La Perrona Original Hot Sauce Review

La Perrona Original

Very often, Mexican style sauces will have a certain sameness to them. Certainly it is with good reason, as the combinations of flavors are a very tried and true combination, but it’s also nice to both reference that style and break out of it a bit. This is more or less what this sauce does, by sort of moving away from the richness and earthiness of some of the other entries and dialing the astringency up a bit and going with a couple of very flavorful peppers, the Arbol, which is near-ubiquitous, and the Chiltepin, which was used less, but has recently become sort of a darling and is cropping up everywhere. It brings a nice degree of heat while retaining a very solid flavor balance, so small wonder that it’s gaining in popularity.

“La Perrona” can either refer to a large canine or possibly, in a slang. colloquial sense, to something that is “kick ass” or otherwise denotation of a positive impression. I would imagine that both senses are meant by this name, but there is also a picture of a dog on the label up front and that is the more literal meaning, so if I were to have to forcibly defer to one, it would be that. 

One issue I do kind of have with this sauce, aside from it being slightly more astringent than is my preference in this style of sauce, is that it appears to be made from dried peppers that were reconstituted to make the sauce. This is a fine, well, and good practice, and can result, as it does here in a fairly concentrated and pepper-forward flavor, but it also is prone to introducing bits of hard pepper, which can lead to a certain gritty aspect, as this one does. It is not egregious, but I do find it off-putting every time I encounter it, which is frequent with this sauce. Again, this is, I suppose, another differentiator, as most sauces of this type tend to be much smoother and refined. If anything, this reminds me somewhat of the house sauces that Mexican restaurants will sometimes make. 

Bottom line: This overall is a very solid, middle of the road entry into things, a good “change of pace” sauce, if you’re tired of the other Mexican style sauces you may keep on standby, with enough heat to be notable, but not so much as to be overbearing. 

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 8
            Flexibility: 5
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 10

Overall: 6