Ginger Goat We Got The Beets Hot Sauce Review

Ginger Goat We Got The Beets

I will start this off by saying that this sauce is not for me. I am no fan of Indian flavors particularly, and had I noticed Garam Masala was in there, probably would have skipped it. Further, there are 3 very aromatic spices where I find a little goes a very long way. Those are: cloves, cinnamon, cardamom. Nutmeg is similar, but to a lesser extent, and also present. So, I am not predisposed to enjoy this much and one should keep that in mind with my commentary here.

I do like beets, quite a lot, in fact. I also like pomegranates. Neither of those shows up in sauces a lot. I also really like Ginger Goat’s very adventurous and inventive approaches to sauces, enough that I scanned the ingredient list looking for the presence of onions (none, of course, or you wouldn’t be reading this), but upon not finding them, what was there did not really sink in. Once I got it in hand, I was immediately confused. I expected something different and what was in the bottle was a lot looser than anticipated.

But we keep an open mind, always, and so, after I felt it had sat on the shelf an appropriate time (and I totally didn’t forget I had it or anything), I busted it open and gave it a fair shot...then another, then several more, with steadily diminishing results. This is a sauce that has an odd consistency...the pulps, I assume from the beets and Reapers, tend to collect a bit in the center and the liquid pools off. No amount of agitation seemed to help this. The flavor is very spicy, in a non-piquant way, though I will say, with the mighty Reapers as the heat driver, this was an easy two and had I been able to eat enough of it to enjoy further, it probably would have been pushing a 3. I doubt very much that non-chileheads will find this heat level enjoyable. There are some slight beet and very light pomegranate flavor notes, but this sauce has maybe 20 different ingredients, but it is the fragrant spices that strike me most and I find off-putting.

The thing that I liked best about this sauce had nothing to do with the sauce. You see, prior to filming the video for this, I was not aware Garam Masala was in it, so I thought perhaps, given that I was struggling to pair this sauce and wasn’t super familiar with cardamom, figured that was the issue. So, I did some internet sleuthing to see where cardamom might be used. Coffee came up, which was a non-starter, as I am not fond of that flavor and also, I’m not pouring hot sauce into coffee. Ok, so what else? Well, lamb. I almost never have lamb and don’t really enjoy it, so am not about to start. Next...well, next was this Finnish sort of breakfast roll called nisu (or nissua or pulla). I discovered there are no restaurants or import shops that had this, so I was not able to have that directly, but I did enjoy the sort of deep dive that trying to find where cardamom was used in a food sense provided.

Bottom line: Despite the overall rating, again, this is not by any means a bad sauce, but also very much not a sauce for me. If you like the spice flavors I mentioned above more than I do, and are also a chilehead, this may worth a go, but I suspect that is a fairly shallow pool. 

Breakdown:

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

Overall: 1