Big Red's Prickly Pear Hot Sauce Review

Big Red's Prickly Pear Sweet & Spicy Hot Sauce

Video support available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQYQ28eBXEk

I have not, if I'm being honest, had a particularly good relationship with the sweet emanations of the prickly pear, or cactus or succulents in general, including agave. I find them frequently to be cloying, and with prickly pear, there seems to be an off-taste, a sort of chemical-y aspect to it, which I find jarring. This has never not been the case, but it has also not prevented me from attempting new concoctions featuring this ingredient. I must be missing something, as often this particular element is listed as a focal point, which I have yet to find appropriate.Then again, I am sort of in the desert, or if not in the desert outright, at least on the edge of it, the fringes, perhaps, and I should probably have a strong familiarity with this type of thing than I do. Perhaps were I to live in the desert proper, it would seem more normal. Alas... 

This entry features a lot of ingredients, which, as I've noted in FOH videos, seems to have somewhat of a commonality with various other products in the line-up. Here, thing like chia seed, don't seem to have a particular impact on things, as this is mostly a very sweet sauce, with the attributes I mentioned. It does have a very nice Habanero element, as well as a nice unami element, but when you get hit with that sweet of the prickly pear. I'm coming to believe that it is a really a love/hate sort of taste element. I like this sauce a lot more when I don't run across it. This requires whatever you're putting this one to really be able to stand up against that sweet and I haven't run across a lot of foods where that has been the case. They call it the "wing sauce," so it definitely will be in one of my quarterly round-ups, but I'm not expecting a lot out of this one. Most things I've tried it with were a one-and-out proposition.

It is not particularly punchy, in terms of heat. The Habanero here is almost used as much for flavor as heat, but heat is very, very moderate. I half wonder how this would do in baking, to replace some of the sugars in various treats, but I don't have other chileheads, or even food adventurers, at hand, especially now, in the age of COVID-19, to try this out with, and I am not a natural baker (more of cook/chef), so that might be a ship that I just let sail.

Bottom line: If you like prickly pear, that particular kind of sweet, as well as sweet-hot sauces, this is well worth your while. Heat is pretty far from overbearing, and this might serve well as an introductory sauce.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 4
            Flexibility: 4
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 4

Overall: 3

Pepper Nectar Original Hot Sauce Review

Pepper Nectar Original

Note: This sauce was provided for purposes of review by Roger Damptz of Burn Your Tongue. Check him out on Facebook or, better yet, head on over to his new online outlet where you can shop the widest selection available anywhere, www.burnyourtongueonline.com.

UPDATE: Video support available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJdc5ctKqbc

I will start off by saying that I find the combination of Habanero and honey to be near magical, and to express my shock every time I encounter it that more hot sauce makers are not utilizing it more. One of my SOTY winners (Z's Shield Maiden), in fact, utilized this very combination to great effect. This sauce initially reminded me of that one a bit but the more I got into it, the more they separated a bit. 

While neither has a great degree of heat, this one is quite a bit more blended and a lot less loose. I find the consistency quite a lot better with this one (and also like the label better, for what that's worth). Ingredient-wise, there's a pretty significant departure as this one is more of an Asian chili-garlic sauce, like Huy Fong or one of those, that comes with the larger green screw-top lids and that you generally see in Chinese restaurants. It is not exactly like that, though, as those sauces do not tend to use Habaneros. It is most reminiscent of that sauce, though, if you blended it much better than those usually are, into the consistency of a sauce, rather than leaving it somewhat chunky, and put garlic way, way ahead of the pepper. And also added honey, of course. This one additionally has carrot, though that doesn't really read particularly here.

When I initially opened the bottle, there was some separation and I really really liked the sauce in the neck and put it on everything I could think of...I thought for a moment that I would be looking at another SOTY contender, but alas...as I got down to the point where I could finally agitate it, though, I liked it a lot less and it stopped working entirely on some foods. The reason for this is that the garlic is way too prominent for me here. Still, one of the great points about this sauce is how well it works on Asian food, which is, for me, one of the more difficult foods to sauce with the majority of hot sauces I have. It is actually quite flexible and does well with meats and on pizzas (though I like other ones better), as well.

Bottom line: This is a very well-done sauce and anyone who likes garlic-forward sweet hots, particularly canting a bit towards the Asian side, would do well to check this one out.

Breakdown:

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

Overall: 7

TRUFF (Red) Hotter Hot Sauce Review

 Truff Hotter Blend Hot Sauce

Note: This sauce was provided for purposes of review by Roger Damptz of Burn Your Tongue. Check him out on Facebook or, better yet, head on over to his new online outlet where you can shop the widest selection available anywhere, www.burnyourtongueonline.com.

