Hellfire Blueberry Hell Hot Sauce Review

Hellfire Blueberry Hell Hot Sauce

This is one I've had on my radar for a long, long while and finally took the plunge during the Black Friday/Cyber Monday business going on this year and I'm reasonably glad I did. The sauce is reminiscent of Grapes Of Wrath, though on a much more focused and frankly, tastier, level. This not really a sauce that is an all-over whiz, though. I've seen a lot of commentary, including from the manufacturer, about putting this on ice cream, but it's not an ice cream topping, as a more traditional blueberry sauce would be. To function there, it would need to be much better-tasting. Despite the visual appearance, where it is around the same consistency as maybe a blueberry syrup, this is definitely not a blueberry sauce, nor is it interchangeable like that. Instead, it is clearly a fruit-based hot sauce and as such, like Grapes, does better with lighter meats, such as pork and chicken. I personally also like to use the fruit-based sauces on meats where I would use a Louisiana sauce, so fried foods, shrimp, chicken and so on. In fact, on those foods, it has a certain addictive quality that kept me eating more and more of it.


Despite containing a laundry list of upper-end heat on the pepper side, including Scorpions and 7-Pot, the overall sauce is not particularly scorching. There's enough there to get one to take notice, particularly in the somewhat intrusive nature of the taste, but heat-wise, this builds to a fairly immediate level and then dissipates quickly after. I'd put this maybe in the low 30Ks or so, SHU. Besides the heat, the peppers also contribute a very immediate bitter aspects from the super-hots that sort of follows the sweet nature of the blueberry flavoring reminiscent of a straight blueberry sauce. Once that bitter part kicks in, at about the same time as the heat, it is never really tempered and becomes a noticeable aspect of the flavoring, which can be off-putting, especially if attempting to use this as a straight blueberry sauce.

Bottom line: This is moderate enough in heat for chileheads (probably more than would be comfortable for everyone else) to eat directly, but probably ultimately not tasty enough to do that nor does it do much but wreck ice cream, if you choose to use it there. This, however, would be a great addition to a fruit-based sauce line-up, if you make one and represents the blueberry very well overall. While it can be a bit pricey, it could easily wind up being a staple, as the positives here overwhelmingly outweigh the negatives. If it's not my outright favorite fruit-based sauce, it's definitely in the running.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 5
            Flavor: 7
            Flexibility: 7
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 7

Overall: 7