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
No comments:
Post a Comment