Best Hot Sauce 2018 + Recap

7 years....7 years is quite a long time to do anything...between this and the HSC blog, that’s now 12 years cumulative and if we add in Yelp and the other couple blogs I keep, we run closer to a couple decades.

However...the HSC is beginning to wind down and probably will go into more of a holding pattern in 2019. This blog still struggles on and there are a few more sauces I have yet to get reviewed and posted, waiting there, kinda sorta patiently in the wings.

Again, 2018 was a very slow year for both posts and sauces, in fact, the slowest year overall in the list of TSAAF. I hemmed and hawed all year over what I was going to do for SOTY. Should I just choose the highest number of this year, as I have done, for the most part, in years past? Should I go back and open up past years? Or some combination of both? Should I let my wallet decide and go with whatever I bought and used most? In the end, I decided to go with the first option and let the chips fall where they may. Whatever was reviewed this year, highest overall...which wound up in...a bit of unclarity...see below for more on that.

 As usual, all sauces can be clicked to from the Table Of Contents page.

Total posts (including this post): 185
Total views (as of this writing): ~14,177
Total single sauce full reviews: 148
Total double sauce full reviews: 2
Total sauces full reviewed: 150
Total mini-sauce reviews: 20
Total sauces reviewed, combined: 170
Total unopened sauces waiting on shelf for review: 6
Total opened sauces waiting for review: 0
Total open bottles in fridge: 4
Highest viewed review: 663 - O' Brother Chipotle-Habanero Hot Sauce
Highest viewed article, any type: 663 - O' Brother Chipotle-Habanero Hot Sauce

Current standby sauces are (no changes from 2017):

*Emeritus Everyday sauce: Trappey's Red Devil
*Emeritus Asian-style sauce: Huy Fong Chili-Garlic Sauce
*Everyday sauce (and current overall favorite): Blair’s Pure Death Sauce
*Grilling sauce: CaJohn's Bourbon-Infused Chipotle Habanero (BICH)
*Ramen/Japanese sauce: Private Selection Shichimi Togarishi 
*Pizza sauce (as in used instead of actual pizza sauce): Boar’s Head Jalapeno Pepper Sauce
 Mexican-style sauce: Arizona Pepper’s Chipotle Habanero Pepper Sauce
*Asian-style sauce: Zenso Sweet Chili Sauce
 *Louisiana-style sauce: Irazu Cayenne
 Sweet-hot sauce: CaJohn's Happy Beaver

 *= Not looking for a replacement

Again, competition this year was rather minimal. With the 6 still waiting on the shelf, I somehow have strong hopes for 2019, but I’m probably not going on any sauce rampages until I (finally) clear out the unopened ones that have been waiting. I’m laughing because I just changed the year in the preceding sentence...been trying to clear out that backlog for a bit, it seems...

As mentioned above, I decided that I should go with straightforward, whoever had the highest total, wins. I wasn't dealing with a deep pool, after all. I had, to this point, reviewed a grand total of 12 sauces all year and a number of those were, shall we say, more for coverage and because I happened across them, which is where a lot of these come from. This blog is not now, nor has it ever been, supported at all by the industry. I've never received a free anything, not a sauce, not a dry mix, not a bag of snacks, nothing, so I always try to keep my eye out for new things, even if my consumption is considerably down.

So, my wonderful, clear-cut strategy wound up giving me...a tie. The highest scores of anything this year as an 8, achieved both by Dave's Scorpion Pepper sauce and by the Taco Jesus Cayenne Pepper sauce. The former of these was achieved somewhat by the high heat of the sauce and the latter by something in my favorite type of sauce finally having the stars align enough to be in the running, i.e. precious little competition. I could have compared them, blow by blow, with a number of intangibles, but the reason I like hot sauce is to enjoy it. Dave's, while an overall very solid entry, also can very rapidly run into unenjoyable territory, should one be incautious, so to me, it was an easy choice for me to award SOTY for 2018 to the Taco Jesus Cayenne Pepper Sauce. I would almost put this as an equal to the Irazu listed above and would not and will not hesitate to acquire more for further testing.

