Pallotta Hot Habanero Fire Hot Sauce Review

Pallotta Hot Habanero Fire Hot Sauce

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

I get some degree of amusement at the naming conventions of this company and sauces. It is not Pallotta; it is Pallotta Hot. The sauce is not simply mere Habanero. No, no. It is instead Habanero Fire Hot. The overuse of the descriptor hot in everything tends to make this a bit confusing, though, and a bit unnecessary. I had to go to their website to get it sorted and discovered those things I mentioned as well as their backstory, which I enjoyed reading quite a lot. I like it when companies do that and wish more of them did. 

I also enjoyed this sauce quite a lot. There is a freshness that is palpable from the word go. I'm not sure chileheads are going to find it "fire hot," but this pushes to the border of where "normies" will be interested, and then past it with a very nice low key lingering burn, exactly the type Habaneros are known for. I greatly enjoyed that part. 

Flavor-wise...the brightness of the sauce was a pretty welcome change of pace. Somehow I've gotten myself back on the Mexican sauce trail search, which winds up with me slogging through a lot of disappointing stuff, at least in terms of filling the vacancy in my Standby sauce list. Happily, it is also leading me to really hone in on some aspects I really want to have and those are: either a smokiness and/or fire-roasted something. This one, alas, has neither, but one can really taste both the genius and thought that went into making this. 

It is very heavy on Habanero, using that as the main base, and then it filters in some Jalapenos, which adds that brightness I mentioned, without stepping on the flavor. A bit of garlic and tomatoes also have glimmers here and there, to help smooth things out, but really, you are dealing with Habanero at one of its finest moments, in one of its better settings. This massive demonstration of skill has me interested in their entire line and I foresee me going through all of the sauces that do not have unfortunate ingredients. 

Bottom line: While it's not quite what I have in mind for my Standby list, this is a somewhat surprising and very enjoyable sauce that works astoundingly well on a variety of Mexican/Southwest dishes. May be a bit scorchy for non-chileheads, however.

Breakdown:

Heat level: 3
Flavor: 8
Flexibility: 6
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 9

Overall: 7