AR's Peach Hot Sauce Review

AR's Hot Southern Honey Peach Hot Sauce

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XketSbffEso

Whilst looking around for stuff to acquire for the FOH video series on the non-sauce content, I was casting about for either spicy peanut butters or spicy honeys. AR's Hot Southern Honey had both, as well as a hot sauce. Given that it had both honey and Habanero, as well as peach, and none of my banned ingredients, I couldn't resist and picked it up. It sat on one of my on-deck shelves for a while until I ran out of one of the sweeter sauces I had at hand (along with Louisiana-style, I always try to keep some sweet-hot around) and I ran across this. 

Much like the peanut butter from them (have not tried the honey, as of yet, so that is forthcoming), I have found the actual product to be a bit underwhelming. It starts with peach, then Habanero, then honey, so really off to a great start. Had they maybe added a touch of salt and vinegar to round things out, we'd be about set. From there, we see the addition of ginger (not bad, adds some freshness, liveliness, and lightness to the flavor) and we're still ok. Once the coriander and turmeric roll in, though, it gets decidedly less ok. The rest of the stuff, vinegar, water, garlic, lemon, don't really impact things as much as the two spices do and for me, the impact is negative.

This is a very refined sauce, very smooth, very processed, with some of the dry spices evident in the tone of the sauce. I can honestly say I would never have expected the addition of those two spices or this particular combination and it's largely because dry spices of that type can easily overpower things. Here, we have a very slight peach taste, no heat or flavor from the Habaneros, and the honey reads more as a general sweetness. I will say it is a unique sauce and I've had nothing like it, but it is not one I find particularly pleasant. It's not unpalatable or anything, but isn't especially enjoyable either.

Bottom line: Somewhat of a confusing entry, with a preponderance of dry spices and a sort of vaguely peach-flavored slightly sweet base leading to something that might be good in baking or as an additional ingredient in a mixed drink, possibly, but does not function well as an actual hot sauce.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 0
            Flavor: 3
            Flexibility: 2
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 0

Overall: 1

High River Thunder Juice Hot Sauce Review

High River Thunder Juice Hot Sauce

Note:  Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtgxIz7lvjo

I've mentioned it before, this phenomenon of having a sauce be more fascinating or intriguing or interesting, and having that attribute be so prominent as to increase the time of discovery to find out where it might fit best. That is definitely the case here with this, a sauce that uses no less than 4 superhots and yet comes up with a composite that is both unique and complex.

The tag line for this points up the tequila in the sauce, tequila which is infused with Habanero, but it doesn't read particularly highly as a tequila flavor, thankfully. Instead, it is definitely a bit more with the superhot blend, along with some definite berry notes and an astringency that is combination of vinegar (most of the peppers here come in the form of their mash derivative, which also has a vinegar element), spirit, and perhaps the lemon addition in there as well. There are also peaches involved, but that subtle flavor is entirely drowned in all the others. So too the ginger, though it may contribute slightly to the astringent element, and garlic, which contributes more to the overall rounding of the sauce than a specific flavor note. It is decidedly not a sweet sauce, despite the additions of those fruits and of brown sugar.

There is a certain grittiness to this sauce, which is likely the berry seeds, and the sauce overall pours a bit gloppy and chunky, with various bits of peppers and other ingredients clumping a bit and deftly defying agitation. The website doesn't really offer suggestions, but the astringency aspects usually works well with lighter-colored meats. Having the berry play up as huge of a presence as it does leads me to think this might also do very well with red meat also, as berry and red meat go together extremely well. The bitterness element of it does intrude a bit on the overall versatility of the sauce, however.

The color, maybe from the chocolate Bhutlahs, reminds me a bit of a mole, though it would be a runny one with this texture. With that aforementioned pepper, plus Reapers, Fatalii, and Scorpion powder, there is a fairly heavy superhot presence here and the latter two peppers lend a certain slight floral presence to things. Heat-wise, this is a pretty punchy sauce and probably will not find too much enjoyment other than with chiliheads.

Bottom line: I'm always excited to see what High River comes up with, as they have some of the more inventive and creative concoctions out there, including this one.  

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 5
            Flavor: 6
            Flexibility: 6
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 7

Overall: 6

Karma Burn After Eating Hot Sauce

Karma Sauce Burn After Eating 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.

Note: This sauce appears in Season 10 of The Hot Ones.

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VefEcVbSkJM

This is an interesting sauce on a number of levels. It's one of the few sauces in the #9 position on The Hot Ones that I've done and it treads a sort of grey area of a sauce I might have been interested in without the show, given that it has neither extract nor onions. The styling is ostensibly more Northern Indian, a cuisine style I admit to little familiarity with, partially since Indian food in general I find largely unpalatable. It also pushes hard at the notion of being a sauce at all. It is thick enough I more consider it a paste than a sauce and flow is nearly nonexistent. I do find a strong degree of amusement in the word play with the naming of this sauce as well, though it is an accurate depiction.