Previous TSAAF Sauce Of The Year winners:

2012: CaJohn’s Happy Beaver
2013: Blair’s Pure Death
2014: Born To Hula’s Ghost Of Ancho
2015: Voodoo Chile’s Voo Dew Honey Doo
2016: Pirate O’s Surface Of The Sun Hot Sauce
2017: Z’s Shield Maiden Hot Sauce

There is, of course, also my wine about blog, the Happy Sippin’ Companion (HSC), which has now 69 posts, 62 of which are reviews. It has drawn, to date, ~1,148 views in the 5 years it’s been active.

Then we have Yelp. My distribution of ratings and further metrics are available on my Yelp page, which you can click to from my widget.

For those of you who made it, I appreciate you dropping by. If there’s any changes to suggest or sauces you’d like to see me get to, please drop me a line in the comment section of any of the reviews.

Louisiana Cravin' Cajun Hot Sauce Review

Louisiana Cravin' Cajun Hot Sauce

UPDATE: Video support now available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yuqs3mt3qrY

Yet another in a very, very long line of different Louisiana-style hot sauces I've tried, this one is a very solid entry into that market. There is nothing particular to differentiate this from others of the Louisiana-named line or Trappey's. It is slightly less bitter and astringent than Crystal, but that comparison is really parsing hairs.

Like most sauces, this is very runny and comes in a restrictor bottle, which is a good idea. Heat is very, very moderate. In terms of taste, this one is pretty pure, pepper mash, salt, vinegar and that's about it. Don't really need much more than that, but in those elements, one can work wonders, like Red Devil or one can have something that has to be used in droplets or risk overpowering and killing the taste of the food. This one is nestled snugly in the middle. It is not the best tasting sauce I've ever had, but how often is one looking for heavy doses of flavor with this? This style sauce is really, more than any single other factor, to cut down the richness of food...

Bottom line: A very serviceable Louisiana-style sauce, more or less middle-of-the-road and a good alternate if you can't find your regular favorite.

Breakdown:

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

Overall: 6

Culinary Tours Peri Peri Hot Sauce Review

Culinary Tours Peri Peri Hot Sauce

I've been trying to make a concerted effort to clear out my back stock in 2018 (and have come kinda close), but if I see something new on a grocery store shelf, I can't help but pick it up and check it out. This one seemed more like just coverage when I picked it up, but I don't often see the Peri Peri pepper utilized, so thought it may prove of interest.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but not really. This is fairly reminiscent of the Pico Pica hot sauce, in which it tends to add a bit of spice and heat and but not a great amount of flavor. This one can definitely drive the heat factor up if you use too much of it and that also has the side effect of driving its somewhat bitter flavor up to the point where your dish may become less enjoyable, but if you use a moderate amount, it will tend to blend in pretty well with whatever you use it on. It is not of sufficient flavor to use by itself, however, as the taste solo is not really palatable.

As for heat, there is precious little, unless you use a lot of the bottle. But again, that comes with very unwanted side effects. I'd put this maybe on the lower side of the moderate range. I don't think this is a good option to introduce someone to hot sauce who is not a regular eater of it, however. Definitely could be something used in recipes, particularly chili, however, as it can add a nice burst, but without getting too much in the way of the food. It can also be used to accent nicely.

Bottom line: This one gets along well with most food, unless you go crazy with it. Heat level is on the lower side of things, but this is, in no way, a necessary sauce to have around. Just ok overall.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 3
            Flavor: 4
            Flexibility: 8
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 4

Overall: 5

Grace Very Hot Pepper Sauce Review

Grace Very Hot Pepper Sauce

With so many sauces going in and out of production, it is often really hard to find a consistent name that will always be there and is of high quality, so it seems like I always have need for a good Louisiana-style sauce. This is by far my favorite style of sauce and definitely one of the most used of any condiment I have, given it's ability to match fairly well with a great variety of different foods. This one had a fairly nondescript name, but the look of the bottle, which has the restrictor molded into the glass, to the sauce itself signified Louisiana-style. It was perhaps a bit of large scale conjecture on my part as this sauce is not, however, exactly that.

