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