Hurtin' Habanero Hot Sauce Review

Dave's Gourmet Hurtin' Habanero Hot Sauce

Ahhh, the alliteration is strong with this one. Like probably everyone else, my familiarity with Dave's is mostly with the infamous Insanity line of sauces. As I've mentioned in the past, we used to keep a bottle of this on hand years ago for drunken party challenges (though I think the industry has moved well beyond that some time ago) but wouldn't use it ourselves as both me and my then-roommate considered it one of the more noxious substances invented. Thus was my initial exposure to both Dave's and the horrors of using chemical extracts in sauces to generate heat.

So, naturally, for years, I didn't give a second look to this line of sauces. Having finally seen it recently on grocery store shelves, I did give some of the bottles a look, but saw either onions or extract, two mega no-nos for me and passed them on by as well. Finally, by chance, I came across this and picked up a bottle up...so it could sit more easily on my shelf after sitting on a grocery store shelf. Once I got past the discolored bit that I didn't notice due to the black plastic seal around the neck, it was much smoother sailing.

I could probably best sum up this sauce by saying it is basically a more amplified version of Cholula. It reminds me of that more than anything else, though it is somewhat hotter, though only moderately so. If you like that style of sauce, you will like this one, but it tastes more like that, which itself seems to rely heavily on Ancho peppers than any sort of Habanero flavoring. I like that style of sauce, though I've eaten so much of it over the years, I can barely stand to look at the wood caps anymore and I find this to ultimately be one of the better-tasting versions of it.

Bottom line: This sauce goes a long way to cement the position of Dave's Gourmet in the industry. Though not hot, it is a very well-crafted and tasty sauce and in my view, a much better and slightly more expensive substitute for the aforementioned Cholula.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 2
            Flavor: 8
            Flexibility: 8
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 6

Overall: 6