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