2K21 Q3 Update
Note: This is being posted earlier than usual (these typically come at the last day of the quarter), but due to an ongoing family emergency that is very time and attention intensive, I won’t be able to post at the usual time, so I’m coming in a few days ahead. I will say that this situation makes being as far ahead as I usually am on the videos very handy, as I can schedule those and they can proceed uninterrupted.
So, here we are, finally, Post 300 for the blog (300 full review sauces is still some distance away, probably next year). Another diet change, in the midst of a major life change (not related to the diet change or the noted emergency, but preceding the emergency and not yet concluded), and I’m trying to find more opportunities to fit hot sauce into my diet, which has once again been revamped to accommodate some fitness goals I’m working on. I’m below the 20 sauce threshold for my backlog, even though I wound up getting some for my birthday, so I’ll be looking to head up to Rog’s and load up again in the very near future. I have also added a playlist on the FOH series for the Inferno Candy Company products, since I have done so many of them. Additionally, all content filmed in 2020 is finally posted. It will probably be pretty deep into 2022 before I’m caught up with this year, at least on the non-sauce content. I have also gotten within one letter of completing the alphabet of reviewed sauces...just need to find a manufacturer that starts with the letter “U”...
I might count up just how many Carolina Reaper products I did at the end of this year (and I’m seriously thinking of going through everything in my backlog just to get it all done before then), but I can say that I kind of can’t wait until my existing backlog (maybe a third of what I have left sauce-wise) of stuff with that pepper is over. It truly is on another level compared to other peppers and even extract, an aspect which I both find interesting and somewhat annoying. It also tends to hit a lot harder in the receptors in the back of my mouth, which is rather irritating. Flavor-wise, I’d put it above the Scorpions and probably the Fatalii, but definitely below Jolokias and the 7-Pot Primos, the last of which I am happily running across more and more.
I have filmed entirely all of the non-sauce content I had, which puts me into 2022 somewhere. It is so weird seeing a tower of various packaged food staged for review in my office now being entirely absent. I’m still trying to sort out how I want to approach the coming year in terms of posting. Sauces will still be continuing as now, with posting on Sundays and any sauces from Hot Ones (starting to make a solid dent in that list) on Fridays. The quarterly Wing Things will also continue. I’ve done a lot of stuff with the Inferno Candy Company, but do not have anything on deck from them. They are always kicking new stuff out, though, and I have yet to see the Paqui One Chip Challenge for 2021, actually, I have seen signs for it, but have not come across the actual product yet, so it may be a bit later into next year before this problem really comes to the fore.
It will be, again, another issue, though, as if I go every other week, I probably am closing in on all of next year, however, with products like these particularly, there is also a timeliness issue and I’m not sure how much I want to be posting content that is 6+ months old. I might just keep it the way it is now through the first 2 quarters and then shift after that...depends on how many more products I’m able to come across. Again, though, 2021 is the year of the chile in many respects, so there is a lot more stuff than anticipated, but still not quite enough to keep me comfortable. I am thinking about resurrecting my spicy chicken sandwich battle thing for another round, but really going back and forth on that with the Delta surge. I’m still debating some challenges and/or possibly exploring fresh pods, but those are definitely way down on my list of interest. Of course, I’m always open to suggestions as well.
As to The Hot Ones, the Season 16 lineup is out, which I have updated. Once again, the wisdom of me doing that wretched Da Bomb sauce is vindicated, as I already have an entry in this season, just by doing that singular review and video. As to the rest of it, because I just shot a video for a Yellowbird sauce and referenced Sean Evans heavily in it, namely that he is a big fan, but also no sauce from them had ever appeared on the show, naturally, he has an entry for this season. Go figure. That specific sauce, and a few others, I won’t be partaking in, thanks to onions. Overall, half of the sauces from Season 16 I won’t be doing, and all of them for that reason. Other than that, though, I think the sauces for this upcoming season are definitely intriguing.