It is fairly close to that style, as it is rather heavily vinegar-based, but this one does not use either of the two main peppers for that type of sauce, Cayenne or Tabasco, or even the newer arrival of Jalapeno, but rather goes to a combination of Scotch Bonnet and Habanero. I got the Scotch Bonnet immediately and was not surprised, when looking into it further, that the sauce is produced in Jamaica. There was a greater sweetness than I would have expected with the Bonnet, however, and so I dug further to find if there was something more exotic I was missing, or possibly a dash of Tabasco itself in the mix. That was where I found it was Habanero.

The heat, though it is tampered down a bit, is consistent with those two peppers. This is not something to use great amounts of, another key difference with the actual Louisiana-style sauces, lest it become overbearing. The thinness, the color, all of that is identical and this is perhaps more of an island-style take on that type of sauce. Still, for as good as it is, it is far enough away that I still find it jarring when I'm more wanting a more "normal" Louisiana-style sauce. All in all, very good, though.

Bottom line: Very strong entry into a very crowded field. While I find it a bit overly sweet and borderline hotter than I usually desire for this type of sauce for it to become a staple, this is well worth a look.

Breakdown:

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

Overall: 7

2K18 Q2 & Q3 Update

As some of you may have noticed, this and my other wine blog (and to an extent, my Yelp) have been somewhat quiet this year. It is not because of any kind of running out of steam, but a combination of dietary changes and some projects (one of them is sort of a family thing, but that part of my family is not at all close in proximity to my location, which presents its own hurdles) that are intensely time-consuming. The dietary changes leave little room for hot sauce, in many cases, and with summer, a lot of the heated foods that work well with hot sauce are simply not part of offerings. My wife has returned to work, which has also lessened dramatically her time and interest in cooking and mine has ever been minimal to be begin with. Thus, this update winds up being for 6 months rather than 3.

I don’t have any intention of shuttering this blog, but the trend of sporadic reviews will probably continue for the foreseeable future. I still seek out and try all of the hot junk I come across in the various menus and have not lost my love for being a chilehead, but there is a ton going on right now and a lot of this extraneous stuff has to take a back seat…at least for now. I do have a few sauces on deck that I'm trying to get to and obviously, I still have, like the last few(!) years, no real strong contender for SOTY in sight, but unlike other years past, I am noting it only and not particularly worrying…obviously, that condition is not at all helped by one of my lowest posting total of any year, including maybe the year of inception, which was itself a partial year.

Taco Jesus Cayenne Pepper Hot Sauce Review

Taco Jesus Cayenne Pepper Hot Sauce - [TSAAF Sauce Of The Year 2018]

Those that know me know that there is no way I would pass this by on a shelf, just on name alone. The bottle imagery is actually quite cool as well, not that I typically care about that kind of thing, but just sayin'. Had it had either onions or extract, obviously, I would have skipped it, but despite the more Mexican-y sounding name, this is not a thing you would normally put on tacos or even want to put on tacos. No, this is much more of a Louisiana-style sauce.As long-time readers know, that style is probably my overall favorite of all of the various styles there are.

It is also no secret that I think the best of those sauces tend to heavily (even exclusively) favor Cayenne peppers, but that I further find the combination of the Naga Jolokia with Cayenne to also be a strong one, such as my more usual standby sauce in this category, the Irazu. Irazu has been difficult for me to locate lately, however, so I was cautiously hopeful when I picked this one up, as I'm always in need for a good Louisiana-style sauce. This is definitely a good one and possibly the best sauce I've had this year.

It's a bit hard to judge flavor notes with this style of sauce, as it is not at all meant to be consumed by itself, but this is consistent with the best of the category. It has worked marvelously with every food that I normally use this type of sauce on, so I have zero complaints. It acts as I would expect and does what I want the sauce to do. I wouldn't probably place it right at the top, but instead very near the top, along the lines of the Irazu. It is a bit spicier than this style tends to be, thanks to the Naga, but the flavoring profile is definitely hard along the lines of the Cayenne, right where it should be.

