was a sauce that was delicious, complex and seemed a brilliant marriage of the best that Louisiana-style sauces and red habanero sauces have to offer. There was the comforting familiarity, like that of an old friend, like something I'd had and enjoyed a million times, the back end heat of the habaneros, the muted yet present blast of something like El Yucateco Red (reviewed in this blog elsewhere), though much hotter than that particular sauce and a new aspect, which I'm attributing to the carrots.
This is one of those sauces that takes a bit to get going, but it does a decent job of lighting one up, mainly because it's so good, it's difficult to stop eating. At times, though, the level of heat makes me wonder if there's not some (unlisted) extract in there. It doesn't have the sustained effect of an actual extract sauce, but it definitely has some good charge. It's not on the level of deliciousness of say, Pure Death (also reviewed elsewhere in this blog) or Red Devil, two of my most favorites sauces ever, but it is very, very good, across a pretty wide variety of foods. The packaging is actually a disservice to the sauce, which is definitely something you should by trying, if you haven't already.
Bottom line: This is a sauce orange in color, but don't let that or the stupid graphics of the label fool you. This one packs a pretty decent wallop and it's an excellent habanero sauce, skillfully blending the best of both straight habanero sauces, Louisiana-style sauces with the addition of carrots providing a unique twist.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 3
Flavor: 8
Flexibility: 9
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 10
Overall: 8
Oddly enough, this is the first sauce I've had with carrot as ingredient. I've been very curious about trying one of the carrot sauces, but idly and this one was sort of by surprise. I got this during one of my initial "waves" of hot sauce buying (I typically buy around $75 at a time or whatever it takes for free shipping) during a Black Friday sale, if memory serves right and it sat there and sat there on my shelf, staring at me with its hokey packaging until I finally ran through almost of all of my most recent wave and I finally threw down and said to Hell with it and cracked it open.I was, of course, immediately regretful I waited that long. What I found was a sauce that was delicious, complex and seemed a brilliant marriage of the best that Louisiana-style sauces and red habanero sauces have to offer. There was the comforting familiarity, like that of an old friend, like something I'd had and enjoyed a million times, the back end heat of the habaneros, the muted yet present blast of something like El Yucateco Red (reviewed in this blog elsewhere), though much hotter than that particular sauce and a new aspect, which I'm attributing to the carrots.
This is one of those sauces that takes a bit to get going, but it does a decent job of lighting one up, mainly because it's so good, it's difficult to stop eating. At times, though, the level of heat makes me wonder if there's not some (unlisted) extract in there. It doesn't have the sustained effect of an actual extract sauce, but it definitely has some good charge. It's not on the level of deliciousness of say, Pure Death (also reviewed elsewhere in this blog) or Red Devil, two of my most favorites sauces ever, but it is very, very good, across a pretty wide variety of foods. The packaging is actually a disservice to the sauce, which is definitely something you should by trying, if you haven't already.
Bottom line: This is a sauce orange in color, but don't let that or the stupid graphics of the label fool you. This one packs a pretty decent wallop and it's an excellent habanero sauce, skillfully blending the best of both straight habanero sauces, Louisiana-style sauces with the addition of carrots providing a unique twist.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 3
Flavor: 8
Flexibility: 9
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 10
Overall: 8
Thursday, July 4, 2013
Creole Demon Hot Sauce Review
Wicked Cactus Creole Demon Hot Sauce
As I alluded to in the Headhunter's Paradise review, there is some discontinuity with the labeling of the actual sauces. In this case, it's a whopper in that the website mentions vinegar being in the sauce, which is absolutely necessary for a Louisiana-style sauce, this being the market this is going for, yet there is no vinegar listed on the bottle nor is it apparent in the taste of the sauce. That is one mainstay of sauces that is very hard to miss and it is simply not present.
So, we have a Louisiana-style sauce that is missing the perhaps the most dominant and critical ingredient of that kind of sauces. I suppose that can be forgiven if the sauce tastes good and unfortunately, this one does not, overall. It does taste fantastic in cream-style soups, such as chowders (probably the clam juice element is helping here) and I'm guessing it might not be bad in a Bloody Mary, but unless you're eating (or drinking) a lot of those, there is no reason to have this sauce. The taste is strong enough that it becomes a distraction and is not very pleasant tasting and so detracts from everything else otherwise.
There is a very mild sort of heat here, another reason where it works so well in that style of soup as it adds "just enough" heat. It is overall so minor, though that it nowhere near compensates enough for the taste and can easily get masked by the more stronger-flavored foods, which again renders it sort of pointless.
Bottom line: The perfect analogy here is that this is the Old Bay Seasoning of hot sauces, whereas it is very, very good at one particular thing and mediocre to, at times, outright disgusting outside of that context. Unlike Old Bay, though, this is a liquid sauce that easily and repeatedly separates and has a much lower shelf life, so it is more dubious to have this one on hand...which I will most likely not much longer...
Breakdown:
Heat level: 1
Flavor: 2
Flexibility: 0
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 1
Overall: 1
As I alluded to in the Headhunter's Paradise review, there is some discontinuity with the labeling of the actual sauces. In this case, it's a whopper in that the website mentions vinegar being in the sauce, which is absolutely necessary for a Louisiana-style sauce, this being the market this is going for, yet there is no vinegar listed on the bottle nor is it apparent in the taste of the sauce. That is one mainstay of sauces that is very hard to miss and it is simply not present.
So, we have a Louisiana-style sauce that is missing the perhaps the most dominant and critical ingredient of that kind of sauces. I suppose that can be forgiven if the sauce tastes good and unfortunately, this one does not, overall. It does taste fantastic in cream-style soups, such as chowders (probably the clam juice element is helping here) and I'm guessing it might not be bad in a Bloody Mary, but unless you're eating (or drinking) a lot of those, there is no reason to have this sauce. The taste is strong enough that it becomes a distraction and is not very pleasant tasting and so detracts from everything else otherwise.
There is a very mild sort of heat here, another reason where it works so well in that style of soup as it adds "just enough" heat. It is overall so minor, though that it nowhere near compensates enough for the taste and can easily get masked by the more stronger-flavored foods, which again renders it sort of pointless.
Bottom line: The perfect analogy here is that this is the Old Bay Seasoning of hot sauces, whereas it is very, very good at one particular thing and mediocre to, at times, outright disgusting outside of that context. Unlike Old Bay, though, this is a liquid sauce that easily and repeatedly separates and has a much lower shelf life, so it is more dubious to have this one on hand...which I will most likely not much longer...
Breakdown:
Heat level: 1
Flavor: 2
Flexibility: 0
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 1
Overall: 1
Saturday, June 29, 2013
Tabasco Habanero Hot Sauce Review
Tabasco Habanero Hot Sauce
I don't think I especially owe Tabasco anything. They probably were my introduction to hot sauce, but I recall being very turned off the first time I had the watery vinegary stuff. I'm not a huge fan of the Tabasco pepper in general and were it not for some coupons, I probably wouldn't have gotten it at all. Still, I like to try new foods and the last thing I had from Tabasco prior to the Chipotle I reviewed recently was the Jalapeno, which I thought tasted ok, but didn't have any heat and thus made there little point in me getting it again.