UPDATE: Video support available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgkSRVyai6M

I should start with the obvious, I suppose, and that is that TRUFF is marketing genius. It is never in question what you might be getting. The website is slick, with lots of eye-catching visuals, including very well-done video content. It looks more like that of a diamond importer than sauce purveyor. Indeed, that is probably intention, given the heaviness of the glass, the different shape of the bottle, and the actual diamond cut of the plastic cap. This is all very well coordinated and nicely done. They are clearly trying to leave no doubt as to the impression of something high end, which naturally extends to the price. This is one of the more expensive hot sauces you can find anywhere. There are other sauces in the line-up, including a white truffle, an Arrabbiata pasta sauce (which makes more sense to me), and a regular hot sauce

It contains black truffle, which is an expensive food item, at least partially expensive because of the rarity. Indeed, I often suspect that rich people like certain foods because of that attribute more than anything else, that exclusivity, rather than because they actually like something or because it takes better than something else. In the hot sauce world, we have a sort of pause, while people try to figure out what is going to replace the Reaper as Guinness holder for SHU, so that's some leaning into alternate ingredients, which is why stuff like black garlic is also making its way into the mix. In the case of black truffle, I think this is an exceedingly odd thing to put into a hot sauce conceptually. I've had black truffle numerous times and it really seems like one of those ingredients that's its own thing. I never had something with that in it and wished it also had heat, so this is a really curious choice. It has always, in fact, been one of those things that I can take or leave. I enjoy it when I have it, but have not and will not go out of my way for it. 

In this case, I find that overusing the sauce leads to unpleasant results. With black truffle, a little goes a very long way and they're using black truffle, olive oil infused with black truffle, and black truffle powder, so you can easily have a much stronger concentration than might be suitable. There are emulsifiers in this, so it does stay pretty uniform and consistent, with the consistency more like a commercial maple syrup, maybe slightly faster. I'm not exactly sure how you'd agitate this easily, though...it tends to stick to the sides readily and it's somewhat difficult to tell what's going on within the bottle, due to how the label is positioned. My guess is that this packaging makes it easy to waste sauce, which seems like a really weird thing for the company to do, other than it, like the oversaucing, make one need to acquire it sooner, if one was so inclined.

One of the reasons that black truffle is not something especially sought after by me is that I find it easily overpowers things. If you like the flavor, that's great, but if you're like me and somewhat ambivalent, this can lead to some regret. It won't be that way on the heat regard, as this is very moderate in the piquancy department, and the heat is sort of a general chili, without regard to any specific pepper. The heavy earthiness of this (cumin also shows up) is not always what I'm wanting. The flexibility of this is somewhat wanting, as well, kind of like that of the black garlic, which really kind of needs some sort of umami element. Here, this sauce needs a richness of flavor to complement or it will tend to be overpowering, particularly with how hard it can be to control the flow.

Bottom line: If you're a black truffle fan or just black truffle curious, this is worth a spin. I understand they have smaller bottles, so that may make more sense. Just remember that a little bit goes a long way...

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 2
            Flavor: 5
            Flexibility: 4
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 4

Overall: 4

Karma Huhu Pina Hot Sauce Review

Karma Huhu Pina Hot Sauce

Note: This sauce was provided for purposes of review by Roger Damptz of Burn Your Tongue. Check him out on Facebook or, better yet, head on over to his new online outlet where you can shop the widest selection available anywhere, www.burnyourtongueonline.com.

UPDATE: Video support available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMuxyoE3IrY

When I did some compilations in Q3 of 2020, as a point of curiousity, I went through to see which letters of the alphabet had been covered through the years. As mentioned in the Q3 2020 Update post, I found I had not reviewed any sauces with the letters "K," "U," "X," and "Y". This was already on my list, thanks to some fairly glowing praise on Roger's Facebook page feed, wherein I drop from time to time. 

It is another in a very long line of Pineapple-Habanero, a category that is so saturated that folks are resorting to doing things like adding ginger and/or lime to differentiate themselves. This one adds both of those, adds a Korean pepper and stuff like agave and marjoram as well as a host of other ingredients, including cumin. As cumin is another of those flavorings I'm trying to move away from, this was not an especially welcome development, but once I understood the intent of the sauce, it made more sense. 

This is apparently intended for that narrowest of narrow craft categories, not merely a Pineapple-Habanero, but specifically for one dish, that being al pastor tacos. Now, this is a bit of a problem for me, since I do not own a trompo and this is not a time when I find myself having much trust in any restaurants. There are only a select few who I think do a good job with this, as it is, and none of them are particularly close to me. Still, I try to test things as thoroughly as possible and this was no exception, so I used it in every place where I would normally use a Pineapple-Habanero, so things like chicken strips, pizza, etc. Cumin I did not find to be a very welcome addition to any of those and it is somewhat of a challenge to figure out where this sauce should fit, as the one food dish it appears to be meant for, al pastor tacos, it is doubtful I will have in 2020. I dislike sweet sauces generally with Mexican dishes, so I didn't find it enjoyable there, either. Once the video posts, you can see my attempt to build something along the lines of the dish this sauce is wanting.

