Irish Spike’s Smoked Ghost Beeer Mustard Hot Sauce Review

Irish Spike’s Spike Of Life Smoked Ghost Beeer Mustard

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6IinjItkI8 

The second of the two Irish Spike sauces, also another that is very kitchen-sink in approach, but this is by far the better of the two. Here we have a very clever use of a beer wort to accompany the mustard, tomato, and the Ghosties, all of which complement each other wonderfully into a sauce that is very much its own distinct thing, but retains enough flexibility, to an extent well beyond what I find most hot sauces that incorporate mustard into the mix normally do.

To be sure, while this is not a mustard calling itself a hot sauce, by any means, it does well with a good portion of the foods where you’d normally want a mustard. It is quite chunky, with bits of minced garlic, among other elements, in the mix, so I don’t see that it would work well in something like a potato salad, for instance, but if you wanted to amp up a brat or a sandwich or especially a burger, this is a quite good choice. I do find the texture a bit off-putting, and so, while I did enjoy it on chicken tendies from a flavor perspective, I did not enjoy the mouth feel of the sauce that directly.

Another minor complaint is that this is in far too thick of a plastic for the bottle. I assume they meant it to be a squeeze bottle, but the plastic is stiff to begin with and not very helped by being refrigerated. There’s a reason that most squeezable bottles are either fairly thin-walled or have a rubberizer component and it is to retain that flex. This has almost none and the mouth is far too thin to pour, so one winds up flipping the cap and trying to shake out however much sauce is desired, which is kind of annoying. It does flow fairly readily, which is good, but this is just the wrong containment choice for this (and probably any) sauce.

Heat-wise, we are basically at Ghosties and they work a charm here. A lot of people have at least a sliver of doubt cross their minds when I tell them I think Ghosties are a fine-flavored chile, even if they are a superhot, and nowhere is this more evident than in a sauce like this, where they are used to fine effect. I think this may challenge some non-chileheads a bit, but it is more than tasty enough to make up for that.

Bottom line: One of the more interesting hot sauces I’ve had from a flavor perspective and quite delicious, even if the mouth feel is a bit dicey for me. 

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 2
            Flavor: 8
            Flexibility: 6
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 7

Overall: 6

Walkerswood Fire Stick Hot Sauce Review

Walkerswood Fire Stick Pepper Sauce

Of note, this is my 600th overall sauce review.

Walkerswood is a company I’ve seen around for a while. As they are a Jamaican company, a lot of the product line is oriented around jerk products and to what seems a lesser degree, more general Jamaican/Caribbean-themed sauces. I wasn’t aware they had actual hot sauces until just recently when, once again, I was poking around Amazon to find something to tag on for free shipping. I should have looked more closely, as for an extra $2, one can get a bottle double the size I got. If you decide to get this, do not make the same mistake I did.

If you’re a fan of Lousiana-style sauces or Cajun or Caribbean generally, you do probably want to decide to get this. The vinegar here is far less subtle than the hammer that is most sauces, tempered as it is by the sugar, but this is also a wonderfully flavorful sauce. I can’t be sure what peppers are in here, as it is not delineated and I didn’t bother to ask the company directly, but unless I miss my guess we probably have some Cayenne, some Scotch Bonnet or Habanero, mainly for the heat, and possibly some red Jalapeno as well. The heat, it should be noted, despite the “warnings” dotting the label copy, is quite low.

The flavor is very pepper forward and the seasonings behind it are used well. It harkens to mind certain pepper sauces I’ve had that manage a depth of flavor that reminds me a bit of a tomato-based sauce and I find this is one of the more accessible sauces I’ve come across. This naturally extends the flexibility as well, though I think the best uses are where one would use those other styles I mentioned before, but unlike those other sauces, this is one I can and happily did use on pizza. As with a lot of other sauces that I’m always happy when I come across one, I found myself both using this a lot and wanting to use it more. Part of this is because I only got a 100ml bottle, but part is because I’m also having a lot of fun playing with it. Both preceding sentences are also hallmarks of Sauce Of The Year candidates, of which this is my second for this year.

Bottom line: If you want a sauce with a less harsh vinegar hit, but still retaining some of the flavor characteristics of a Louisiana-style, Cajun, or Caribbean style sauce, that also delivers a bit more heat than those normally might, this is an absolutely delicious must.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 10
            Flexibility: 10
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 10

Overall: 8

Butterfly Bakery Taco Vibes Only Hot Sauce Review

Butterfly Bakery Taco Vibes Only

Note: This sauce appeared in Season 20 of The Hot Ones.