Bottom line: Catchy (though non-descriptive) name for a very strong entry into the Louisiana-style sauce category. Fans of that style would do well to look into a bottle of this.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 4
            Flavor: 8
            Flexibility: 8
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 10

Overall: 8

Bravado Ghost Pepper & Blueberry Hot Sauce Review

Bravado Spice Co. Ghost Pepper & Blueberry Hot Sauce

NOTE: This sauce appeared in Season Three of The Hot Ones.

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBulqjX3gm8

Figured I might just as well round out the last of my selections from this company. Of the fruit-based sauces I got, this one is probably my favorite, though the consistency is very reminiscent of Torani. It is a very bright and somewhat sweet sauce as well, but more importantly, it actually tastes pretty good. I wonder if some ingredients got left off, as this is perhaps overly sweet for having blueberries as the main ingredient, but this could definitely work in a dessert, even with both black pepper and Jolokia components.

As to that, if there is one thing that Bravado seems adept at, it is stripping all of the heat out of normally fairly hot peppers for their fruit sauces. Unlike the Special Reserve Crimson (reviewed elsewhere here), which moves into blast furnace territory out of the gate, this one doesn't seem to generate much heat, even when used to excess. If it was a wine, we would definitely be calling it fruit forward and though the consistency isn't quite that runny, the tag definitely applies. It is so much so that I didn't catch even a hint of the Jolokias, which is perhaps another thing Bravado is adept at...

In a way, this is a shame, as this would be a very interesting sauce were it hotter. It doesn't need to be along the scorching levels of, say, Blueberry Hell or anything like that, but definitely could use a greater degree of being amped. Despite this one having the 4 pepper tag on the label, it is still quite mild, which really becomes confusing then comparing the Crimson Special Reserve, which carries a 5 pepper rating. This means the difference between a 4 pepper and 5 pepper rating should be fairly moderate, but instead here is more like the difference between lukewarm water and boiling water.

Bottom line: An extremely runny, but overall fairly enjoyable sauce that definitely could stand to have more heat.


Breakdown:

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

Overall: 4

Culinary Tours Jalapeno Hot Sauce Review

Culinary Tours Jalapeno Hot Sauce

UPDATE: Video support now available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhKhHhxX2w8

Another grocery store find, as the various places in my general vicinity seem like they are in process of rotating out vendors. For this one, it is a sauce styled very reminiscent of Danny Cash's Garlic-Serrano Salvation Sauce or the Bottled-Up Anger sauce, which is a somewhat astringent green sauce vaguely approaching perhaps along the lines of a tomatillo sauce. This makes it best for lighter meats, chicken, pork or the best usage we've thus found, fish tacos.

Taste is not bad, but this is overpowering on the vinegar side (listed here as acetic acid), so much that it drives up the astringency to a quite pronounced effect and overruns whatever you put it on. For some great-tasting sauces this aspect, while not wholly desirable, is at least tolerable. Here it is not and comes across as obnoxious and jarring. It's unfortunate, as had they dialed that back, this would have been a pretty ok sauce.

There are very light notes of Jalapeno and some of the additional Habanero sneaking through here and there, but mostly the taste is heavily on the vinegar side, far more pungent than any Louisiana sauce I've yet had. I don't always necessarily even mind one note, as long as that note is good. Here, definitely not. If that's your jam, you may like this, but this is not something I'll ever be using again.

Bottom line: Very aggressively vinegared sauce, to the exclusion of nearly all else. Not in my stable.

Breakdown:

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

Overall: 1

Bravado Pineapple & Habanero Hot Sauce Review

Bravado Spice Co. Pineapple & Habanero Hot Sauce

As mentioned elsewhere, fruit-based hot sauces tend to be a very mixed bag, as far as what is available commercially. I don't know how well they actually sell, since I see so few of them, but when I noticed a number of the Bravado sauces at a local grocer's, given that I hadn't tried any of them, it seemed like a sporting idea to pick them up.

It is at this point that I begin to think that Bravado might be a company to avoid in the future. This sauce, when it tastes like pineapple puree, is mostly fine. However, agitate it enough and you start to get notes of garlic, which does not really pair particularly well with pineapple. The Habanero is MIA for this sauce, leaving the garlic and pineapple to duke it out, with the pineapple mostly on the losing side of that particular battle. I would go so far as to say the inclusion of garlic actually ruins this sauce. Had they gone with ginger instead of garlic, this would definitely be better, but for a Habanero-listed sauce, particularly since they give it a mid-range level of heat, the Habanero is conspicuously absent, as is the heat.

