Number Nine. Year #9. The ninth year of this blog. For the sauces I had, and for this blog, and the video series, it was a strong year. For almost everything else, it was pretty awful. But you didn’t come here for more of the COVID-19 calamity, I don’t suppose, and I’d rather keep the blog on point, as it has been for all (ok, most) of that time.
Every year, I like to come around at this time, in usually my lengthiest post of the year, and ruminate a bit. I don’t really do resolutions, but I did want to talk a bit about 2021, which is maybe an unusual way to start a recap of a preceding year, but, given that this one will also include the FOH video series, I hope I can be forgiven for my indulgence. But first...a prelude of sorts to that...also, get a snack and a drink, because this post will be lengthy.
Before I get into the prelude (you can probably see why this is so long), though, I do want to mention a bit of housekeeping, namely that I have further sorted the FOH videos on YouTube and added a new playlist, this one separating out the Sweet stuff from some of the other snacks (check them all out directly in links to the right). Aside for the sauces, I don’t want to get too many videos piling up in one playlist, so there may be another breakout playlist or two coming in 2021. Speaking of the FOH video series on YouTube...
When I first started kicking the idea of the video series around, it was because, as I mentioned in the post earlier last year, Roger Damptz of Burn Your Tongue, had graciously offered me some sauces to kickstart the blog again. I struggled with the idea a bit, as I had not previously accepted product and, to a degree in the beginning, specifically avoided that kind of thing...but, it was a very generous offer, at a time when my motivation was floundering, so I ultimately gratefully accepted. Still, it felt kind of unfair to me that he gave me actual products that had value, as in stock on his shelf, in exchange for me grinding out words in a blog that had seen better days in terms of draw, at least partially because of my lackadaisical posting to it. So, I hatched the video idea, given that I’ve been doing YouTube video content for a while now on some other channels.
I wanted it to be different, but still support the ideals of the blog. With the video series, I felt I could open up and expand the spicy items I was consuming, but the idea of food challenges has held little appeal to me and I will never be competitive with the myriad of others already out there doing it. So, the video series, in addition to the other parts I mentioned, was also to do another the blog did not, which was to get up content consistently. I had originally just wanted to post a video for one sauce a week, which I felt was a pretty attainable goal. I almost missed that, shortly after I launched, but once I got on track, it was smooth sailing. Things were clicking along in that I was soon running at least 2 months ahead (it’s probably closer to 3+, as I write this), so I was able coast most of the time...
This enabled me to plan future stuff, to keep the door fridge sauces to a mostly reasonable and manageable level, as well as keeping my tolerance down somewhat. The idea of this blog is to have it accessible to folks beyond just chileheads, so if I let things just fly too much, the sauces don’t read to me at an appropriate or commensurate level. Activity winds up becoming a flurry of sauces, then a pause while I try to finish off some open ones, then repeat and so on. Unlike some of the other reviewers out there, I don’t just do a review and the immediately bin the sauce. If I like it at all, I will generally finish it out. I really struggle with the idea of waste.
I have a lot of fun with those videos and really enjoy making them, which hopefully comes through, but chasing down different spicy snacks all the time is a lot more work than I expected. I really mainly was thinking of the sauces for the FOH video series, but figured I would try to do double-postings for all of 2020 to build content. This (and being so far ahead - as I type this, January is in the can and I’m actually working on videos that probably won’t be posted until March 2021 or later) enabled me to do really fun things like some holiday posts and special event videos and whatnot.
The problem now is that I can’t really record a video of me eating Samyang Hot Chicken noodles or any of those other items again. Those are pretty much one and out and there are a lot less different spicy snacks than there are hot sauces out there. With COVID-19, I largely lost my ability to do Head To Head Chicken Sandwich Battles (or any fast food spicy menu items). I can still do the nut battles, until I run out, I suppose, and even those, I’ve run down the gamut pretty well (as I write this, I have two more to do and that’s it). Trying to come up with content, in fact, is how I arrived at those Head To Head Battles to begin with. Same with the quarterly fridge sauce clean-up hot wings videos, which I will say, has done a great job of not overburdening my open fright door sauce shelf.
Where this leaves me in 2021, I don’t know exactly, though I do have a bit of time with the backlog, probably pretty close through the end of Q2. I might try to go every other week and see how that goes, but I’m running out of road on non-sauce content, unless I want to open it up to the weird spicy challenges...and I may do a few of those, if they sound like they will be interesting taste-wise and not just the “pour a shitload of extract into things” type. If that becomes a thing, I need to develop my prep a bit more. What I have come up with is helpful, but not quite to the level I want it to be at. My focus has really been, for the most part, even with the experimentalism of the FOH video series, on flavor.