Heat -wise, this is very moderate, bordering on non-existent. The consistency is somewhere between the Inferno Farms Pineapple XXXpress and one of the thicker sauces, right about the middle between them. There are a lot of good bits of pineapple and pepper in there, which I do like.

Bottom line: Designing a sauce for one specific food is an interesting idea, but one that seems inherently limited. If this sauce did not have cumin, I would find it far more enjoyable, but as it is, I find that ingredient bottlenecks applications. 

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 4
            Flexibility: 1
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 2

Overall: 2

 

Legal Hot Sauce (Hot) Review

Legal Hot Sauce Hot Hot Heat

Legal in Brazilian, which is where this sauce hails, means a positive emphatic (as well as lawful), along the lines of cool or awesome. This sauce company has chosen their name somewhat poorly, as the name on the bottle is literally how it reads, similar to Pallotta Hot. Companies need not put the adjective "hot" in their name if they're making hot sauce...it just gets into the awkward hour.

That aside, I had not ever come across the Malagueta pepper before and it's pretty rare that happens these days, so I got excited. Getting into this sauce was a whole lot less pleasant, though. The overall flavor reminds me a lot of Tabasco crossed by way of a Scorpion, in that it has that Tabasco bit of sweetness (possibly the sweetness is the addition of carrots, I should note) and flavor, but also has a very strong flowery and bitter aspect to it, somewhat similar to the Scorpions. It is ultimately not something I find particularly palatable, but it was definitely interesting to try.

Given how heavily vinegary it is, this is probably something that makes a lot more sense in the context of where you would use a Louisiana-style sauce. It is also approximately that consistency, though not quite as water, but comes with a restrictor cap, which is definitely necessary. The flavor profile is very strong though, also reminiscent of Tabasco, and it's also similar to Tabasco in that it comes across as a love/hate sort of proposition. As I don't like Tabasco particularly and grow less fond of Scorpions lately, this is not one that I find especially enjoyable. One of the things I really dislike, though, is that there seems to be a sort of alcohol flavor to it, which I find quite puzzling and jarring. I'm not quite clear if this harshness is part of the intent or not, but it is highly detracting. Oversaucing becomes an immediate problem as this sauce can definitely wreck things. Heat-wise, the sauce is pretty moderate, hotter than the Tabasco and Lousiana-style sauces generally, but not anything approaching blazing. 

Bottom line: I always enjoy experiencing new (to me) peppers for the first time and this was no exception, but I definitely will not be using the entire bottle. Indeed, this one is going to be binned and is on the fence for me keeping it around long enough to film a video for it.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 1
            Flexibility: 5
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 2

Overall: 2

Mountain Man Fire-Roasted Habanero Hot Sauce

Mountain Man Fire-Roasted Habanero Hot Sauce

Update: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLY5_GablGw

This chasing around for a Standby Mexican-style sauce can easily get out of hand with me, which is why I was happy during those times when I had a viable candidate. Somehow, I wound up back in it, again, this year and was poking around online trying to find fire-roasted Habanero, since I think I've settle on wanting that more than wanting a smoky flavor. The plan right now is to blend a couple of sauces together and the candidates I have in mind I still need to gather, but that project I plan to start maybe later this month or December...once I can get up to BYT again to collect the necessary goodies. At the time, I had that tentative plan, but also came across this when searching for fire-roasted Habanero as a hot sauce ingredient.

I had never heard of this sauce company, which comes from the mountains of...Florida. Ahem. It did not look to be an especially complex sauce and that is one of the attributes of the Irazu Fire-Roasted Habanero sauce (reviewed here elsewhere), so I thought I would give it a go, both because I had never heard of the sauce company and to just make sure I canvassed the choices a bit more thoroughly prior to moving forward with the blending process. 

The initial flavor here is the nice fire-roasted Habanero blasted with a not very palatable vinegar. It is not listed as such, label cites red wine vinegar specifically, but it reminds me a lot of an apple cider vinegar, which I dislike as a main or even strong flavor note. This is, by far the biggest weakness of this sauce, which is otherwise fine. So, we have both a bad vinegar and far too much of it, which is pretty odd for most Mexican-style sauces. If you can get past that, and you will need to find foods that are relatively strong in flavor profile (which most Mexicanesque foods are, I would suggest), this does have a very lovely heat to it, though pretty far from blazing and the fire-roasted notes are excellent. 

