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

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

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