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMMF2dJoiGY

I don’t typically start reviews like this, but I will say upfront and directly that this is a chilehead only sauce. It comes roaring out of the gate, with a burst of heat followed by the lively and vibrant Reaper tones and, since that is a building pepper, which has both the pods and powder representing things here, only builds from there. There is certainly an attempt at flavor, much more than a half-hearted stab and indeed, red Serranos, which are wonderful, are the first chile, but they too fall more than a bit under the blistering blaze of the Reaper. As if that were not enough, Ghosties are also in the mix, presumably to help the Reapers a bit and to dull the edge of the superhot bitterness, but there is no getting around it, even if that tamping down does achieve a very nice effect overall, in terms of flavor.

There is a host of other flavors, lime, coriander, garlic, cumin, but none of them really read particularly strongly, aside from subtle aftertaste notes here and there, hence the name, one supposes. This is much more a very chile forward sauce and I liken it more to perhaps a Cajun or Louisiana style, at least in terms of usage. It does have a good solid vinegar hit as well, so for me, it doesn’t work particularly well on tacos, for instance, and while I thought it was interesting on pizza, which, given its sort of medium thickness, I thought I’d attempt, it was a touch overly vinegary there as well. I didn’t dislike it, by any means, but would rather other sauces for that. If you stick to the applications where you might reach for a Cajun or Lousiana-style, you’ll probably be fine, so long as you are a chilehead and moreso if you also like the flavor of Reapers.

I will also note this has a quite appetizing color as well, a very lovely reddish sort of orange. There are some bits of grit in here, definitely from seeds, but possibly also pod skin, which I didn’t find enjoyable, but those only come up here and there.

Bottom line: I’m not entirely sure what they meant for this sauce in terms of flavor, but it is very Reaper intensive. Further, while it’s not quite a mouth full of blast furnace out the gate, it definitely packs a decisive wallop.

Breakdown:

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

Overall: 6

Samyang Buldak Original Hot Sauce Mini-Review

Samyang Buldak Original

I’ve seen this out for quite some time and it’s a very smart move by Buldak to put this out in bottles, thus extending their brand name and the flavor profile of perhaps the main progenitors of the so-called Korean Spicy Chicken Noodle craze. I thought of it more as a Buldak sauce, which is a barbeque sauce, more or less, to my knowledge, or maybe as a ramen sauce, but when I got the bottle, it is describing itself as a hot sauce, so, fine.

As with other makers who bottle stuff under the description of hot sauce that I don’t necessarily agree is an appropriate categorization, I will treat it as one, but since I bought this mainly to try on some Chinese ramen noodles that I rather adore, I had no plans to do the usual hot sauce testing I put the others through for the full reviews. I did try it on some chicken tendies, and it was good there, but that was expected, both because it is a barbeque sauce more than anything at heart and because it is a quite good tasting sauce as well, doing a pretty capable job of disguising the awful taste of extract. This was the entry level of heat for Samyang and I’d put it firmly in the middle of their current slate of offerings, with stuff both below and above it in terms of heat. It does present a very flavorful example of extract heat and how it affects the mouth and while it may be a bit on the intense side for non-chileheads, I don’t think it will be hugely challenging.

While I do not feel it ultimately is an actual hot sauce, I do think that it presents a lot of opportunity to add some Korean fusion to various dishes that may be cooked, particularly those involving meats. It is a sauce that really needs to be in the right setting, though, and I think it’s fairly inherently limited in that respect. One needs to be judicious in pairing, to be certain, but where it works, it works well.

Djablo Original & Power Jab Hot Sauces Review

Djablo Original
Djablo Power Jab

Note: Djablo Power Jab appeared in Season 22 of The Hot Ones.

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIPuCu-RD4M

There is a very long and convoluted story about the Power Jab, of which the Original is also a part (and the Smoked would have been also, if I could have found it). Much of this will be covered in the accompanying video, but suffice to say that I loved the name “Power Jab” and earmarked it for the next available quarterly Wing Thing (those videos have their own playlist at right). When I opened the bottle, I was so taken with the flavor, which I found a fascinating spin on things, that I immediately looked up all the other sauces Djablo made. Seeing there were only three and they seemed related, I might just as well track down, if possible, some Filipino food, in a way similar to what I did in the Turmeric Bomb (reviewed elsewhere here) video. This, however, sent me on a bit of a rabbit hole journey and was far from clear cut.