I have a number of other options I’ve had rattling around the old noggin. I could go replace the non-sauce postings with more sauce postings, once I run out of the non-sauce items. I have the canned content now to support that thought, as I write this, but how long would that continue if I was posting double the sauce content would become a pressing question. I could just go to regular sauce posting and then just do the non-sauce products as I come across things, but I dislike doing that somewhat. I do have some series type “event” videos I kind of have in the back of my mind, which would add a video in per month, but I haven’t formulated it concretely enough mentally, in terms of feasability.
I might add condiments that often run in the gray area, not quite a hot sauce, but a little too spicy to be just “normal,” which is the hot mustards or possibly some of the hotter BBQ sauces, if I can find any. Those don’t really fit into the blog, which is more specifically hot sauces only, but realistically, how many of those can I do as well will be a question. I really enjoy posting stuff I make, from pizza to barbeque to deviled eggs to hot cider. Those are a blast to do, but that’s not really what I do or what the channel is about, besides the occasional times where it fits in with something else I’m doing.
The final alternative is just to leave it mostly as a blog/hot sauce support structure. If had to guess, once I run down the backlog, it will probably be weekly sauces every Sunday, the quarterly wing showdown, maybe some Head To Head stuff, if things permit, and any other content opportunistically, as if I find a new kind of snack in the grocery store or something OR if someone wants to see something I haven’t done, then I could do something by request, which would add some nice flexibility, possibly. In any case, while I don’t know how this will look just yet (watch this space, or more relevantly, the YouTube space, I guess), I do know that 2021, at this point, anyway, is less likely to see my video posting at the same pace as 2020.
In other changes for 2021, I have decided I’m largely tired of Scorpion peppers and will be drifting away from them once I run out the sauces I already have. I was fairly fond of them for some time, but their overly flowery nature I find somewhat grating now, as I mentioned elsewhere, sort of like the over-hoppy nature of IPA beers. I’m kind of kicking around the idea of doing a post on different peppers and my thoughts on them in sauces, but inevitably, I’m going to leave something out, so going to let that idea gel for a bit.
I do need to look into the Reapers more and those are factoring fairly highly in my plans for the coming year. The process, in fact, has already started in the later part of 2020. I have not historically had a lot of interaction with them on the sauce side, with nearly all of my dealings coming from them on the snack side, but with Scorpions going by the wayside, it is probably high time I look into those further. My sporadic interaction with them has been a touch challenging for my internal system. It is somewhat similar to how my body would sometimes react with Habaneros, which has been described throughout this blog. The interaction with Reapers is that, only amplified, but there are some differences as well, such a burn all the way to my stomach, which is something more typical for me with extracts. Reaper presence can also induce burning urine, which is the only thing which has ever reacted this way with me. Extract doesn’t do that. That particular burn seems to be quantity based, without regard to whether it is the pods or powder.
It was quite a surprise the first time that happened, I can assure you, even with my heat tolerance probably overall higher than at any other point in my life, so it will be intriguing to see how/if that changes with Reaper sauces. I spent most of December with various Reaper products and my takeaway is that Reapers are not something that one consumes casually. This is not the case for any of the other peppers. Reapers are fairly easy to overdo and it is pretty far from enjoyable when that happens. Playing with those can very easily whip you into pretty bad cap cramps, even after the mouth heat has dissipated. It is the only thing I’ve found that I can re-activate into cramps, either with activity or with carbonation post ingestion, even literally a few hours afterwards...definitely not something to toy with.
Another of my goals for 2021 is to try to have a support video posted for every single sauce I do a written review for within the year. The past sauces from earlier years of the blog I still plan to work on and ideally can get at least one of those per month, but they are a bit less of a priority than my last goal, which is to try to clear out my backlog somewhat (I have space for 18 bottles, as long as they are not irregularly sized, in my usual spot where I keep the unopened ones that are waiting - I overran that a few times this year, including as I write this, which I would strongly prefer not to do in future). I also will be having video support for all of the SOTY titles that are still available and not either reformulated or discontinued in 2021, probably by the end of Q1...at least that’s the plan, currently.
Another of my big goals is to do more networking and outreach within the community, something I’ve largely not bothered with in the past, aside from chit-chatting a bit over email with Scott Roberts, when he was around. This year I’ve connected a bit with Kendall at Tasting The Heat, submitted to be part of the voting body for the Hot Sauce Hall Of Fame, connected a bit with some sauce manufacturers, added in some major Hot Ones sauce breakdowns and homages, as well as connected with some online YouTube reviewers a bit. Of course, my main man Roger Damptz at BYT is always in the mix as well. I’m not, however, on Facebook and will never be. I have little to no interest in social media, aside from what I’m currently doing now (Yelp, YouTube, this blog), so if you enjoy the content here or at FOH, please spread the word. I noticed Vic Clinco (World’s Largest Hot Sauce Collection) has a good community going, but I don’t really have a way to reach him, that I’ve been able to find, as we don’t inhabit the same online spheres, so if there are people reading or watching and enjoying what I do here or at the FOH series, I’d love a little referral to some of those people out there, especially if you’re part of a chilehead community.