Bottom line: The vinegar is a shame, but otherwise this is an entry into both the fire-roasted and Mexican-style categories well worth checking out.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 3
            Flavor: 7
            Flexibility: 5
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 4

Overall: 5

Brick & Mortars In Utah Update

It's been a good, good long time, all the way since July 2017,  since I did one of these. I really meant to get to this sooner and in fact, for a while, I was kicking around the idea of doing this yearly (feel free to click through the timeline for some of the earlier episodes). We have seen a pretty dramatic influx of spiciness to foods in 2020 (some of these I’ve done videos for in the YouTube FOH series), with a good percentage of the local grocers (Harmons, Fresh Market, Smith’s, etc.), expanding their selections notably. They still are a pretty far cry from any of the places on this list more dedicated to that specific product line, but it is nice to see the industry getting out there.

In the age of COVID-19, with businesses related to food dropping off right and left, I was a bit worried for all of these places and checked in with all of them at least once in 2020. The list is alphabetic and I will say there is a reason to go to all of them that are along the I-15 corridor, as they all have different strengths, some of those not really related to hot sauces specifically. As usual, all of them are also reviewed on my Yelp page, though I have not updated them all specifically to 2020.

Burn Your Tongue - Quilted Bear - Newgate Mall, Ogden, UT

700+ sauces. I might not need to add anything else to this, actually. This selection is intense and covers every spectrum of hot sauce you might think of, including some mustards and syrups. If you combined ALL of the shelf offerings of everyone else on this list, you’d probably break the century mark, maybe all the way to 150, but not much more. All of them. Combined. Roger, in addition to being the ambassador to spiciness, particularly with his support of the chilehead community, is also an all-around good guy and if you happen to catch him there, you’ll be treated to a great conversation about peppers, the industry, and exactly which sauce you should be taking with you, and maybe even a discount.

Grove Market - Salt Lake City, UT

This is what it sounds like, a small market servicing a deli counter that makes some of the tastiest sandwiches known to man. Everything there is in service to that, from the fresh desserts to the substantial drink selection to the snacks and so on. There is one neck-high shelving unit that is dedicated to the sauces, but in that area is probably a good 50 or 60 different types, some of which I’ve seen nowhere else. Selection here is a pretty far cry from BYT, but still enough for 2nd.

Pepper Palace - Park City, UT

Hot on the heels of that, though, is Pepper Palace. This is dedicated to the Pepper Palace line, aside from some of the extraneous stuff they lifted from Pirate O’s, such as dried insects. This place has t-shirts and other novelty junk, some meat snacks, some BBQ sauces, some wing sauces, some salsas, a lot of dried stuff, rubs, etc, some pickled stuff. In fact, most of the floor and shelf space is dedicated to things other than hot sauces. For those sauces, which I did not pick up, as I was not in serious need and literally nothing enticed me, even after a good half hour of time spent checking out the wares, there is a lot of duplication, which suggested that there are, despite 40 - 50 labeled sauces, maybe half that number of actual sauces. It also suggests a base, which always strikes me as kind of a dangerous proposition. I have heard rumblings that they like to pick off other sauces, reverse engineer them and release as their own, but I cannot verify. I didn’t see a ton of things that struck me as exact copies, but more than a few things that seemed more intended as analogues to other sauces. For a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that I hate Park City (it is about the same distance from me as Pirate O’s and I’ve been to Pepper Palace exactly once ever), this is pretty low on my list of things to get to, though I did find enough stuff that I’m vaguely interested in that I might try some of it in 2021, if I ever managed to free up shelf space.

Pirate O's - Draper, UT

More of a Euro/quasi-Scandinavian import store than anything else, though they extend the range a bit more each time I come in. The owner seems somewhat of a chilehead, and is also another good guy that I’ve enjoyed chatting with about sauces, but a couple of shelving units along the back wall means he’s deferring to other stuff that probably sells better and is more profitable, though selection has been better this year than at other times in the past. Even still, this one has a single digit (probably a low single digit) percentage of the available retail space dedicated to hot sauces and spicy stuff overall, but there are some gems here that I also don’t seem to run across anywhere else. This is well worth keeping tabs on, but moreso for the FOH series rather than the blog these days. I’d put this one closer to a tie with Grove, just depending on my mood on a given day, but will also not that I have a soft spot for it, as it gamely tried to provide when BYT was on hiatus. I enjoy the visits here a lot, just something warm and comfortable about it, that so-called je ne sais quoi.

And...so...we conclude another breakdown. All of them along the I-15 corridor are definitely worth a visit, but as a finale to this, in my end ringing endorsement, I again note that I have ceased buying sauces online entirely, in favor of brick-and-mortars, and that is largely due to BYT, which remains my overall favorite.