I still have another Bravado sauce to go from my haul at that grocer's and have reviewed another of their sauces earlier, but now 3 sauces in, I'm pretty mightily unimpressed. While better, though not by much, than the apple nonsense sauce of the prior review, it still is far from a good sauce.

Bottom line: This sauce, while not a kitchen sink sauce, definitely fits under the rule of more is less. Reasonably acceptable as a dipping sauce for fried foods, as long as you like fruit-puree, awful-tasting garlic and little to no heat.


Breakdown:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 3
            Flexibility: 2
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 0

Overall: 1

Bravado Jalapeno & Green Apple Hot Sauce Review

Bravado Spice Co. Jalapeno & Green Apple Hot Sauce

Doing a fruit-based hot sauce is very difficult to do well, even moreso when you are starting with a flawed concept. Case in point, this entry. Here we have a Jalapeno-based sauce, which by itself is fine, and then to "change the game," as the label insists, they use Granny Smith apples. Granny Smith, as those bakers out there already know, is an apple that does well in pies because it is very hard flesh and stands up well to high oven temperatures. Part of the reason that flesh is so strong is because there is not a lot of either liquid or sugar in those apples. So, when you see it used in baking, it is generally amidst a ton of sugar and other flavorings, which are necessary to cut the tartness out of those apples, whose flavoring can quickly run to the sour.

Someone apparently forgot to tell these guys as there is no sweetener anywhere on the label and indeed, though Jalapenos have a degree of sweetness, it is perhaps even less than these apples. So, what does that leave you, without some sugar, but with a dash of vinegar? Sort of green puree slurry mess that is bracingly sour, with no discernible heat...Jalapeno flavor is lost entirely.

It is one of those products that I'm somewhat astonished it made it to market, as I can't imagine anyone testing this and feeling that it 1) tasted good and 2) was finished enough to bottle and send to market. I also have no idea what possible use one could use it for as it is in no way tasty enough to add to pie flavoring or to anything else. The first time I tried it, I was shocked, before being appalled and the second time, thinking maybe I hadn't agitated it enough, very thoroughly shook it and came up with similar results. The rest of the bottle now resides in the trash.

Bottom line: One of the worst sauces I've yet come across while doing this blog, this was ill-advised in concept and didn't get any better in execution.

Breakdown:

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

Overall: 0

Dave's Ginger Peach Hot Sauce Review

Dave's Gourmet Ginger Peach Hot Sauce Review

I think a question that probably every chilehead has been asked, myself included, is where ginger would fall in terms of relative hotness to chili peppers. This is an interesting question. While the jury is still sort of out on that question, ginger has as its main component of piquancy/pungency gingerol (or possibly zingerone), rather than capsaicin. Unfortunately, the two do not compare directly on a 1:1 basis, but it is a reasonable thought and one I've also been asked about garlic.

The bottom line is that there is a natural connection here and it's no surprise that an ace saucemaker decided to incorporate both (non-specified) chiles and ginger into a concoction. Regrettably, there is precious little heat from this combination. There is, however, a massive amount of sweetness, so much so that it rather defies the description of "hot" sauce.

It is a touch on the runny side, but pretty solid for a dipping sauce, which seems squarely where this is aimed. It does stick well to food and the color I find somewhat appealing. Color does not normally play a huge role for me, but I have started to notice it begin to build expectations for me as I get further and further into sauces.

It is a poor-tasting sauce solo, so you will want something relatively salty and preferably fried here. It does acceptably, for instance, on fried chicken fingers, though it is not my preference. I probably will finish out the bottle, but can't see a repeat purchase on the horizon.The ginger seems mostly absent and even the peach gets frequently lost, without a ton of agitation...perhaps more energy than the taste delivery is worth expending.