One thing I will note is that playing with superhots in 100 degree heat is an interesting experience and makes the internal burn kind of different. With the associated decrease in appetite, it also raises the bar on hot sauces or even spicy foods in general for me to be interested in them, which is something I’ve really only noticed this year and probably both because it’s so stupid hot, but also because I’m doing a lot of non-sauce content as well (and also have my video hood on, which, even though it’s sheer and very loose, somehow seems to increase the sensation considerably). That said (or typed), if I ever do decide to toy around with fresh pods, definitely will be no sooner than possibly winter.
I noticed something interesting in that the Top 5 sauces, in terms of overall views, has shifted somewhat, with Zatarain’s moving down and Schlotzsky’s moving up. The obvious problem with that is to do an FOH video for that, I’d need to acquire another bottle of the sauce, which I would not mind at all, to be honest, buuuuut, there are zero Schlotzsky’s anywhere in the state any longer (the franchise evidently took a pounding during 2020) and the nearest location is 400+ miles away. The sauce is, naturally, only available in-store, buuuut (again), the vicinity of this family emergency actually has one location (and the other is on the way to the vicinity), so I may actually be able to get this done, which would be a bright spot in an otherwise awful mess.
A future hot sauce road trip might also be something I consider doing, like Kendall over at Tasting The Heat (go check him out, he’s great) is kind of doing, bringing in a camera and showing off some different hot sauce places. I note now that the route I more normally take will bring me right to Volcanic Peppers in Nebraska or thereabouts as well as another one called Halogi on the edge of South Dakota, so there might be something to this idea. Road construction and the pandemic are precluding it currently, but perhaps someday... I count myself very fortunate in having nearby perhaps the greatest hot sauce store in Roger Dodger’s Burn Your Tongue Emporium, and of course, both Pirate O’s and Grove Market as solid backstops as well.
Also have added another SOTY candidate, which makes 5 as of now, and a very, very difficult decision will have to be made towards the end of the year, if this holds. It is both a good and somewhat agonizing problem to have, but definitely preferable to wondering for most of the year if there would be a contender at all...
Friday, September 24, 2021
2K21 Q3 Update
Friday, September 3, 2021
Yellowbird Blue Agave Sriracha Hot Sauce Review
Yellowbird Blue Agave Sriracha Hot Sauce
Ahhh, Yellowbird, those of the squeeze bottles so much admired by Sean Evans of The Hot Ones, a company that is overly fond of onions, but who has been on my radar for some time. With this, their pass at sriracha, a sauce that does not contain onions generally, they finally leave off of that, both allowing me to add in a sauce company starting with "Y" and getting that much closer to completing the alphabet and to finally sample some of their wares.
For those of who have been around Asian culture to any extent, or even without that, eaten in a significant number of Asian restaurants, the ubiquitous sauce, the large squeeze bottle with the green cap, is the Huy Fong version of this sauce. It is a very good sauce, reminiscent at once of a chili-garlic sauce, just more refined, in terms of milling and smoothness, and with a slightly higher garlic kick. This one models that existing monolith pretty well. I am no fan of agave, but the sauce here overall tempers down the garlic hit somewhat, and also adds in a bit of citrus fruitiness. This is a very acceptable entry into this style of sauce, unlike the previous sauce in the blog timeline that uses the sriracha name incorrectly.
There is next to no heat in any of the srirachas, this one included. While its veer from the "classic" Huy Fong taste is moderate, it is enough that I would probably not favor this over that one, but then again, I've eaten so much of this, given my various relationships with different Asian women, that I don't either buy or particularly ever eat this style of sauce much anymore.
Bottom line: This is a very solid, very capable rendition of a very specific style of sauce. To my taste, I wouldn't say it's better, but perhaps almost as good.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 1
Flavor: 6
Flexibility: 6
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 6
Overall: 5
Thursday, September 2, 2021
Lilly Lager Hot Sauce Review
Lilly Lager Hot Sauce
Another of the novelty sauce buys and I didn't notice until after I'd opened it that the sauce was calling itself sriracha. I had gotten it primarily because it used Cayenne as the pepper, which was what I was after. I'm not generally a fan of booze in foods, as I consider them to be two entirely unrelated realms, but had also never really had a sauce that utilized beer (at least not that I could recall at the time) and suspected I may hate it a bit less than the hard liquor sauce, given that I do, despite not being generally a fan of booze in foods, use beer here and there in cooking, particularly Germanic foods.
