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