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