Salsitas Mendoza Hell Fire Hot Sauce Review

Salsitas Mendoza Hell Fire Hot Sauce

Note: Video support available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp7oR4usa8Y
 

I'm almost tempted to do this review in the form of suggestions. This definitely feels a lot like a fairly ground level operation that is starting to try to expand the gamut a bit, doing farmer's markets, sourcing local product, all the stuff that makes you want to root for a company. The focus, clearly, is on salsas, and most of their product comes in much larger, metal screw-on lidded jars. Their website does not have any product information on it, and has a slightly unfinished feel to it, so I'm not sure what is in it, precisely, but I have yet to see any of those jars of product not have onions in it (save for one particular Kroger product), and that sort of thing is a bit beyond the confines of what I would consider "hot sauce," and hence this blog.

As to this product...I get the desire to have a hotter Mexican-style table sauce. Most of them, particularly the commercial ones, are woefully lacking in this department. Partially, I think this is customer driven, as there are sometimes some fairly complex spice balances in play and over-adding too much can tend to diminish returns fairly readily. I think people also like heat on this type of food, but of a fairly moderate variety. The hottest pepper I've seen added to this style is the Ghost Pepper, and when done with care and judiciously, that can work quite well.

In a few ways, this reminds me of El Yucateco Red, particularly in terms of how the heat reads as an immediate flash heat, though I don't think the sauce overall has quite that kind of polish. This one is far harsher and abrasive, with a fairly prominent bitter tinge that I don't care for. I suspect this is due to stepping on the sauce with various powdered ingredients. Using powders and other concentrates is somewhat of an art, in any style cooking, and if you don't give it some time to gel and mesh, the full effect may not be known, which can prompt an impatience chef to add more to try to get to a desired taste.

I also note that this bottle used a fairly tough shrink plastic to keep the cap on, which is sort of a nuisance, but not the end of the world. Of far greater concern was the bottle being full literally to the cap when I opened it. I managed not to accidentally spill any of it, but wound up having to pour out a certain amount of the neck in order to create enough space to agitate it properly, given that it had separated in the bottle. If you're going to fill to the top, there needs to be an emulsifier or some other agent to hold ingredient suspension, though even then, I would say there is little reason to actually do that. The company seems very devoted to fresh ingredients, so the use of emulsifiers or preservatives is likely not happening.

My final piece of commentary is on the name of the sauce itself. Hell Fire, Hell, Hellfire, et. al. are in fairly steady usage already in the market place. Having customers look for something called by any of those names is certain to lead to brand confusion. The sauce is also nowhere near hot enough for that moniker, realistically, so I'd suggest a name change in the near future.

Bottom line: Very hearty stab at a more picante Mexican style table sauce, but one that I also find still needs refinement before I would consider buying again, let alone keeping at hand.


Breakdown:

            Heat level: 2
            Flavor: 4
            Flexibility: 4
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 1


Overall: 3