Bottom line: Peach is a somewhat difficult fruit to do well in these sauces and this one also misses the mark a bit there.  Ok as a dipping sauce, if you want little to no heat.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 5
            Flexibility: 3
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 2

Overall: 3

2K18 Q1 Update

After a mostly “cleaning” January, that saw me purge a couple sauces that had hung around just a bit too long, I finally got back in the swing of new sauces. I had to go back and check to confirm my suspicions but not since 2014 happened, which is that the first sauce I reviewed was a SOTY candidate. I’m extraordinarily pleased that it happened this year. I’m also down to 3 unopened sauces on the shelf, so another run will be coming in the very near future. Also, due to yet another change to things, I’m home a lot more now, so hopefully, after an improvement last year over the preceding year, I’ll be able to see more posting activity this year, which means more sauces to try.

I’m right around the corner from adding a new criteria to the sauces I’m going to consider eligible for review and by that, I’m very close adding another disqualifying ingredient. As it is, if I see either onions or capsaicin extract, of any kind, it automatically DQ-es the sauce instantly. I am right on the borderline of also adding apple cider vinegar to those other two, as I’m trying –and failing – to think of a sauce where I’ve ever liked it. I’m not there yet, but I think it’s coming, probably soon. When that happens, I’m going to add a blog post about it, I suspect.

I’ve also tried a couple new “spicy” foods at national chain restaurants, specifically the “Nashville Hot” fish at Arby’s (ok, but nothing special, like most of the other “Nashville Hot” stuff I’ve tried) and the Ghost Chili batter at Popeye’s, which is excellent and something I wish they’d put on everything. A Korean place called CupBop also has a spicy pork bowl, which, at 10, can get ratcheted up decently, though at that level, the taste also leaves a great deal to be desired. Sauce updates, to this point, have been kind of low. I think I’m up to a whopping 3 total, which is probably the worst start to any year since this blog has been active. This is mostly due to a constant plague of illnesses this year, which has been of the worst I can remember. It seems that one or another of the 3 of us has been consistently sick, though I think, with spring finally on the way, this should abate.

Wife has also resumed another weird diet, so it is sort of undercutting opportunity. I need to kick my own ass and get back into better shape as well, which may cut down what few are there further. Back down again to 2 local storefronts, with the sad closing of the beloved Burn Your Tongue. This probably means I will need to resume ordering online, which is both a blessing and a curse. I’m down right now to 5 or 6 sauces unopened, total, so that order will be coming probably sooner rather than later, once the cold/flu season stops and I can both have normal taste and capsaicin tolerance restored, both of which go right out the window when sick…

Red Rooster Hot Sauce Review

Red Rooster Hot Sauce

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-CBr5zL8Ys

Red Rooster makes no attempt at diffusion at all; this is - and is clearly meant to be - a Louisiana-style sauce, including being bottled, as I recall, and possibly produced, in Louisiana. This naturally meant I had high hopes for it, as I was mining one of the last brick-and-mortars I have left, as I've struggled as of late to find the Irazu, which means testing some new sauces to find, if not a replacement, then at least a backup to the mighty Irazu.

This one was slightly more expensive than I was expecting, but I don't mind paying for quality...to a point. Louisiana-style is a fairly uncomplicated sauce and someone wanting over say $3 for a bottle of it had better plan on making a fairly strong case for why it's more. In fact, Irazu is the only one I can think of that has done that well, though I seem to recall something from CAJohn's also being in that area as well.

As to this, very nice bright red color, sauce is very slightly thicker than most of the other sauces of type, but it oddly also tends to separate, even after being shaken and added to food. I find this more confusing than anything else, as it does not ever appear to be separated in the actual bottle. Taste is right along the lines of where it should be, and if someone were to ask me about what a Louisiana-style sauce should look and taste like, I'd point to this for example. It has very little heat, which is also usual for that style, though it does perhaps have more than some of the other entries out there. 