Much like the Blazin' Saddles Tabasco/Habanero sauce I also reviewed in this blog, this one comes in a dropper bottle, in this case the traditional Tabasco brand "cologne" bottles. Most times I dislike that, but in this case, I think it works well to control the sauce, certainly much better than the Blazin' Saddles. Aside from that, there is little to add to that review. In comparison, it is a little less harsh, a lot less hot and costs about double. Aside from that, the two sauces are more like brothers than distant cousins. The ingredients are very similar, though the Tabasco lists onions, though, as well all know, with how thin Tabasco likes to run their sauces, this means onion powder (which I can tolerate considerably better than actual onions...at least in small doses).
Bottom line: Much like the Blazin' Saddles, I don't mind having this on hand, but it certainly is no replacement for anything. This is the hottest of Tabasco's line and there is precious little heat to be had there at all and the taste, while tolerable and better than the Original, is nothing spectacular. Basically a take it or leave it sauce.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 2
Flavor: 6
Flexibility: 7
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 6
Overall: 5
I don't think I especially owe Tabasco anything. They probably were my introduction to hot sauce, but I recall being very turned off the first time I had the watery vinegary stuff. I'm not a huge fan of the Tabasco pepper in general and were it not for some coupons, I probably wouldn't have gotten it at all. Still, I like to try new foods and the last thing I had from Tabasco prior to the Chipotle I reviewed recently was the Jalapeno, which I thought tasted ok, but didn't have any heat and thus made there little point in me getting it again.Much like the Blazin' Saddles Tabasco/Habanero sauce I also reviewed in this blog, this one comes in a dropper bottle, in this case the traditional Tabasco brand "cologne" bottles. Most times I dislike that, but in this case, I think it works well to control the sauce, certainly much better than the Blazin' Saddles. Aside from that, there is little to add to that review. In comparison, it is a little less harsh, a lot less hot and costs about double. Aside from that, the two sauces are more like brothers than distant cousins. The ingredients are very similar, though the Tabasco lists onions, though, as well all know, with how thin Tabasco likes to run their sauces, this means onion powder (which I can tolerate considerably better than actual onions...at least in small doses).
Bottom line: Much like the Blazin' Saddles, I don't mind having this on hand, but it certainly is no replacement for anything. This is the hottest of Tabasco's line and there is precious little heat to be had there at all and the taste, while tolerable and better than the Original, is nothing spectacular. Basically a take it or leave it sauce.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 2
Flavor: 6
Flexibility: 7
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 6
Overall: 5
Friday, June 28, 2013
Wrath Of The Tiger Hot Sauce Review
Wicked Cactus Head Hunter's Paradise Hot Sauce
If anyone out there has been reading along, you may have noted that I've been on the search for a while now for a vaunted Asian style sweet chili sauce that I had a number of years ago, loved and couldn't find again. I've gone through several sweet garlic chili sauces and sweet chili sauces in the hopes, maybe not so much that one of them was it, but that one of them was close or along the same level. After miss after miss after miss, I finally have something worthy.
This sauce is by far the closest, with lovely chunks of the Thai peppers, dried, of course and some additional items like ginger and horseradish (which appears very little) to round out things. It is a good balance of sweet and sort of hot. This is another sauce from Wicked Cactus that has very different levels of heat in the beginning stages as it does the rest of the bottle, despite heavy agitation. This is not enough to make me not buy this, but it is prevalent enough for me to note.
I've found this to work very well across a fairly wide variety of dishes, Asian, of course, but some others I didn't expect. It is a very good tasting sauce and I'm nearing the end of the bottle already. This is the first entry in their line I would consider buying again and after the dismal performance of the earlier two bottles I opened and reviewed from them, it's good to see.
Bottom line: While this is not an exact replica of that earlier mystery sauce, I think this may be the closest I'm going to get and I'm thrilled to death to find it. There are a number of things that I could think of to improve, but nothing else is even in the running.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 4
Flavor: 8
Flexibility: 8
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 8
Overall: 7
If anyone out there has been reading along, you may have noted that I've been on the search for a while now for a vaunted Asian style sweet chili sauce that I had a number of years ago, loved and couldn't find again. I've gone through several sweet garlic chili sauces and sweet chili sauces in the hopes, maybe not so much that one of them was it, but that one of them was close or along the same level. After miss after miss after miss, I finally have something worthy.
This sauce is by far the closest, with lovely chunks of the Thai peppers, dried, of course and some additional items like ginger and horseradish (which appears very little) to round out things. It is a good balance of sweet and sort of hot. This is another sauce from Wicked Cactus that has very different levels of heat in the beginning stages as it does the rest of the bottle, despite heavy agitation. This is not enough to make me not buy this, but it is prevalent enough for me to note.
I've found this to work very well across a fairly wide variety of dishes, Asian, of course, but some others I didn't expect. It is a very good tasting sauce and I'm nearing the end of the bottle already. This is the first entry in their line I would consider buying again and after the dismal performance of the earlier two bottles I opened and reviewed from them, it's good to see.
Bottom line: While this is not an exact replica of that earlier mystery sauce, I think this may be the closest I'm going to get and I'm thrilled to death to find it. There are a number of things that I could think of to improve, but nothing else is even in the running.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 4
Flavor: 8
Flexibility: 8
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 8
Overall: 7
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Head Hunter's Paradise Hot Sauce Review
Wicked Cactus Head Hunter's Paradise Hot Sauce
In another in an increasingly long line of sauces I acquired as a result of the Ultimate Hot Sauce competition going now at www.scottrobertsweb.com, we see a return to the fruit-based sauces. I admit that I was somewhat excited after reading Scott's review of it. Scott makes it sound positively glorious and perhaps it was when he reviewed it in 2010. Fast forward 3 years to now, though and we have a different story.
Gone is that vibrant sort of orangey color of the sauce in his pictures. Replaced instead is a sort of dingy brown with flecks of dark bits, which I presume is the roasted red bell pepper. There is no dropper cap, which is good because it would be largely impossible to get this out otherwise. The texture of the sauce is also considerably different than it appears in the spoon in his picture. Instead, it comes out largely in glops of stringy pineapple fibers. Habanero, instead of being the third ingredient, as it was on his bottle, is now gone entirely, though I presume it was a label misprint as the last ingredient on mine simply reads "Smoked" and I'm assuming that is to be smoked habanero. The text is also in a slightly different font as well. I know sauce manufacturers like to refine things for various reasons, a motivation I would hope is improvement, but I can't help but think that I would rather have had the sauce Scott had.
Regardless of those differences, this is not a bad sauce by any means. It seems very flexible and winds up making a nice compliment, especially in heat, to a variety of foods that I had little hope for. That the bottle is nearly gone as I write this should be some testament to its tastiness and versatility. The sweetness, while present, is far from overbearing, yet it sometimes will make things taste "off", especially in conjunction with the apple cider vinegar. The smokiness aspect and the nice degree of heat, again, far from scorching, are enough to offset some of the less appealing aspects of this. By itself, it is a somewhat strange conglomeration of the oranges, vinegar, pineapple and smoked habaneros, but when added to food, it does tend to blend well and add to the flavor and enjoyment, which is what a good hot sauce should do. It is not good enough to stand alone, however, to use as a dipping sauce, for instance...
