Another entry from Z's, which I'm starting to see in a lot more brick and mortars. I've tried to keep my hot sauce spending exclusive to those locations when possible and I've happily seen all of their inventory increase as far as selection. This one is based on Utah and I believe came largely from farmer's markets and now into retail, so a good building there. Given how excited I was about the Shield Maiden sauce (reviewed elsewhere on this blog), I thought I'd take a shot at their everyday sauce, as I was hoping it was more like a milder version of the awesome Shield Maiden......and immediately noted that it was going for an earthiness with the apple cider vinegar. I typically dislike that stuff, so it was a good test to see if my typical disdain for that element could be overpowered by the sauce. Initially, I found the sauce pretty enjoyable. Aside from the apple cider vinegar, flavor was excellent, though heat was somewhat minimal. Unfortunately, my propensity is to wind up focusing on the vinegar flavor notes and I found myself enjoying the sauce much less over time.
It is definitely highly flexible, though and this would do well as a table sauce for breakfast, works reasonably well on chicken strips and pizza and is indeed a pretty solid all-around sauce...if only it just used a different vinegar...
Bottom line: I started from mildly liking this sauce to more tolerating it towards the end. While not bad, there are a lot of other sauces I'd rather have.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 2
Flavor: 4
Flexibility: 9
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 6
Overall: 5
This one is definitely designed for the vinegar lovers breakfast blend!
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