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