Bottom line: When this bottle is gone, I don't know that I will get another. I do not enjoy the neck of the bottle being clotted constantly, no matter how well the sauce is agitated and the gloppiness makes it more of a challenge to get a desired amount than I would like. The taste is not spectacular but nor is it sub par. It is another sauce that I would label overall as just ok.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 4
Flavor: 5
Flexibility: 6
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 6
Overall: 5
In another in an increasingly long line of sauces I acquired as a result of the Ultimate Hot Sauce competition going now at www.scottrobertsweb.com, we see a return to the fruit-based sauces. I admit that I was somewhat excited after reading Scott's review of it. Scott makes it sound positively glorious and perhaps it was when he reviewed it in 2010. Fast forward 3 years to now, though and we have a different story.
Gone is that vibrant sort of orangey color of the sauce in his pictures. Replaced instead is a sort of dingy brown with flecks of dark bits, which I presume is the roasted red bell pepper. There is no dropper cap, which is good because it would be largely impossible to get this out otherwise. The texture of the sauce is also considerably different than it appears in the spoon in his picture. Instead, it comes out largely in glops of stringy pineapple fibers. Habanero, instead of being the third ingredient, as it was on his bottle, is now gone entirely, though I presume it was a label misprint as the last ingredient on mine simply reads "Smoked" and I'm assuming that is to be smoked habanero. The text is also in a slightly different font as well. I know sauce manufacturers like to refine things for various reasons, a motivation I would hope is improvement, but I can't help but think that I would rather have had the sauce Scott had.
Regardless of those differences, this is not a bad sauce by any means. It seems very flexible and winds up making a nice compliment, especially in heat, to a variety of foods that I had little hope for. That the bottle is nearly gone as I write this should be some testament to its tastiness and versatility. The sweetness, while present, is far from overbearing, yet it sometimes will make things taste "off", especially in conjunction with the apple cider vinegar. The smokiness aspect and the nice degree of heat, again, far from scorching, are enough to offset some of the less appealing aspects of this. By itself, it is a somewhat strange conglomeration of the oranges, vinegar, pineapple and smoked habaneros, but when added to food, it does tend to blend well and add to the flavor and enjoyment, which is what a good hot sauce should do. It is not good enough to stand alone, however, to use as a dipping sauce, for instance...
Bottom line: When this bottle is gone, I don't know that I will get another. I do not enjoy the neck of the bottle being clotted constantly, no matter how well the sauce is agitated and the gloppiness makes it more of a challenge to get a desired amount than I would like. The taste is not spectacular but nor is it sub par. It is another sauce that I would label overall as just ok.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 4
Flavor: 5
Flexibility: 6
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 6
Overall: 5
Friday, June 21, 2013
Rogue Hot Sauce Review
High River Sauces Rogue Hot Sauce
Note: This sauce appeared in Season Two of The Hot Ones.
Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-7zgMqNKPA
This is the last of the High River line I bought for the occasion of the Ultimate Hot Sauce Tournament brewing at Scott Robert's website (www.scottrobertsweb.com) and admittedly, I have been putting this review off for a while. Part of it is because I keep finding new and (more) exciting stuff but part of it is because I'm not quite sure what to make of this.
Like the Grapes Of Wrath and Tears Of The Sun from this company (both reviewed in this blog), my feelings are a bit less than glowing. Possibly fruit-based sauces, though I dearly love sweet-hot, is not going to be something I'm going to be a good audience for. Rogue is intriguing in the blend of Scorpion peppers and blood oranges, which I wouldn't have anticipated being chosen, but I think the combination works. Maybe it doesn't work well for me, but it does work to an extent.
The sauce has an odd taste to it that I quickly tire of. It's not bad, per se, more that I just don't want to have it repeatedly or to a great extent. It's not bad enough that I want to pitch the bottle, yet not good enough to use very often or buy again. It does not mesh fantastically with too many foods, which makes it a bit hard to use. It does work well for a chicken nuggets or strips dipping sauce but doesn't have enough complexity to handle some of the other fare I run across. The sweetness frequently becomes too distracting.
It reminds me a lot of the Asian sweet-chili garlic sauces, in a lot of ways, in that while not gloppy, it has some of that same "feel" and a bit of that kind of taste. I think an attempt was made to cut that down with the vinegar, but a higher quality vinegar would have been better here, I think, perhaps a nice red wine vinegar. The Scorpion peppers don't take long to kick in and smash that comparison, but the relation to the Asian sweet sauce is still present to an extent.
The Scorpion peppers are really the highlight here and those are very nice. It takes a while before those to start roaring, which is nicely done. You can get into a decent amount of the sauce before you begin to get really lit up yet there is plenty of heat, heat enough to let you know loud and clear that it's present and accounted for.
Bottom line: There are some highs and lows here and overall, balancing those aspects, this is sort of an average sauce. I wouldn't turn it down but nor would I seek it out and if there was something better, I wouldn't give it a second look. Still, not a ton of people using the Scorpions and this is another very nicely done and well-crafted sauce, even if I find it underwhelming.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 3
Flavor: 4
Flexibility: 4
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 4
Overall: 4
Saturday, June 15, 2013
Firehouse Hot Sauce Review
CaJohn's Firehouse Hot Sauce
Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kHG6bq-Kqs
This is one I had really high hopes for and was greatly anticipating. I haven't had anything from CaJohn's that I thought was less than good to great and haven't even heard of anyone else finding anything from them much different than me. Add to this the awards this particular sauce has won, some of them recently and the fact that it seems like a Louisiana-style sauce and I start thinking that this could be a contender to dethrone the mighty heavyweight champ, Red Devil. Maybe?
No.
McCormick's (the nation-wide dry spice seller) makes a product called Hot Shot!. I've gone through countless bottles of it and find it one step from essential for a lot of things that I cook, especially crockpot chili. It is nothing you would ever want to use by itself, because it has a very distinct and bitter taste, but it imparts a decent heat and a very nice flavor, if used in moderation, again because of that characteristic bitter hallmark. Despite having cracked pepper, it doesn't have a lot of that freshly ground oily pepper flavor that we all know and love as much as it has something else...McCormick's describes the dominant flavor profiles as "Heat" and "Woody." Firehouse tastes a lot to me like liquified Hot Shot!.
It doesn't really have that degree of heat, paltry as I may find that now, but it does have that flavor...looking at the CaJohn's website, it states that this has something called Fire Dust in it, which is evidently a proprietary blend of dry peppers similar to the Hot Shot!. That explains that part nicely.
While a lot of people seem to really like the taste of this sauce, to me, it quickly becomes a distraction I would rather not have. It has ranged mostly to being ok on whatever I put it on, as long as I'm very judicious about the amount, but I nearly always reach for something else. Given that my refrigerator shelves are getting full again, it's hard to see where this will find a place. Also, it really does not have the vinegary "bite" that is expected and anticipated (and desired, on my part) in a good Louisiana sauce.