To the sauces, the Power Jab both did and didn’t live up to its name. It is certainly hotter than the Original, which has precious little heat to speak of, but it also used the Scorpions in a way that accentuated the flavor nicely, no mean feat considering the floral nature, for which I have a general healthy disdain. This has a good balance of the peppers and garlic and some of the more herbaceous notes of the Original. It also flows very nicely, whereas the Original is quite thick and a bit grainy overall. All in all, I think the Power Jab is decently approachable.

Both of them are very interesting approaches to sauces, but for me, who is not so in love with herbs generally, the rather green and vibrant nature of the Original, which reminds me quite a bit of a green curry, is of considerably less interest. They are, all in all, dramatically different sauces, so combining them into one (partially because it was a bit of a struggle to find some Pinoy cuisine at all) review made a lot less sense once I got into the video filming and did them head to head, but by then it was far too late to turn back. The Power Jab I not only liked better, but found a lot flexible, as it not only worked well on most meats I threw it at, it was flavorful enough that it provided an interesting flavor note to several other foods as well. I don’t know that I would make either of these a “regular” per se, but I did enjoy the adventure aspect considerably.

Bottom line: I don’t know enough about Filipino food to comment on how these relate, but the Power Jab, as long as one likes garlic, is a quite excellent and distinct approach.

Breakdown Original:

            Heat level: 0
            Flavor: 5
            Flexibility: 3
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 3

Overall: 3

Breakdown Power Jab:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 8
            Flexibility: 6
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 8

Overall: 6

Cholula Extra Hot Hot Sauce Review

Cholula Extra Hot

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDjvbnp1Ns8

Finally, the wait, the long long wait, the years, no, decades long wait is at an end and the sauce that early 90s era collegiate me wanted the most, had pined and longed for, has been released (unleashed?) into the world. This was very much a long time coming and was something that was on my personal wish list for a really long time. I’m not so much a Cholula enjoyer these days, but back then...

So, a little story time...though I’ve been a chilehead and interested in the spicier side of things for as long as I can remember, back when I was a mere lad of single digits of age, I was in a desert...metaphorically. Jalapenos were about as hot as things went in the upper Midwest back then, maybe moving slightly hotter if you hit one of the Asian places, like a Chinese or Thai or especially Mongolian joint, but no hotter. So, when I moved to the Southwest in the early 90s, I finally had a treasure trove of sauces, much of which originated in CA, stuff like Tapatio and so on. Eventually, I came across Cholula and it was very much a right place at the right time, as this was one of my earlier runs at fitness and so my lunch every day at college was some sort of salad with chicken and a combination of ranch and Cholula as dressing, a combination I could tolerate repeatedly and still keep me on the very of healthy eating...but, I always wished it was hotter.

There are rare things for me these days that are instant orders and most of them are food-related. New Samyang ramen noodle flavor will get my interest, new beer flavor I haven’t tried yet will often get my money, but this was instantly go time as soon as I saw it and it didn’t sit on the shelf more than maybe a day after I finally got it in my hot little hands (about a month ago, as of this posting date). The big question, of course, beyond is it hot, was did it live up to my much younger man dreams now 3 decades or so removed?

Kind of...it is hotter and the younger me would have appreciated that. For what I was mostly using it for, younger me would not have been bothered by the much more abrasive vinegar hit. However, younger me was not reviewing hot sauces and didn’t have a blog and older me is not so fond of that. The flavor of Cholula is still there, albeit with that slightly more forward than I would like vinegar hit, and I do like Piquin as a pepper, which is where the heat is coming from. It takes regular Cholula from no heat to a slight heat here, but I’m a bit puzzled why they also added the vinegar hit. All they needed to do really was to just make regular Cholula slightly hotter. As it is, this move knocks down the flavor slightly and, though I rarely mention price, as this sauce is twice as expensive as the regular, it also knocks down the value proposition slightly.

Bottom line: I don’t think it’s overestimating to say this is a dream fulfillment for many who love the Cholula flavor but wish it was hotter nor is there a way to overstate just how profound of an effect Cholula itself has, writ large. This is a product, in my estimation, they needed to make and I’m glad they did, but ultimately, I just wish they would have done it a bit better.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 7
            Flexibility: 6
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 5

Overall: 5