Q1 2K16 Update

Unlike the last 3 years, this year started off with a thud. Typically I’ll have a couple sauces lined up and ready for reviews, but this year, due to the asshats that owned our former rental selling it to an even bigger couple of asshats, who then proceeded to terminate our lease in the middle of a month, it became mostly a full-on scramble, with the focus then on [moving and] emptying the fridge of open sauces rather than starting new ones, because moving less open stuff in the fridge is moving less open stuff in the fridge. On the plus side, that did afford an opportunity for several new sauces, so a silver lining of sorts there.

Obviously, the impact of that kind of news is going to dominate everything else, but once February hit, it was back into the swing of things with filling the door and back of fridge with open bottles again…or at least as much as the menu allowed. That means…*ahem*…3 new sauces for February. This is also 3 total for all of 2016 by the end of February, so not exactly setting the hot sauce blog review world on fire there. I added 1 more sauce this month, so still slower than normal. I am going to be doing a sweep soon, which will clear up more space, but the majority of sauces I have on deck are all of the decidedly hotter “back of fridge” variety and those, by nature, go through rotation much slower generally.

Most of the sauces this year have been stronger entries, so that is good news. I also did some experimenting and wound up using one of the lower heat sauces as an actual pizza sauce, which worked stunningly well. Still no blazing leaders for Sauce Of The Year, but several strong entries, which is encouraging. We still have a lot of road ahead of us for this year, though, so I remain hopeful. 

Aside from that, haven't really found anything crazy restaurant-wise, but I haven't been looking much, either. My travel schedule, once that Jan/Feb hiccup was over, precludes a lot of that and won't wind up settling down until probably more towards fall. I'm getting pretty close to needing to do another buy on lower heat sauces, so I feel the remaining 9 months should do better than the first 3.

A La Orden Hot Sauce Review

A La Orden Salsa Picante

Here we have a sauce that doesn't seem to know what it wants to be. The first couple of ingredients are water and vinegar, so, as expected, not a ton of heat to be found, but that's not the more striking part about it. What is more curious is the combination of peppers, which is Arbol and Cayenne. Cayenne, as we all know and love, is predominantly used typically to make some of the best Louisiana-style sauces in the world. However, the position here seems a lot more Mexican in nature, at least given the labeling. The sauce itself is produced in Canada, but the ingredients are much more Mexican or at least Southwest in nature. Chile Arbol is used heavily in the garden variety chili powder on your nearest grocer's shelves.

Initially, I tried it in a more typically Mexican setting, first with a sort of tamale pie, where it failed miserably and then next in the settings of tacos, where it again did not do well at all. So, I elected to also try it in a Louisiana-style sauce setting, head to head with an actual Louisiana-style sauce, because, unlikely as it is, they may be on to something, adding chili powder to that style sauce...it's certainly something I've not encountered before. As it turned out, this is for good reason, as by trying to answer a non-existent demand for a bridge between two worlds that never existed before, it loses its footing and fails in both utterly.

So, unless you like to pour vinegar in your Taco Bell Mild Sauce or you like to sprinkle your collard greens or macaroni & cheese with a heavy dusting of chili powder after you've hit them with some Lousisiana-style sauce, this sauce is mostly a waste of time.

Bottom line: One of the most confusing sauces I've come across, particularly for one that seems mass produced. It is a complete failure in both a Lousiana-style and Mexican setting and I can't think of any instance where it could conceivably improve something. It certainly did not in actual usage.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 2
            Flexibility: 0
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 0

Overall: 1