Bottom line: With very moderate heat and a flavor that to me seems to be better served as passenger rather than driver, this sauce is a big miss in my book. It's a pretty far cry from Red Devil, yet not quite bad enough to toss out entirely. I imagine it will take me a few months to finish the one bottle I will ever have, though...
Breakdown:
Heat level: 2
Flavor: 4
Flexibility: 4
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 1
Overall: 3
Saturday, June 8, 2013
Smokin' Gun Hot Sauce Review
Wicked Cactus Smokin' Gun
We may as well just get right into it. Despite me having high hopes for the Wicked Cactus line going in (I bought almost the entire line), this particularly entry is one of the most disappointing things I've had. If you're like me, chipotle is on your list. I've got powdered chipotle, dried chipotles and more than a passing familiarity with Embasa or La Costena or Herdez, in a pinch or even San Marcos, if they can be found, canned chipotles. Most of them come in something called adobo sauce, which features vinegar, spices and sometimes ancho chiles.
To be blunt, this product could have begun and ended with its first ingredient, "Chipotle Peppers in Adobe,", assuming they mean adobo as in sauce rather than actual adobe as in building material. Listing water and vinegar as ingredients is a bit redundant as those are already in adobo sauce and while the lime juice and roasted garlic that make up the rest of the ingredient lists may or may not be present already, the amount here is so miniscule as to escape detection, particularly in the context of the smokiness of the chipotles and the prominence of the adobo sauce.
Again, assuming you're familiar with canned chipotles, you're already aware that the adobo sauce can add a flavorful addition to something, but is not very good by itself. What we have here strikes me as someone pouring off the adobo from the canned chipotles, possibly blending or pureeing the chipotle peppers in the sauce and then re-bottling it, probably with the additional vinegar and water and possibly the lime juice as thinning agents. As with the adobo sauce, there is little to no heat here and I'm hard pressed to give this much credence as a hot sauce at all. It certainly isn't hot and is no more flavorful than the adobo sauce from any of those brands of canned chipotles I mentioned.
Bottom line: It's difficult to the point of impossible for me to see the function of this sauce. Canned chipotles are not exactly expensive and you could as easily make this sauce at home. I'm rating this sauce taken by itself, but, again, like the adobo, it will probably work well with something else, rather than standalone. As a standalone, however, it is not really worth bothering with.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 0
Flavor: 2
Flexibility: 2
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 0
Overall: 1
We may as well just get right into it. Despite me having high hopes for the Wicked Cactus line going in (I bought almost the entire line), this particularly entry is one of the most disappointing things I've had. If you're like me, chipotle is on your list. I've got powdered chipotle, dried chipotles and more than a passing familiarity with Embasa or La Costena or Herdez, in a pinch or even San Marcos, if they can be found, canned chipotles. Most of them come in something called adobo sauce, which features vinegar, spices and sometimes ancho chiles.
To be blunt, this product could have begun and ended with its first ingredient, "Chipotle Peppers in Adobe,", assuming they mean adobo as in sauce rather than actual adobe as in building material. Listing water and vinegar as ingredients is a bit redundant as those are already in adobo sauce and while the lime juice and roasted garlic that make up the rest of the ingredient lists may or may not be present already, the amount here is so miniscule as to escape detection, particularly in the context of the smokiness of the chipotles and the prominence of the adobo sauce.
Again, assuming you're familiar with canned chipotles, you're already aware that the adobo sauce can add a flavorful addition to something, but is not very good by itself. What we have here strikes me as someone pouring off the adobo from the canned chipotles, possibly blending or pureeing the chipotle peppers in the sauce and then re-bottling it, probably with the additional vinegar and water and possibly the lime juice as thinning agents. As with the adobo sauce, there is little to no heat here and I'm hard pressed to give this much credence as a hot sauce at all. It certainly isn't hot and is no more flavorful than the adobo sauce from any of those brands of canned chipotles I mentioned.
Bottom line: It's difficult to the point of impossible for me to see the function of this sauce. Canned chipotles are not exactly expensive and you could as easily make this sauce at home. I'm rating this sauce taken by itself, but, again, like the adobo, it will probably work well with something else, rather than standalone. As a standalone, however, it is not really worth bothering with.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 0
Flavor: 2
Flexibility: 2
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 0
Overall: 1
Tabasco Chipotle Hot Sauce Review
Tabasco Chipotle Hot Sauce
UPDATE: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkEAXJEAMmc
Despite finding the Tabasco original mostly dreadful and the Green Jalapeno of a good flavor but woefully underpowered, I happened across a coupon for Tabasco and used it to take a shot at the Chipotle, since I like that flavor a lot and heard great things about this variation. The bottle didn't stay on my shelf long before I cracked it open and tried it out with some fried chicken. So far so good there, but it fell pretty flat with homemade chicken tamales.
With this sauce being arguably closer to a BBQ sauce than a hot sauce or maybe as close as hot sauce comes to a BBQ sauce before it crosses the line (and McIlhenny is definitely pushing hard in that direction with this), it works better on richer and denser flavors. It's a very good-tasting sauce, unquestionably, with none of the goofy overbearing vinegary taste of the Original, yet cutting down the chipotle, which can itself become very quickly overpowering as well. It is a fantastic blend, sort of the "best of both worlds," which also does nicely in harmonizing the Tabasco pepper flavoring system.
What it doesn't have is heat, but then again, nothing in the entire Tabasco line does. For most people, Original Tabasco is as hot as it gets and this is in that area, though according to their fantastic website (arguably the best of any sauce vendor), Chipotle rates much less than the Original.
Bottom line: This is a sauce that works best with food that can stand the smokiness. It doesn't have enough vinegar to really "cut" creamy sauces, though it does add a nice flavor aspect. There is not much here in the way of heat, either, so if you're coming to this bottle for that, you're in the wrong place. For around $4/bottle for a 5 oz., you could do worse...but you could also do a lot better.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 1
Flavor: 7
Flexibility: 6
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 4
Overall: 5
UPDATE: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkEAXJEAMmc Despite finding the Tabasco original mostly dreadful and the Green Jalapeno of a good flavor but woefully underpowered, I happened across a coupon for Tabasco and used it to take a shot at the Chipotle, since I like that flavor a lot and heard great things about this variation. The bottle didn't stay on my shelf long before I cracked it open and tried it out with some fried chicken. So far so good there, but it fell pretty flat with homemade chicken tamales.
With this sauce being arguably closer to a BBQ sauce than a hot sauce or maybe as close as hot sauce comes to a BBQ sauce before it crosses the line (and McIlhenny is definitely pushing hard in that direction with this), it works better on richer and denser flavors. It's a very good-tasting sauce, unquestionably, with none of the goofy overbearing vinegary taste of the Original, yet cutting down the chipotle, which can itself become very quickly overpowering as well. It is a fantastic blend, sort of the "best of both worlds," which also does nicely in harmonizing the Tabasco pepper flavoring system.
