Hot Winter Hatch Chile Hot Sauce Review

Hot Winter Hot Sauce

Of note before I get to the review outright, among the continuing changes, as first started last year, I have decided to accept product for review, this sauce coming from the esteemed Roger Damptz of Burn Your Tongue in Ogden, UT. Where it is the case that a sauce is one that has been provided, I will include both a brief mention as well as something marking the origination, in this case, the BYT logo as well as strongly suggesting you head over to his new online outlet where you can shop the widest selection available anywhere, www.burnyourtongueonline.com. 

*UPDATE* Video support now available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40H2R7JQMxs 

On to the sauce proper...actually, before I get to that, I should note that the actual name of this sauce is denoted by the chile shape on the bottle label. I'm not a great big fan of that, as I find the practice perhaps a bit over-cutesy. It does list, in much smaller letters, on the bottom, what the pepper the sauce is based on is, but I'd prefer it something more quickly legible.

Anyway, that aside, what we have here is somewhat of a classic green sauce, a sort of chile verde sauce, if you will. Indeed, many of the components of a classic chile verde are here and present, though, naturally modified into a hot sauce variation. It feels and looks a lot like a puree, which, again, hearkens to that chile verde motif.

Flavor-wise, there is a lot of earthiness here, mostly from the apple cider vinegar, which is used sparingly enough and in conjunction with various other elements that it doesn't quite approach the overbearing "stinky foot" issue that apple cider vinegar can easy lend to proceedings. It has a freshness that reminds me a bit more of a tomatillo sauce, though without either tomatillos or cilantro.

I'm reluctant to call this a hot sauce, though, as "hot sauce" at least strongly implies some degree of heat and it is nearly entirely absent here, as it does, featuring the wonderful tasting, but overall quite mild Hatch chiles. This is cited as a medium level sauce, which is using a scale quite beyond my understanding. It works quite well with Mexican dishes featuring either lighter colored meats, such as pork or chicken, or even cheese enchiladas. It works notably less well on redder meats and not especially well outside of that context, unless one really likes green chile flavoring a great deal. I suspect my wife will enjoy this sauce quite a bit more than I did, but it is quite well-made and the blend of ingredients is solid enough that I may check out further offerings from Hot Winter.

Bottom line: Very accessible and quite mild green sauce, which will appeal most to lovers of that sort of flavoring dynamic but offers little of interest to chileheads.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 0
            Flavor: 4
            Flexibility: 3
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 3

Overall: 3