Speaking of The Hot Ones (be sure to check on the quarterly updates, posted at the END of every calendar quarter, which are NOT in the Table Of Contents post, but you can click to by expanding the months on the right), I’m slowly working my way through the sauces on that show. Season One was done as of last Quarter, with more coming in 2021. As noted earlier, those tend to be more expensive options than some of the other sauces. Unless and until this blog and video channel thing becomes lucrative, it makes more sense for me to be driven by what appeals to me, rather than chasing a completist fever dream...I have broken down the numbers for all of the years (also somewhat in a link on the right) and have added a few more for this year, and continue to keep that page current, but again, overall not really a priority at present. Right now, the plan is to try to do at least one of those a quarter, so I have at least one Hot Ones entry in my quarterly wing fridge clean up homage videos. I have in mind a couple more breakout playlists for FOH, including The Hot Ones sauces specifically, but that particular one is not really worthwhile to do...yet.
2020 overall was the second highest year for posts and the highest year ever for sauces, again, somewhat driven by the FOH series. This is even with a slow down towards the end of the year, partially so I could do some sauce clean-up and save some for January 2021. 2020 has been easily the highest drawing year for blog viewership historically, which was quite pleasing to see. Additionally, in news that will surely be of no interest to anyone other than me, I am now down to 12 sauces (that are still being produced, of course) for which I need pictures.
Before October was out, I hit 200 full sauce reviews, on my way to 210, a number which is still kind of wild to me, considering where I started the year. 300, even overall, seems a bit unlikely for 2021, but I imagine I will finish fairly close in the overall total. Also, this time out, before I even got to the end of Quarter 3, I had 5 contenders for SOTY. I finished with 6 contenders, which was a different challenge from previous years, but also kind of a good problem to have. The sauce with the most views changed from the prior leader, the O’Brother Chipotle-Habanero, to a new sauce leader this year as well. We will get into the SOTY discussion more, but first, as we usually do, some numbers...
As usual, all written reviews for sauces can be clicked to from the Table Of Contents page (see link on right):
Total posts (including this post): 255
Total views (as of this writing): ~24,928
Total sauces full reviewed: 210
Total mini-sauce reviews: 36
Total sauces reviewed, combined: 246
Total full review sauces with FOH video content: 68
Total unopened sauces waiting on shelf for review: 17
Total open sauces waiting for blog review: 1
Total open sauces waiting for video support: 3
Total open bottles in fridge: 10
Highest viewed review: 1,334 - Private Selection Mango Scotch Bonnet Hot Sauce
Highest viewed article, any type: 1,334 - Private Selection Mango Scotch Bonnet Hot Sauce
Current standby sauces are:
*Emeritus Everyday sauce: Trappey's Red Devil
*Emeritus Asian-style sauce: Huy Fong Chili-Garlic Sauce
*Everyday sauce (and current overall favorite): Blair’s Pure Death Sauce
*Grilling sauce: CaJohn's Bourbon-Infused Chipotle Habanero (BICH)
*Mustard-style sauce: Inner Beauty
*Pizza sauce (as in used instead of actual pizza sauce): Boar’s Head Jalapeno Pepper Sauce
Mexican-style sauce: ???
*Louisiana-style sauce: Irazu Cayenne
*Sweet-hot sauce: CaJohn's Happy Beaver
*= Not looking for a replacement
The more things change...a standby Mexican-style sauce seems to have perpetually eluded me and that remains the case today. I’ve given up on it being a focus, despite being caught up in it once a gain a bit this year towards the end. I have decided to try just blending one, as I had some pretty good entries in that category this year, but nothing that scratched the itch quite right. Of course, there will be a FOH video of that process available also (look for it in early 2021).
I have also added a new category to my Standby list, to replace some of the departing ones, which is the Inner Beauty, an absolute treasure of a sauce. In fact, I wound up doing a special event for that one, I loved it so much. I ate considerably more of that than any other single sauce. In fact, that is probably my favorite sauce this year and it wasn’t even in contention. I ran down the average rating in last quarter’s update, but it really takes some doing to be in contention for Sauce Of The Year, let alone to win it. I specifically wanted this category to be the creme de la creme of the year and designed the rating system so that no one element could score high enough to tamper with the selection. It has to get fairly high marks in at least 3 of those 4 to be in serious contention. So even Inner Beauty, with it getting a perfect 10 in 2 of the 4 categories wasn’t able to be in consideration. To put it in perspective, even with 210 full review sauces on the blog so far, I still have not hit a total score of 1,000 cumulative, with all the sauce scores combined. The average rating of all those sauces sits just about 4.5 (I’m not going to post a full breakdown of where the sauces fall in this post, as it’s already quite lengthy as-is, but if anyone is interested, drop me a line and I’ll get it Q1 of 2021).