What it doesn't have is heat, but then again, nothing in the entire Tabasco line does. For most people, Original Tabasco is as hot as it gets and this is in that area, though according to their fantastic website (arguably the best of any sauce vendor), Chipotle rates much less than the Original.
Bottom line: This is a sauce that works best with food that can stand the smokiness. It doesn't have enough vinegar to really "cut" creamy sauces, though it does add a nice flavor aspect. There is not much here in the way of heat, either, so if you're coming to this bottle for that, you're in the wrong place. For around $4/bottle for a 5 oz., you could do worse...but you could also do a lot better.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 1
Flavor: 7
Flexibility: 6
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 4
Overall: 5
Saturday, June 1, 2013
Lynchburg Habanero Hot Sauce Review
Historic Lynchburg Tennessee Whiskey Habanero Hot Sauce
In looking around at some of the other reviews online, a few reviewers have indicated that the label of this sauce bears an identical ingredient list to the Jalapeno sauce from this same company. My bottle has the same, but upon tasting it, this is notably hotter than the Jalapeno. I would put it at slightly over 10K, maybe 12K or so, though not "HOTT" with the double "T"s as the label indicates.
Very clearly, this is the same base as the other sauce and I'm guessing the flavoring and the heat come from the addition of habanero powder. The consistency is the same as the other and there is the same aspect of it being somewhat ketchup-reminiscent. The taste is a bit less pleasant than the other one, mostly due to the bitterness of what I'm assuming is the habanero powder, though the Jack Daniels still comes through and really makes a nice impact.
I encourage checking out the other review for the Jalapeno sauce, since aside from the heat and Habanero flavoring (again, probably from powder, given the little light colored speckles in this), everything else there would apply also. There are no chunks of habanero seeds or bits of flesh, but instead a very smooth consistency. This is not a sauce that works well enough by itself to be used as say a dipping sauce, though.
Bottom line: For $7 bottle, this isn't a good enough sauce to order again. The heat is somewhat moderate and while in some ways it is an improvement over the Jalapeno sauce, simply adding a bunch of powder for heat and flavoring seems a cheat to me. This is another "will do in a pinch" type sauces.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 4
Flavor: 6
Flexibility: 6
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 2
Overall: 4
In looking around at some of the other reviews online, a few reviewers have indicated that the label of this sauce bears an identical ingredient list to the Jalapeno sauce from this same company. My bottle has the same, but upon tasting it, this is notably hotter than the Jalapeno. I would put it at slightly over 10K, maybe 12K or so, though not "HOTT" with the double "T"s as the label indicates.
Very clearly, this is the same base as the other sauce and I'm guessing the flavoring and the heat come from the addition of habanero powder. The consistency is the same as the other and there is the same aspect of it being somewhat ketchup-reminiscent. The taste is a bit less pleasant than the other one, mostly due to the bitterness of what I'm assuming is the habanero powder, though the Jack Daniels still comes through and really makes a nice impact.
I encourage checking out the other review for the Jalapeno sauce, since aside from the heat and Habanero flavoring (again, probably from powder, given the little light colored speckles in this), everything else there would apply also. There are no chunks of habanero seeds or bits of flesh, but instead a very smooth consistency. This is not a sauce that works well enough by itself to be used as say a dipping sauce, though.
Bottom line: For $7 bottle, this isn't a good enough sauce to order again. The heat is somewhat moderate and while in some ways it is an improvement over the Jalapeno sauce, simply adding a bunch of powder for heat and flavoring seems a cheat to me. This is another "will do in a pinch" type sauces.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 4
Flavor: 6
Flexibility: 6
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 2
Overall: 4
Saturday, May 18, 2013
Blair's Salsa de la Muerte Hot Sauce Review
Blair's Salsa de la Muerte Hot Sauce
Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnUa3UPteJQ
Like the Q Heat, both Berzerker sauces reviewed here and the Hog's Ass, this fits best into the category of a Habanero-garlic sauce. To my mind, this is a better sauce than any of those and although different, probably gets the nod over my previous favorite, the Danny Cash Radical Heat entry. I've spent a decent amount of time with this type of sauce and if there is one universal hallmark, it is that the use of lime in these sauces tends to lean them heavily on the side of fish, with which they are best-suited, particularly fish tacos and with varying success to everything else. That is again the case here, though this sauce is fantastically done.
The ratios are spot-on, with nothing too overpowering or dominating and the sauce itself is pretty tasty. I've seen a number of odd information about this sauce, such as that it's a duplicate of the Original Death sauce, only with more Habaneros and Chipotle and perhaps slightly hotter, but there is another major distinction, which is why I was able to review the bottle. There are also no onions in this sauce listed in the ingredients and I didn't find any as I was eating it, either. Blair seems pretty conscientious with his labeling, so I'm confident there are none there.
Strangely, I didn't find this to be an overwhelmingly hot sauce. I'd put it in the range of El Yucateco Green, maybe around 10K or so, perhaps slightly hotter, but nowhere near the 35K or more Wikipedia (I know, I know) was listing. Then again, they had Pure Death at 48K, which is the range I estimated, all of which leads us inevitably back to the thought that the information on Wikipedia is frequently somewhat suspect.
Bottom line: This is, to date, the best version of the various Habanero-garlic sauces I've had. It is extremely well-balanced, has a good flavor and complements food fairly well, depending on what it is used on. Again, very moderate heat, but enough to not be a total wash. I wouldn't hesitate to get it again, but I don't know that I would necessary make getting more a point, either...
Breakdown:
Heat level: 2
Flavor: 8
Flexibility: 8
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 8
Overall: 7
Friday, May 10, 2013
Blair's Pure Death Hot Sauce Review
Blair's Pure Death Hot Sauce - [TSAAF Sauce Of The Year 2013]
UPDATE: Video support available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPjSikrJxUU
I hadn't planned on doing this review quite so soon, but something happened after I opened this bottle that left really no alternative and that is that of all the dozen or so sauces, some of them pretty decent, that were already opened, after I cracked this one, I wanted none of them quite so much. I was entirely overtaken by Pure Death and even though I've eaten enough for it to light me up decently, especially the next day, I keep coming back for more and more.
The sauce demonstrates why Blair is such a name and force in the hot sauce world, something the three previous offerings from him I tried didn't do. This thing also sort of reinforces the motto you hear from Chef Gordon Ramsay a lot, fresh, simple, good. In this case, we have four ingredients of habanero pods with some Ghost Chile, vinegar and red Hawaiian sauce and despite that seemingly simplicity, I could not find anything this didn't go with. It is also one of the best tasting sauces I've yet had and is going immediately into my standards list.
The habanero is not ill-tasting or overbearing and the combination of some nice up-front zing from the Bhuts along with the back-end building heat of the habaneros and you have some really good sustained heat. It's moderate, maybe 40 - 50K SHU (still enough for Back Of The Fridge), but melds nicely with the stunning flavor combination that Blair has managed to achieve here. This is now the current leader for sauce of the year and one of the few sauces where I state directly that if you have yet to try it, you should. Immediately.
