Jersey Barnfire Smoked Ghost Taco Hot Sauce Review

Jersey Barnfire Smoke Ghost Taco Hot Sauce

UPDATE: Support video now available here: https://youtu.be/r5NxVwLp_JM

I like smoked peppers quite a lot. So, if I see something smoked, I'm usually immediately interested and have found those sauces to be rarely disappointing. In this case, again on the search for a good Mexican style sauce, I came across this. By the point I found it, I had pretty much reached my quota of the crazy hot sauces and wanted a few "normals" to kind of round things out. I look for sauce for flavor first, so I was pretty excited to try it, unfamiliar as I was with the brand.

The first thing I noticed, though, was the cap. It has a metal cap, which is pretty unusual for a hot sauce and I'm struggling to recall ever seeing one before. I'm sure I must have had a hot sauce like that somewhere, sometime, but it is not in memory, if I did. That part was a bit striking, if only for its rarity, I suppose. Inside, the sauce came out exactly how I think a good Mexican style sauce should, which is to say along the lines of either El Paso or La Victoria, those being the only things even remotely towards hot around the time I was growing up and something I accordingly came to associate with taco sauce, which this was listing itself as.

This sauce has all the normal flavorings of taco sauce, but with that smoked ghost in there, punches much harder. I wouldn't call it overly hot, but you can somewhat readily oversauce, which makes it drift away from what I would consider more of a table sauce, which the two I mentioned definitely are. The flavor here is quite good, very happily along the lines of what I was hoping and with that nice smoky addition, also does well moving a bit outside of the frame, such as usage as a dipping sauce. Naturally, the way the spices typically work, it is much better on Mexican style food, but it can step outside the bounds a bit, if need be, as well, which is a nice touch of flexibility.

Bottom line: This is one of my early favorite from the last haul I got and so far, of the new sauces, the only one I would really consider keeping at hand. I wouldn't say I love it, but it definitely is a nice change of pace and a good change-up to the usual entries in this segment.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 4
            Flavor: 7
            Flexibility: 4
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 6

Overall: 5

Fat Cat Guajillo Ghost Hot Sauce Review

Fat Cat Surprisingly Mild Guajillo Ghost Hot Sauce

UPDATE: Support video now available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=akgw4aW0Kao

Like most people online, I'm somewhat of a slave to all things feline, so yep, I love me the cat videos and the cat memes and all that stuff, so if some clever hot sauce decides to market a hot sauce right at me by putting a cat on the label, I'm at least interested. It is meaningless? Sure and maybe not a great reason to initially be interested, but labeling is part of selling and selling is a big part of keeping your hot sauce brand alive and flowing.

Still, for all that, the sauce has to be good. Flavor has to be there or just as quickly, that mnemonic nifty name you came up incorporating the word "cat" will be a double-edged sword and it will just as easily be memorable in the context of a brand to avoid. I think the sauces in the line-up are named well and cleverly, with this particular one being the least cutesy and, if I recall correctly, the least picante.

I'm not strictly familiar with what a Guajillo pepper was...or wasn't prior to starting this review, but it appears to be something along the lines of an Ancho. The famed Ghost pepper, of course, I'm well familiar with and the idea behind this sauce seemed more mole-ish to me. Indeed, seeing the sauce as it came out, dark and somewhat reminiscent of chocolate, seemed much more like a runny mole than an actual hot sauce. It lists out a number of foods it should pair with, but I found it worked best (and maybe only) with Mexican food and not at all well, for instance, as a chicken strip dipping sauce or on the BBQ grill.

Heat is very moderate here, as expected, but the sauce is a nicely flowing thicker sauce that does a really good job sticking to wherever you try to put it, generally. It's not really my idea of what an ideal Mexican style sauce should be, though that appears to be mostly where they're aiming, but it is a kind of nice change of pace and one that I'll finish out, but probably not replace.

Bottom line: Still mostly a hot sauce, there are some strong leanings towards mole with this. I don't eat moles enough to know if this bridges the gap successfully, but it was an interesting, if largely one-off, diversion from the regular Mexican style sauces. Will not be in regular rotation for me, but definitely worth trying out.

Breakdown:

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

Overall: 4

CaJohn's El Castillo Hot Sauce Review

CaJohn's El Castillo Hot Sauce

UPDATE: Support video now available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbuaU0rsCjw

As longtime readers of this blog know, finding a reliable Mexican-style hot sauce has largely been an exercise in frustration for me. Seeing one that was completely knew was pretty exciting and knowing CaJohn's approach to high quality, I had very high hopes. Indeed, which I first opened the bottle and had a little sip from a spoon, I thought I might have stumbled onto the best Mexican hot sauce I'd yet had...sadly, the rest of the bottle did not bear that out and while I think it's a solid entry into the Mexican style pantheon, I don't believe I will be keeping this on hand.

It has an interesting aroma, both citrusy as well as the unique and distinctive chili combination that typifies most Mexican food. Unusual for CaJohn's, the peppers are unnamed, though I would suspect some combination of Arbol, Serrano, and Habanero. This is a very piquant sauce, with both the vinegar and the citrus adding a lot of pungency, which is perhaps the most dominant aspect of this sauce. Heat is very mild with this sauce, which, along with the runniness, can contribute to inadvertent over-saucing fairly easily.

It works well on Mexican foods, but, like most Mexican-style sauces, does not really extend much beyond that. I found it a nice chance of pace from the various taco sauces at both Del Taco and Taco Bell, but one that also quickly wore out its welcome, at least somewhat because it is a bit too runny (nearly Louisiana style level) to be a strong contender here. I don't see it on the CaJohn's website, so possibly it is not being produced any longer, but after I enjoy what is left of the bottle, I don't see myself replacing it with more. Definitely an interesting and crisp taste on the style, though.

Bottom line: Like most CaJohn sauces, this is very well done, but is overly piquant for me.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 2
            Flavor: 5
            Flexibility: 2
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 6

Overall: 4