A La Orden Hot Sauce Review

A La Orden Salsa Picante

Here we have a sauce that doesn't seem to know what it wants to be. The first couple of ingredients are water and vinegar, so, as expected, not a ton of heat to be found, but that's not the more striking part about it. What is more curious is the combination of peppers, which is Arbol and Cayenne. Cayenne, as we all know and love, is predominantly used typically to make some of the best Louisiana-style sauces in the world. However, the position here seems a lot more Mexican in nature, at least given the labeling. The sauce itself is produced in Canada, but the ingredients are much more Mexican or at least Southwest in nature. Chile Arbol is used heavily in the garden variety chili powder on your nearest grocer's shelves.

Initially, I tried it in a more typically Mexican setting, first with a sort of tamale pie, where it failed miserably and then next in the settings of tacos, where it again did not do well at all. So, I elected to also try it in a Louisiana-style sauce setting, head to head with an actual Louisiana-style sauce, because, unlikely as it is, they may be on to something, adding chili powder to that style sauce...it's certainly something I've not encountered before. As it turned out, this is for good reason, as by trying to answer a non-existent demand for a bridge between two worlds that never existed before, it loses its footing and fails in both utterly.

So, unless you like to pour vinegar in your Taco Bell Mild Sauce or you like to sprinkle your collard greens or macaroni & cheese with a heavy dusting of chili powder after you've hit them with some Lousisiana-style sauce, this sauce is mostly a waste of time.

Bottom line: One of the most confusing sauces I've come across, particularly for one that seems mass produced. It is a complete failure in both a Lousiana-style and Mexican setting and I can't think of any instance where it could conceivably improve something. It certainly did not in actual usage.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 2
            Flexibility: 0
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 0

Overall: 1