Bottom Line: The first sauce I've seen that lives up to the ad copy on the bottle. In this case, "This is the sauce with no limits. Universal appeal the world over." To that, I concur wholeheartedly and add that the danger here is that if I have an open bottle handy, everything else is in danger of being neglected.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 6
Flavor: 10
Flexibility: 10
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 10
Overall: 9
UPDATE: Video support available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPjSikrJxUU I hadn't planned on doing this review quite so soon, but something happened after I opened this bottle that left really no alternative and that is that of all the dozen or so sauces, some of them pretty decent, that were already opened, after I cracked this one, I wanted none of them quite so much. I was entirely overtaken by Pure Death and even though I've eaten enough for it to light me up decently, especially the next day, I keep coming back for more and more.
The sauce demonstrates why Blair is such a name and force in the hot sauce world, something the three previous offerings from him I tried didn't do. This thing also sort of reinforces the motto you hear from Chef Gordon Ramsay a lot, fresh, simple, good. In this case, we have four ingredients of habanero pods with some Ghost Chile, vinegar and red Hawaiian sauce and despite that seemingly simplicity, I could not find anything this didn't go with. It is also one of the best tasting sauces I've yet had and is going immediately into my standards list.
The habanero is not ill-tasting or overbearing and the combination of some nice up-front zing from the Bhuts along with the back-end building heat of the habaneros and you have some really good sustained heat. It's moderate, maybe 40 - 50K SHU (still enough for Back Of The Fridge), but melds nicely with the stunning flavor combination that Blair has managed to achieve here. This is now the current leader for sauce of the year and one of the few sauces where I state directly that if you have yet to try it, you should. Immediately.
Bottom Line: The first sauce I've seen that lives up to the ad copy on the bottle. In this case, "This is the sauce with no limits. Universal appeal the world over." To that, I concur wholeheartedly and add that the danger here is that if I have an open bottle handy, everything else is in danger of being neglected.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 6
Flavor: 10
Flexibility: 10
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 10
Overall: 9
Friday, May 3, 2013
Mean Streak Hot Sauce Review
Danny Cash's Mean Streak Habanero Mango Hot Sauce
If I had one "favorite sauce manufacturer" -- I don't, but if I did -- Danny Cash would probably be my pick. His Radical Heat is a sauce I enjoy a great deal and the Garlic-Serrano (Bottled Up Anger) is one my wife enjoys regularly. For the towering heights of the Radical Heat comes a mighty fall here in one of the most unpalatable sauces I've yet stumbled across.
Every time I've tried this, with the exception of about 6 bites of a salmon dish my wife made, I have disliked to intensely disliked it. It's taken my half the bottle to figure out why, but I do have it. "Habanero Mango" is a bit of a misnomer here -- this is more or less Mango-Vinegar. There are only minor hints of habanero, let alone heat, at all, which isn't the worst thing ever, but what is the worst thing is the mixing of flavors. The astringent nature of some rather un-ripe mangos combined with more astringency of vinegar and very little of anything else for not a good sauce at all makes. Though I tried repeatedly, I have yet to find one thing that this is what I would call "good" with and it tends to distract heavily from whatever it hits. By itself, it is, obviously, a huge miss in my book.
Bottom line: Blech. It saddens me somewhat to write this, but I guess it shows that no one is perfect. This is a total and complete misfire from Danny Cash.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 0
Flavor: 0
Flexibility: 0
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 0
Overall: 0
If I had one "favorite sauce manufacturer" -- I don't, but if I did -- Danny Cash would probably be my pick. His Radical Heat is a sauce I enjoy a great deal and the Garlic-Serrano (Bottled Up Anger) is one my wife enjoys regularly. For the towering heights of the Radical Heat comes a mighty fall here in one of the most unpalatable sauces I've yet stumbled across.
Every time I've tried this, with the exception of about 6 bites of a salmon dish my wife made, I have disliked to intensely disliked it. It's taken my half the bottle to figure out why, but I do have it. "Habanero Mango" is a bit of a misnomer here -- this is more or less Mango-Vinegar. There are only minor hints of habanero, let alone heat, at all, which isn't the worst thing ever, but what is the worst thing is the mixing of flavors. The astringent nature of some rather un-ripe mangos combined with more astringency of vinegar and very little of anything else for not a good sauce at all makes. Though I tried repeatedly, I have yet to find one thing that this is what I would call "good" with and it tends to distract heavily from whatever it hits. By itself, it is, obviously, a huge miss in my book.
Bottom line: Blech. It saddens me somewhat to write this, but I guess it shows that no one is perfect. This is a total and complete misfire from Danny Cash.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 0
Flavor: 0
Flexibility: 0
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 0
Overall: 0
Saturday, April 27, 2013
Blazin' Saddles Hot Sauce Review
Dat-'l Do It's Blazin' Saddles Hot Sauce
If you've read through this blog at all, you've probably noticed that I like to mine "familiar" places, such as grocery stores and Big Lots for sauces. To me, even if you get a crap sauce (the range is from ok to substandard most of the time), you're still only gambling with a buck or two at a time and if you find a winner, then you've hit the jackpot sauce goldmine, so to speak.
Take the case of Blazin' Saddles. It announces in large letters on the front that it has Tabasco peppers and those, of course, we all know from the ubiquitous sauce that introduced many of us to the concept of hot sauce, but also Louisiana-style sauces and perhaps, like my case, turned you off of "hot" sauces for a good long while. Frankly, in fact, I still find Tabasco mostly unpalatable and back when I could still tolerate ketchup, I used to mix the two together on a delicate layer of some very crispy fried hashbrowns at IHOP and that was the extent of its usefulness to me.
Back to the Blazin' Saddles, though, we have here a sauce that is Tabasco-oriented combined with Habanero. Scott Roberts once reviewed a sauce called "Tabanero", I believe and while I never had it, I'm guessing that was the ideal that they were going for here. This sauce is at once creamier and not only notably hotter than Tabasco (probably not over maybe 5 - 8K, though), but far tastier, too. The Tabasco pepper is a fairly dominantly tasting one, however and if there is a prominent taste here, it is that slightly sweet taste, of which I'm not particularly a fan.
Bottom line: This is by far the best sauce I've tasted that has used that particular pepper, but even at $1.25 for a 3 oz. bottle, I just don't see any need to have this on hand. It is yet another entry in an increasingly long-ish list of Lousiana-style sauces that utilize different peppers (I can't think of any "major" pepper that I haven't tried in the form of Louisiana-style sauces -- for my money, Cayenne is still far and away the best there) and if I needed a sauce on short notice, it would do in a pinch, but there are far better sauces. It's overall a pretty much middle-of-the-road sauce, not bad, but not great, either.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 4
Flavor: 5
Flexibility: 7
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 7
Overall: 6
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Radical Heat Hot Sauce Review
Danny Cash's Radical Heat Red Habanero Hot Sauce
As I mentioned last week, this section of the hot sauce offerings is one I find very interesting and very tasty. My introduction to it came via Blair's, though it wasn't quite "right". Most of this is details in the Hog's Ass Sauce review (http://d-dubisyourhero.blogspot.com/2013/02/hogs-ass-hot-sauce-review.html), which was the best I had.