Bottom line: Very solid entry and one of the better epitomes of what a Louisiana-style sauce should be.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 10
            Flexibility: 7
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 10

Overall: 7

Z's Viking Blood Hot Sauce Review

Z's Viking Blood Hot Sauce

After the glory that was Z's Shield Maiden (SOTY 2017 and review elsewhere in this blog), I bought every other Z's hot sauce I could find (they also have a mustard sauce, which I may get and possibly another that I haven't been able to find anywhere). I saved this one for last of those that I could find, as typically hot sauce companies, when they put the word "blood" in the title, mean it to be something particularly hot, usually referencing a demonic entity, i.e devil's blood, demon's blood, Satan's blood, volcano's blood, etc. This was also reinforced by the black wax melted over the cap, which, again, is typically only seen in the hotter sauces. The black wax here was actually a bit excessive in that it took me quite a bit of time to remove, but smaller hot sauce company and they're out there hustling to get their name out and all, so I can forgive that.

When I finally got to this, I wasn't quite sure what to do with it. It was nowhere near anything hot, not even to the somewhat moderate level of Shield Maiden, which was kind of a surprise as I didn't remember Shield Maiden having wax at all. After reading the ingredient panel (and seeing the apple cider vinegar again!), I concluded that it was meant more for Mexican-style food flavors and keyed it accordingly. It does work fantastically well there...but only as an accent. By itself, as many other sauces are, not too wonderful, which means some caution must be employed to avoid over-saucing.

If you're familiar with Danny Cash's Salvation Sauce or his Bottled-Up Anger or even the Private Selection Jalapeno Tomatillo, this is more or less along those lines. a pretty good-tasting overall sauce when used in conjunction with Mexican-style food. By itself, not so good and like those others not particularly hot. This one does not have tomatillo and the apple cider vinegar isn't super-overbearing, again, presuming you don't over-sauce. In fact, this is probably my favorite sauce that utilizes apple cider vinegar, but truth be told, I also strongly wish it wasn't present at all.

Bottom line: A very strong contender in the Serrano pepper/green sauce category. I don't particularly utilize that kind of sauce much, but my wife does, so this could be a good fit there. If you like those kinds of sauces, this is definitely a good one to have on hand.

Breakdown:

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

Overall: 5

Dave's Gourmet Scorpion Pepper Hot Sauce Review

Dave's Gourmet Scorpion Pepper Hot Sauce

Most of us are probably most familiar with Dave's from the Insanity sauce of his, long a staple of drunken party challenges and maybe the most well-known to break out extract to the population at large. This is not necessarily a good thing, as it did his company a disservice, causing a focus primarily to the heat, which is a shame, as there are some very good sauces output by the company. This is one of them.

Looking at the ingredient panel, there is not a whole ton going on here, basically just Scorpion peppers and the usual suspects of seasonings and preservatives. I kept catching hints of smoke and, at times, a touch of sweetness, which was interesting. The sauce is about a perfect consistency to not have a restrictor cap and I bounced back and forth from being thrown about how good it tasted, to wanting to back off a touch so I didn't get a heat overload and have my entire face tingling. Most of the time, I found a happy medium, but I've also managed to oversauce it more than a few times with this particular gem. It is a very tasty sauce, without question, one of the better ones to utilize this pepper, by my reckoning.

Make no mistake, though, this one does pack a wallop. It's kind of like taking a bite of a lit candle flame, as the heat is immediate and sharp. It does taper off fairly quickly after that, settling into a nice, slow build, but lips and tongue will get numb and tingly after a time from the build-up, if you keep going and because I liked the taste so much, I kept going.  After the initial feeling, which is kind of like, say, if you pricked yourself in the tongue with a cactus needle, it's not quite as intense, but with a few estimates putting this around 500K SHU, also about where I'd put it, it definitely is something that requires a degree of care. If you do oversauce, it won't tend to burn for hours on end, like heavy extract oversaucing will do, but rather settle into a nice warm sort of ember-y warmth. Still, I definitely recommend caution for mid-level chileheads, probably about where I'd put myself and avoidance entirely for non-chileheads.

Bottom line: Another great entry by Dave's Gourmet, one of the longest running purveyors for a reason. This not a casual entry point for introduction to the Scorpion peppers for beginners, but something better off for chileheads. For us, it is a great-tasting, solid heating and very worthy entry into the pantheon of sauces utilizing this pepper. It is also my first SOTY candidate for 2018.

Breakdown:

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

Overall: 8