This sauce is unquestionably hot. The company is pushing the idea it is the hottest non-extract sauce on the market, though I dissent to this idea. For my money, that still goes to Torchbearer's The Rapture (reviewed elsewhere here), though there are a few other sauces I've also seen making this claim. It is not quite, oddly, burn while eating, which I find curious as the effects are definitely post-consumption in a lot of respects. There are quite a number of superhots in here, which makes for a very pulpy result. 

What I find most curious is the herbaceous nature of the sauce. It struck me rather substantially of something that might be more heavily in an Italian seasoning setting, such as oregano, yet there is none of that present. It is probably the ajwain, which itself is an herb related to some of the others of the type I mentioned and which evidently is a rather dominant flavor ingredient. There is also something called amchoor, which is a mango powder, green mango, and hing powder, which is another savory ingredient. The last four elements I mentioned I'm not familiar with by name and did not consume prior to this sauce, so I suppose you could say this is also an education burning experience. 

The color is gorgeous, a nice flame orange with some hues tending towards red. Highly visually appealing and appetizing, there is a very nice chili underbase to all of the aromatics, which is a decidedly flavorful one-two punch. The one issue with a sauce this thick is that frequently it will be difficult to agitate the sauce in-bottle, so there will be times when the aromatics are overpowering, rendering it of less usefulness in things like chicken strips. It seems a pretty strong fit for Italian-based foods and is one of the few sauces that really fits into that role well, though it seems outside the intent with the website references the aforementioned regional cuisine and roassted veggies. 

Bottom line: This is another fascinating entry into the hot sauce world that pushes the flavor boundaries. The thickness of it makes me question if it should be called a sauce and the more one finds herbs favorable, the more likeable this will be, but it definitely lives up to its name and is better restricted to experienced chileheads for whom a sauce meeting this description checks the boxes I've mentioned.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 7
            Flavor: 6
            Flexibility: 4
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 7

Overall: 6

Bravado Black Garlic Carolina Reaper Hot Sauce Review

Bravado Black Garlic Carolina Reaper Hot Sauce

Note: This sauce appears on Season 6 of The Hot Ones.

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6ik9EORHeY

I have not held a particularly great appreciation for anything Bravado makes generally. In fact, this was pretty far down on the list of things (full description of the order can be found in the SOTY Q4 2021 post, if interested) for coverage of The Hot Ones show. The sauces (full list available to the light) on that show I find to be a really mixed bag in that they mostly are treading the middle quite extensively. It is few and far between that I find entries I really enjoy to the extend of considering buying them again. 

So that it was as good as it is came as no small surprise to me, given my expectations were not high, not the least of which because I had found many of the sauces with the Carolina Reaper to be somewhat uneven. The ingredient of black garlic is also a sort of trendy foodie item, as far as I'm concerned, and the subtlety of it often leads it to not reading at all in the respective flavor profiles. 

Once I got into this, though, I found a phenomenal richness to the pepper flavor, helped amply, no doubt, by the red Serranos also here, which also contributes to the beautiful red color of the sauce.. Like all of the Bravado line, this is a very smooth sauce. All of the elements blend together quite well to make a whole, a composite, that goes a long way towards demonstrating the capacity of that black garlic. The Reaper here is used mostly for a heat element, I suppose, and not so much for flavor, but there is a very slight sweetness from both it and from the maple syrup, though the flavor of both that and the black pepper do not really register. This is another sauce that will change its complexion notably, depending on where it's used.

For me, I really feel that the best thing to do with a sauce that is meaning to emphasize a umami flavor element is to use it on a food that itself has a high umami aspect. This meant I used it on such things as my signature breakfast burritos, as a dipping sauce, and perhaps my favorite application, in some nice ramen. The sauce is flexible enough that it does well in a fairly wide variety of foods, though the more umami the better, to be sure.

Bottom line: The first entry from a sauce company that I've found to have very slick and well-done labels, only to have the sauce be wanting, that is both highly enjoyable and lives up to the hype of the ingredients. Another of the few from The Hot Ones shows that I feel is a truly excellent sauce.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 4
            Flavor: 9
            Flexibility: 8
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 7

Overall: 7

 

The General's Danger Close Hot Sauce Review

The General's Danger Close Hot Sauce

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6tOOi8fipY

The last of the Heatseekers box that I had left (the sauce is named in reference to being near an area where support fire, such as bombardment or mortars, etc., is being sent, though I suppose it could also function in the literal sense as a warning/hazard slogan) and this one is kind of like a relationship in which the negative parts of the respective parties are negated by the union. Here, we have the off-taste of the Dead Red (also reviewed elsewhere here) and the Shock & Awe (also reviewed herein) that are substantially downplayed by the combination. Indeed, the flavor is much moreso towards Dead Red, with the undercurrent of the Shock & Awe not quite eliminating the off-taste, but nullifying it somewhat. It is also the hottest of the three in the Heatseeker pack.