As was moving down the sauce line-up, trying to fill spots in my door and in the back of the fridge (that area is still waiting, currently), I was looking for a sauce for some chicken dish and the Hellacious sauce wasn't quite what I had in mind. The other sauces in the door weren't cutting it either, so I hit the shelf in search of something that would give the chicken sort of casserole thing a much needed boost. I found it with the Radical Heat, which was not what I was expecting. It was, however, a very happy surprise.
Not only is this the best ratio of Garlic to Habanero, but Danny Cash has taken it a step further and crossed that whole thing with a Louisiana-style sauce. This now covers multiple categories and extends the usefulness a bit further, as if the fantastic taste alone wasn't enough. My only gripes are low in number. I think that it could be a lot hotter. This is, again, checking in at the lower end of the scale (maybe 5K). The second problem I have is that sometimes the runniness precludes me from being able to use it. It is much more like a Louisiana-style sauce in consistency and some of the stuff I would normally look to the Garlic-Habanero sauce to use would be served a lot better with a thicker sauce, but thin sauce does come with the territory with Louisiana-styles, so the second one is very minor.
Bottom line: When the most you can bitch about is what I just outlined above, you have a sauce that approaches world-beater status. Again, I could use it much hotter and a bit thicker, along the lines of Hellacious, for instance, but the pros outweigh the cons to the point that this is my new standard for Garlic-Habanero sauces. It's not a perfect sauce, but it's the best out there that I've found...so far. It is not a lock, though.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 4
Flavor: 9
Flexibility: 8
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 9
Overall: 8
As I mentioned last week, this section of the hot sauce offerings is one I find very interesting and very tasty. My introduction to it came via Blair's, though it wasn't quite "right". Most of this is details in the Hog's Ass Sauce review (http://d-dubisyourhero.blogspot.com/2013/02/hogs-ass-hot-sauce-review.html), which was the best I had.
As was moving down the sauce line-up, trying to fill spots in my door and in the back of the fridge (that area is still waiting, currently), I was looking for a sauce for some chicken dish and the Hellacious sauce wasn't quite what I had in mind. The other sauces in the door weren't cutting it either, so I hit the shelf in search of something that would give the chicken sort of casserole thing a much needed boost. I found it with the Radical Heat, which was not what I was expecting. It was, however, a very happy surprise.
Not only is this the best ratio of Garlic to Habanero, but Danny Cash has taken it a step further and crossed that whole thing with a Louisiana-style sauce. This now covers multiple categories and extends the usefulness a bit further, as if the fantastic taste alone wasn't enough. My only gripes are low in number. I think that it could be a lot hotter. This is, again, checking in at the lower end of the scale (maybe 5K). The second problem I have is that sometimes the runniness precludes me from being able to use it. It is much more like a Louisiana-style sauce in consistency and some of the stuff I would normally look to the Garlic-Habanero sauce to use would be served a lot better with a thicker sauce, but thin sauce does come with the territory with Louisiana-styles, so the second one is very minor.
Bottom line: When the most you can bitch about is what I just outlined above, you have a sauce that approaches world-beater status. Again, I could use it much hotter and a bit thicker, along the lines of Hellacious, for instance, but the pros outweigh the cons to the point that this is my new standard for Garlic-Habanero sauces. It's not a perfect sauce, but it's the best out there that I've found...so far. It is not a lock, though.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 4
Flavor: 9
Flexibility: 8
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 9
Overall: 8
Saturday, April 13, 2013
General Update
I thought I'd take a moment to update my staple sauce list with a couple new additions and throw in some random comments.
After recovering from a bout of food poisoning (my step-son also got it, which leads only to the DiGiorno pizza we both had), I was hit right after with a pretty nasty cold. That took a couple weeks and certain sauces, even ones that one finds typically highly enjoyable, can switch to stomach-turning. About the only things I could hack during that time were Louisiana-style sauces, so my stores of Sancto Scorpio and LAVA are both nearly depleted. I will be sad to see both go, but especially the Sancto, which I've grown quite fond of, but I have a lot of other sauces to get to and they all have (eventual) expiration dates...
The staple list from last time was:
*Everyday sauce: Trappey's Red Devil
Grilling sauce: CaJohn's Bourbon-Infused Chipotle Habanero (BICH)
Mexican-style sauce: El Yucateco Green
*Asian-style sauce: Huy Fong Chili-Garlic Sauce
Louisiana-style sauce: Trappey's Red Devil
Sweet-hot sauce: CaJohn's Happy Beaver
No changes here, although the Happy Beaver is not one I'm going to immediately re-order. After 4 or 5 bottles of it, re-upping would just get in the way of several others I have on tap. The asterisks mean that the entry there is a lock and I will not be without that sauce on hand nor am I seeking to change it. The others are really up for grabs, but I think most of them are at the very top of the field in what the respective entries in those categories have to offer.
The two new categories are:
*Wife's sauce: Danny Cash's Salvation Garlic-Serrano and/or Bottled-Up Anger
Garlic-Habanero: Danny Cash's Radical Heat
I haven't done a review for the Radical Heat yet, but I've had several sauces in that category and while they were quite good, Cash's is untouchable. The Garlic-Serrano is something my wife really likes and wants me to keep on hand. I think it's a quality sauce and while I generally prefer things hotter, it's always surprises me with both the great taste and how well it goes across a variety of foods.
I generally am keeping 8 - 12 bottles open at any one time, 3 or 4 at work and the rest at home. At home, I have "door" sauces, which are generally milder and "back of the fridge" sauces, which are usually on the higher end. The reason for this division is my young son, who's a number of years away from fucking around with Ghosts and Scorpions and some of the more revved up Habanero sauces. I usually only keep 1 or 2 for the "back of the fridge" and everything else in the door, mostly for convenience. Also the "door" sauces are ones that either my step-son or wife could use, if they were daring enough or otherwise so inclined. They also get rotated the fastest and it's where I keep more of the "experiments," such as the Salsa Minas, for instance.
After recovering from a bout of food poisoning (my step-son also got it, which leads only to the DiGiorno pizza we both had), I was hit right after with a pretty nasty cold. That took a couple weeks and certain sauces, even ones that one finds typically highly enjoyable, can switch to stomach-turning. About the only things I could hack during that time were Louisiana-style sauces, so my stores of Sancto Scorpio and LAVA are both nearly depleted. I will be sad to see both go, but especially the Sancto, which I've grown quite fond of, but I have a lot of other sauces to get to and they all have (eventual) expiration dates...
The staple list from last time was:
*Everyday sauce: Trappey's Red Devil
Grilling sauce: CaJohn's Bourbon-Infused Chipotle Habanero (BICH)
Mexican-style sauce: El Yucateco Green
*Asian-style sauce: Huy Fong Chili-Garlic Sauce
Louisiana-style sauce: Trappey's Red Devil
Sweet-hot sauce: CaJohn's Happy Beaver
No changes here, although the Happy Beaver is not one I'm going to immediately re-order. After 4 or 5 bottles of it, re-upping would just get in the way of several others I have on tap. The asterisks mean that the entry there is a lock and I will not be without that sauce on hand nor am I seeking to change it. The others are really up for grabs, but I think most of them are at the very top of the field in what the respective entries in those categories have to offer.