Before I get into the sauce, I am going to, again, register a complaint here publicly about the idea of using the word sriracha, which describes a very specific style of sauce, inappropriately. Sriracha may be considered a generic term by the Office of Copyrights, which is fine, but devaluation of words is something I have huge struggles with. Sriracha is not, among other things, a tropical fruit-based sauce, as another manufacturer alleged on label copy. Here, I think this gets closer to the line of what it could be (though definitely not what it is) by having a similar ingredient profile, less the addition of beer, but I don't find this to be an acceptable sriracha entry, given how loose and runny this sauce is. Consistency definitely matters with certain sauce types, Louisiana-style being perhaps the foremost example. There is also a discussion of which peppers can conceivably constitute an actual sriracha (again, a parallel with Louisiana-style), however, I don't find the idea valid that sriracha can only be red jalapeno.
So, for me, this is closer, but definitely not quite all the way there to an actual sriracha. As to the sauce, it is quite loose, to the point it comes with a restrictor cap, so me thinking it was either a stab at a Louisiana-style or Cajun style is perhaps more understandable. There are not stabilizers in the sauce, so it separates constantly, including during use, which is quite an annoying aspects of the sauce. Given that is is Cayenne-based, there is not a great deal of heat here. The overriding presence of the beer flavor is perhaps the most notable features of this sauce and again points to the novelty nature of the sauce, wherein I'm not necessarily convinced those manufacturers are trying to make good sauces, so much as passable ones. What should be, at most, an accent flavor, tends to interfere with any actual sauce flavor notions the sauce may have and consequently significantly challenges the variety of usage this sauce might otherwise expect to have. I should stress the sauce is not offensive, per se, but strikes some very odd notes that lean towards being unpleasant, but are generally off-putting enough not to want to use this. In the end, I'm not quite entirely sure I will be finishing this bottle.
Bottom line: Pin-up girl on the somewhat haphazard label, booze in the product, clearly a novelty item and somewhat sloppy in terms of being an actual viable hot sauce.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 1
Flavor: 4
Flexibility: 3
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 2
Overall: 2
Wednesday, September 1, 2021
Firelli Hot Sauce Review
Firelli Italian Hot Sauce
Sauces like this are really why I keep on trolling the various supermarket aisles, as you never quite know what will show up. This one is direct from Italy, the famous Parma, specifically, and utilizes the great Calabrian pepper, which, if you watch the Food Network at all, know is one of the darling trendy peppers in that sphere. I don't run across it in sauces, aside from that Private Selection sauce (reviewed elsewhere here) which used it extensively and quite effectively, to the point where that sauce was in contention for Sauce Of The Year.
This one is not quite of that caliber. Labeling is kind of interesting, with porcini mushroom, of all things, making an appearance. It is a very smooth sauce, very vibrant and lively, nice and rich, with some herby notes that keep reading through. One of those reads through the strongest and it is somewhat of a confusing flavor, that of dill. I know people have utilized dill in other sauces, but this one is ostensibly geared towards Italian food, with special emphasis on pizza, which I don't think I've ever seen dill used with. This aspect sort of waxes and wanes, depending on the other flavors. Indeed, this sauce is one of the more reactive with what you use it on, with the taste profile changing dramatically depending on what else is there.
Heat-wise, like the Calabrian pepper itself, it is minimal. I'm tempted to give it a zero, but there is enough there, just enough, to let you know it is meant to be a hot sauce. I think, given the shape of the bottle and the cap, that they are really taking a swing at the gourmet market here. It will probably fit in nicely there, but as a hot sauce, I think it somewhat misses the boat. A gourmet sauce, yes, but not so much a hot sauce, in that much more focus is devoted to flavor complements and contrasts than on anything resembling heat.
Bottom line: Well worth a pick-up, as anything with Calabrian peppers works nicely with Italian foods and there are never enough sauces that function well in that setting, but this is perhaps the epitome of a YMMV sauce and I don't find it especially resonant.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 1
Flavor: 6
Flexibility: 8
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 4
Overall: 5