The combination of Cayenne with Habanero, along with the addition of the garlic, moves this much more towards Cajun style and I think that is probably where this fits in best. It definitely is not quite Louisiana style in that it is much thicker (these bottle pour horribly, by the by) and the flavor profile is not in that line, either. The heat level is also quite a bit more than might normally be in Lousiana-style usually, but as far as application goes, both Cajun and Louisiana-style share a lot of commonalities and this sauce fits in there as well. I don't think it's a particularly good example of either, as the flavor, while much better here than in the other sauces I mentioned, is not one I find particularly tasty and I don't think I would call this a good sauce so much as a definitely less bad one than the others.

While this is probably not a heat level that will challenge chileheads, it is beyond what normal people would probably find enjoyable. Like the Dead Red, I intend on finishing out the bottle, but I don't see me getting anything further from this company as this is more or less the third strike and out. I have established to myself that this is a mostly marketing and gimmicky proposition and I get it, one has to set themselves apart and do some differentiation in this competitive market space, but for me, it also needs to be backed up by flavor and none of the three sauces from this company that I've tried do that for me.

Bottom line: By far the most successful of The General's hot sauces, this is probably the one chileheads should start with, if they're interested in the company, and go from there.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 3
            Flavor: 4
            Flexibility: 6
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 4

Overall: 4

Angry Goat Dark Swizzle Hot Sauce Review

Angry Goat Dark Swizzle 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.

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_yCq7Y7vRk

This is a fascinating sauce, from one of the more innovative sauce companies out there. Ostensibly designed after a couple of drinks from Bermuda, this one combines citrus (though this one reads a bit more as lime-dominant) and tropical flavors to an intriguing effect. Since those drinks are boozy, there is some nice rum in the sauce, though it doesn't really read, other than as a bit of slight spirity mouth feel. This is also amplified a bit by the ginger, which I was thrilled to discover in there.  There is a very pronounced superhot aspect to this as well, with the Ghost coming through and adding a nice edge to this, though not overwhelming. 

The result here is a bit chunky, due to some of the fibery nature of some of the ingredients and it is slightly prone to separation. The taste here is strongly its own, distinct,  though different nuances read through as well. Where it succeeds in innovation and experimentation, it loses a bit in flexibility to its uniqueness, as this wants to stand on its own, rather than blend in with food. With the main flavor profile aspects, it works better on lighter colored  meats, with little to no other flavor adornment, and if there is one, the more neutral, the better.

I found this a very enjoyable diversion from the regular gamut of sauces, very well-executed, and with a strong sense of daring. In many ways, it comes across more as an adventure than just another sauce, which is something I admire from a foodie perspective. It is a bit higher on the lime side than is my preference, which precludes this a bit from being one I would keep in rotation, but I did enjoy it as a break from the norm. 

Bottom line: If you're into the more interesting and novel sauces, or like lime more than I do, this is definitely not one to miss.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 3
            Flavor: 8
            Flexibility: 6
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 7

Overall: 6

Keep Calm And Pour More Cayenne On Hot Sauce Review

Keep Calm And Pour More Cayenne On Hot Sauce

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBMrR8ese0s

I think I'm finally down to the last of a Black Friday novelty sauce buy (this is a riff on the "keep calm" phrase of British origin, but they could have just called it Keep Calm and Cayonne...) from 2020 and it wound up being a case of saving the best for last. Sauces like this are kind of why every once in a while I'll do that, in that this was not a very expensive sauce, but goes a long way towards demonstrating one of my frequent points that you don't need much more for a good Louisiana-style sauce than Cayenne, vinegar, and salt.  That is nearly all that is in that, save for xanthan gum. The result is a very low heat, but smooth and delicious sauce, more orange in appearance than red, but somewhat reminiscent of Trappey's Red Devil, the sauce that is my favorite, flavor-wise, in that category. There is more of the flavor of Cayenne here than abrasive vinegar, which is definitely more my preference.

Like most sauces of that type, it is pretty runny, though not quite watery. It does not come with a restrictor cap, but pours slowly enough that it doesn't really need one. It also tends to stick well to food, which is kind of interesting, considering there is no sugar component to this. 

Bottom line: Sometimes the simple, non-complicated sauces, such as this, can be gold mines. This wound up being an unexpectedly excellent buy.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 0
            Flavor: 10
            Flexibility: 8
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 10

Overall: 7