The two new categories are:
*Wife's sauce: Danny Cash's Salvation Garlic-Serrano and/or Bottled-Up Anger
Garlic-Habanero: Danny Cash's Radical Heat
I haven't done a review for the Radical Heat yet, but I've had several sauces in that category and while they were quite good, Cash's is untouchable. The Garlic-Serrano is something my wife really likes and wants me to keep on hand. I think it's a quality sauce and while I generally prefer things hotter, it's always surprises me with both the great taste and how well it goes across a variety of foods.
I generally am keeping 8 - 12 bottles open at any one time, 3 or 4 at work and the rest at home. At home, I have "door" sauces, which are generally milder and "back of the fridge" sauces, which are usually on the higher end. The reason for this division is my young son, who's a number of years away from fucking around with Ghosts and Scorpions and some of the more revved up Habanero sauces. I usually only keep 1 or 2 for the "back of the fridge" and everything else in the door, mostly for convenience. Also the "door" sauces are ones that either my step-son or wife could use, if they were daring enough or otherwise so inclined. They also get rotated the fastest and it's where I keep more of the "experiments," such as the Salsa Minas, for instance.
Thai Kitchen Sweet Red Chili Sauce Review
Thai Kitchen Sweet Red Chili Sauce
Followers of this blog will know by now that I'm trying to chase down a red sweet garlic-pepper sauce that I had years ago that I liked quite a lot. It's beginning to take on mythic proportions now, almost and I imagine if I ever do find it, I'm in for a tremendous letdown.
This sauce, however, is also not it. This, like two Seven Moons sauces from last month, are of a consistency best described as "gloppy" and the sauce I'm trying to find is much thinner, around the lines of a Louisiana style sauce. In the case of Thai Kitchen's entry, though, this sauce is not overbearing or cloyingly sweet but instead is nicely balanced with the garlic, vinegar and very mild pepper heat. The heat is mostly non-existent, but notable because it's almost always absent in the other entries I've had similar to this.
One of the advantages of the gloppiness here is that it sticks well and translates equally well as a dip or sauce. It can be overpowering, so some moderation is required, but it does a very nice job of blending with and complimenting the various food items, as long as they will take something on the sweeter end.
Bottom line: It's not a great sauce, by any means or even particularly a very good one, but it's the kind of sauce that is "good for what it is." It has somewhat limited applications and wouldn't really have a regular place in my refrigerator. If I saw it on special, though, I'd probably give some thought to picking it up.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 1
Flavor: 5
Flexibility: 5
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 3
Overall: 3
Followers of this blog will know by now that I'm trying to chase down a red sweet garlic-pepper sauce that I had years ago that I liked quite a lot. It's beginning to take on mythic proportions now, almost and I imagine if I ever do find it, I'm in for a tremendous letdown.This sauce, however, is also not it. This, like two Seven Moons sauces from last month, are of a consistency best described as "gloppy" and the sauce I'm trying to find is much thinner, around the lines of a Louisiana style sauce. In the case of Thai Kitchen's entry, though, this sauce is not overbearing or cloyingly sweet but instead is nicely balanced with the garlic, vinegar and very mild pepper heat. The heat is mostly non-existent, but notable because it's almost always absent in the other entries I've had similar to this.
One of the advantages of the gloppiness here is that it sticks well and translates equally well as a dip or sauce. It can be overpowering, so some moderation is required, but it does a very nice job of blending with and complimenting the various food items, as long as they will take something on the sweeter end.
Bottom line: It's not a great sauce, by any means or even particularly a very good one, but it's the kind of sauce that is "good for what it is." It has somewhat limited applications and wouldn't really have a regular place in my refrigerator. If I saw it on special, though, I'd probably give some thought to picking it up.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 1
Flavor: 5
Flexibility: 5
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 3
Overall: 3
Friday, April 12, 2013
Hellacious Hot Sauce Review
High River Sauces Hellacious Hot Sauce
Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F48FoFA6-pA
In anticipation of the Scott Roberts Sauce Showdown brackets, undoubtedly coming very soon, given the tons and tons of nominations High River got, I went out and bought everything I could find from them that met my qualifications. I was disappointed with the prior two entries somewhat, and didn't hold tons and tons of hope for the Hellacious. I'm not a super-huge fan of Habanero peppers in general or of the sauces greatly and I think that pepper, especially the orange, gained so much traction simple because there was little else, aside from the fantastic and mostly unavailable Scotch Bonnets, for so very long. I do enjoy the Chocolate and Red Savina Habanero strains a great deal, it should be said and if I hit them first instead of the orange, maybe it's a different story.
Anyway, this sauce was tested more severely than any other sauce and it's because one of the worst possible things that could have happened did. As it went, I was rollicking along, enjoying this sauce immensely and thinking that finally El Yucateco Green had some competition, as Habanero sauces go. The flavor was stunning, a brilliant combination that avoided the sometimes obnoxious overtones of other habanero sauces and buffered it with a gentle, but notable, splash of chipotle, which is fast becoming one of my most favorite pepper flavors. Little wonder, I think jalapeno is one of the greatest flavors on the planet. The agave was a -- brilliant is what I'm coming up with, but really doesn't do this incredibly skillful culinary maneuver justice -- touch. The delicate bit of sweetness is spectacular. This sauce went great on Mexican food, of course, but worked well with a variety of other things, including pizza.
DiGiorno, it should be noted, was formerly a staple and they recently came out with this artisan sort of frozen pie. The first one I had was wonderful, so good I didn't bother with sauce. The second time around, I hit it with the Hellacious sauce I was enjoying so much and then the unthinkable happened: I got food poisoning. Now, if any of you have ever been really sick from something, the last damn thing you want to do is eat (or drink) it again. This also wrecked me, I might also add, for several other sauces temporarily. In this case, I dropped frozen pizzas entirely and it has been somewhat of an uphill climb for the Hellacious, given that the first few times I had to fight a gag reflex when I smelled it. I fought through because it was too good not to.
As it turns out, I'm back in the saddle with the sauce and am enjoying it again greatly. Like you would expect with a Hab sauce, there is a decent back-end heat, though it is very short-lived. I'd say this might be pushing up to 10K, but probably a little less. It is my favorite Habanero sauce, something I would not hesitate to buy or use again.
Bottom line: I think this is a brilliantly done sauce. One can easily see the skill of Steve Seabury in the other sauces, but this is the one I actually want to eat, the one that makes me nod my head in agreement with all the other accolades the man has rightfully accumulated. Without the food poisoning, this would have been a contender for Sauce Of The Year. As it stands now, it's in the "maybe" column, leaning towards "probably", but it's unquestionably a very good sauce and I back it. Not many sauces can come back from that.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 2
Flavor: 10
Flexibility: 10
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 10
Overall: 8
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