Most of the SOTY contenders came in sort of early this year, at least comparatively to other years. Those sauces specifically were: Private Selection Calabrian Chile, Arthur Wayne Huckleberry Ghost, Arthur Wayne Limitless, Monroy’s Death By Kraken, Tonguespank Scotch Whiskey Trinidad Scorpion & Mikey V’s Sweet Ghost Pepper. Having two sauces from the same manufacturer is pretty rare and had not happened since the first year of the blog.
We had a very commercial sauce in the Private Selection, a sort of mid-level market penetration with the Mikey V’s, and much smaller scale for the others. I loved them all, but for different reasons. The Calabrian went by far the fastest and was the most universal of all the contenders this year. It was also the least expensive. The Limitless was definitely the hottest. The Death By Kraken sort of became a forgotten sauce and was not able to sustain the kind of appeal it would have needed to actually be the choice. I think I tired of the mango, which is not a flavor I would say I find super beloved. The Tonguespank, sadly no longer produced, was like a fine Manhattan, revealing multiple layers and depths to it. The Mikey V’s was by far the best-tasting, until the very last minute, when the Huckleberry Ghost slid in under the wire.
We also had some variety of chiles, with various ones being used in the Calabrian, which was decidedly not hot, the Scorpion for both Limitless and the Tonguespank, and Ghost Pepper for the Kraken, Huckleberry Ghost, and Mikey V. entry. Of these, the Limitless and Kraken came courtesy of Roger at Burn Your Tongue. All of them, except for the Tonguespank, which I had well over a year before getting around to trying, were acquired this year.
While any on this list would rightfully take their place amidst the other great sauces that earned the title, I eliminated the Calabrian almost immediately, due to having stiff competition this year, While it is a legitimately great sauce, particularly for a commercial one, it ultimately just didn’t hit enough buttons. The Kraken, as noted, was one that I tired of, again probably because there were so many other sauces and so much competition as well. The Limitless was one where I enjoyed it a bit less over time because it was fairly easy to oversauce with it, which made it somewhat less usable.
Really, the main contenders were the Huckleberry Ghost, the Mikey V., and the Tonguespank, which became more clear as time wore on. This is one of the reasons I don’t decide these things until I’m nearly at the end of trying sauces for a given year. I vacillated back and forth for quite some time, as I really enjoyed the combination of Scotch whiskey and Scorpion peppers, oddly, two components I no longer hold the same love and regard for which I formerly did. The Mikey V., as noted, is by far the best Asian-style sweet sauce I’ve ever had and I loved every bite of it. The Huckleberry Ghost was just this tremendously surprising wonderful concoction. It came down to literally the Mikey V. and the Huckleberry Ghost, on account of flavor for both, as they were of similar heat level.
Now seems like a good spot to announce that, by a hair, and only due to a slightly higher flexibility in that I liked the flavor more and like the sauce itself on more things, the Mikey V’s Sweet Ghost Pepper is the 2020 Sauce Of The Year. It’s the best-seller of the company and small wonder why...it’s just a tremendous, tremendous sauce. I loved it from the start and then on every single thing I used it on, which is not something I could say for the other sauces. In the review, I mentioned it was the frontrunner for SOTY, which was a spot it never really fully relinquished. I’ve had a lot of Asian-style sweet sauces, have a very rich history to compare this to, so when I say this is far and away the best, it is comparing it not only against a wide array of sauces, but also decades of usage. That is not something that can be ignored, especially when you’re coming down to such slim criteria to decide an eventual winner. This was the closest deliberation for SOTY I’ve ever had.
Previous TSAAF Sauce Of The Year winners (links in Table Of Contents page):
2012: CaJohn’s Happy Beaver
2013: Blair’s Pure Death
2014: Born To Hula’s Ghost Of Ancho
2015: Voodoo Chile’s Voo Dew Honey Doo
2016: Pirate O’s Surface Of The Sun Hot Sauce
2017: Z’s Shield Maiden Hot Sauce
2018: Taco Jesus Cayenne Pepper Sauce
2019: Torchbearer Ultimate Annihilation
If you want to read more from me, check out my wine about blog, the Happy Sippin’ Companion (HSC). It has been put on inactive status as of 2019, with no plans to resurrect it, but still remains up for viewing (link also on right).
I also slug away a bit on Yelp, though, as noted, far, far off the pace for 2020, which you can click to from my widget. My distribution of ratings and further metrics are available on my Yelp profile page.
As always, I appreciate you dropping by. If there’s any spicy products or sauces you’d like to see me get to or any video ideas you may have, please drop me a line in the comment section of any of the reviews or support videos.
