Dawson’s Zuzu 7-Pot Hot Sauce Review

Dawson’s Zuzu 7-Pot

Note: This sauce appears on Season 22 of The Hot Ones.

We shall start today’s musing with a sidetrack, namely, exactly what “Zuzu” is supposed to mean. I like to learn stuff and when I come across a word I don’t know, especially when used prominently, such as in a product name, for instance, on that of a hot sauce. So, I dove into the rabbit hole, as I could not identify it and found the reference is perhaps to a person’s name, as it was used in a movie, or maybe is a word for a flower, or a word for a fool or idiot in another language, and is maybe in reference to a god of wind, and also was the name, maybe still is, of a brand of ginger snap cookies, and finally, yet another reference to “sweet,” as in flavor.

All of them apply or maybe none of them, nothing really stands out as definitely applying. There is a light sweetness to this, but not really to the point where a word in place of sweet would come ahead of the pepper in the sauce name...at least not to me. The words fool and dumb and stupid and idiot have all been used in other sauce names before, but this is nowhere near scorching on that level. I don’t know why it would reference that particular movie or a god of wind, so this was not a successful rabbit hole dive in that I could not discover directly or definitively why this sauce might have that word attached to it.

That aside, this is another creamy sort of sauce, with a very smooth and silky mouth feel from the nice base of the red pepper, olive oil, and garlic, with a hint of sweetness from the maple syrup and the grace note of licorice from the Sambuca and fennel, which gets pretty readily blasted into bits under the furious bitter superhot notes of the 7-Pot. I don’t imagine the Ghosties are easing that too much, but the 7-Pots are much closer to the front of the line of ingredients and probably much more directly responsible. While I didn’t find it as hot as the show positioning, this sauce will definitely push non-chileheads considerably.

I do like this sauce, as I think it’s a really interesting idea, but I find it almost more a collection of grace notes than a single cohesive whole and, depending on where you use it, there can and often is flavor cancellation. I kind of wish they would have leaned into one flavor more than another, with my choice being a lot more of the red pepper. Fennel is a popular ingredient for sausage, particularly Italian sausage, but the red pepper base lends itself much more pointedly towards adding to a marinara. Indeed, this is one of the few sauces you can readily add to a red pasta sauce and have it work well as a welcome addition rather than a distraction. I didn’t mind it on pizza and chicken tendies, but truth be told, for both, I would have rather had a different sauce. It’s more a case of me viewing it favorably than loving it, but I do appreciate the novel approach, which I don’t remember anyone else ever attempting, which is why they get the push. 

Bottom line: Another inventive entry from one of the sauce makers whose approach and resulting sauces are nearly always unique. If you’re adventurous, both in punchy heat and in the idea of licorice in hot sauce, this is definitely one to take a look at.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 2
            Flavor: 6
            Flexibility: 4
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 6

Overall: 5