Inferno Farms Pineapple XXXpress Hot Sauce Review

 Inferno Farms Pineapple XXXpress Hot Sauce

Note: This sauce was provided for purposes of review by Roger Damptz of Burn Your Tongue. Check him out on Facebook or, better yet, head on over to his new online outlet where you can shop the widest selection available anywhere, www.burnyourtongueonline.com. .

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

It is worth noting that Inferno Farms is the company of Greg Foster, current reigning Carolina Reaper pepper eating champ. One might be tempted to think that his sauce lineup will be molten lava at every turn, particularly with the XXX (though I suppose that could be taken in a different and likely non-applicable way also) branding on this sauce, but indeed, no. He is a chef and as such, thankfully puts flavor first. To be sure, he has some hotter varieties as you go up the ladder, but not everything is meant to scorch your face off.

With this, another name in the longish list of pineapple Habanero (yes, I realize it is actually a Scotch Bonnet pepper, but those two are cousins and the usage here is that where you'd normally see the Habanero) sauces, there are some notable differences. It is not thick and gloppy, as sauces of that type tend to be. This one is rather thin and runny, along the lines of a Louisiana-style, but not quite that watery. Definitely will need a lot of agitation and if not, you can get flavor pockets. To those pockets, we have ginger (awesome) and lime (much less awesome). Those two notes seem to clash quite a bit and when it is heavier on the ginger side, the taste is both fresh and unique and something I want a lot more of. When I start hitting the lime notes, I begin to wish that was either cut down dramatically or, preferably, cut out entirely. 

While citrus and hot sauce is not an especially awesome combination for me, aside from maybe some orange notes here and there, I think it also makes the sauce a lot less useful. For instance, the gloppy Pineapple Habanero sauces are pretty damn wonderful on pizza, in addition to the usual chicken places. I've used it on burgers as well, as noted in one of the FOH videos. When you throw a citrus element into it, though, it's pretty much chicken and fried fish, maybe something along the lines of an accent for fish tacos. 

Heat-wise, this is pretty tame. It's runny enough to drink and if you liked lime notes, you could probably do that. I think this would also, come to think of it, work pretty nicely in a frozen mixed drink, either a margarita or pina colada or lime daquiri, something along those lines. To be clear, the dominant taste is definitely the pineapple, but it is also moderate enough to allow a lot of those grace notes to creep in, which can dramatically alter the utility. I get that you have to be different to stand out in an already saturated area, such as the fruit-based sauces, particularly pineapple Habanero, but this has taken one step too many for me.

Bottom line: This sauce is on the right track, but still in need of a bit more modification. Definitely worth a visit if you're a fan of pineapple Habanero sauces.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 5
            Flexibility: 4
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 4

Overall: 4

Hooter's Hot Sauce Review

The Original Hooter's Hot Sauce

UPDATE: Video support available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSfsW6OlvfM

I picked this up on a whim. Hooter's is not exactly known for its kitchen prowess, but rather the gigantic...ummm...owl eyes of the various female wait staff and hosts. When I go to restaurants, I tend to go specifically for the food, so, given that the food here tends to be underwhelming at best, I have not really frequented this chain, having visited maybe half a dozen times combined ever. I honestly didn't recall the sauce specifically, but presumed it to be some sort of wing sauce, so probably pointed at a buffalo sauce, with at least a passing nod to a Louisiana-style. It sat on my shelf for quite a while until I picked it up, hoping more more of a pure Cayenne sauce. What it is comes fairly distant from that, though.

What we're really looking at here is a red Jalapeno sauce. In my haste, I think I pegged the pepper on the front as a Cayenne, but I think it is a Jalapeno. Jalapenos in sauces can be of use. It is a very flavorful pepper, but for me, like most other peppers of low heat, you need a lot of it. Where the pepper has, as its strong suit, great flavor, such as Bells or Jalapenos, you really need more of the actual pepper. Cooking it and distilling it into a sauce tends to rob Jalapenos of a good portion of their strength and you're left with this, which is sort of a vague stab at a hot sauce. This is not always the case, mind you. Boar's Head does a great job using this same pepper, but they're going for more of a pepper sauce, instead of a general hot sauce, which appears to be the intent here.

This sauce tastes cheap to me. Cheap sauce is not always bad. Crystal and Cheap Thrills come to mind as two lower-priced entries that are very serviceable, but this one actively tastes cheap, as in low quality. It kind of reminds me of the Trappey Bull sauce that someone threw a handful of sugar at and it's exactly as good as that sounds. This is not to say inedible, such as others this year have been for me, but it has to be used very carefully, not because of any heat level, but because of the tendency to foul things it's on, if oversaucing happens. This is not bad, to the point where I will refuse to do a video of it, but I will neither buy it again nor likely finish the bottle. I've found uses of it where it performed acceptably on food to be very minimal.

Bottom line: If you're a fan of this chain, and more specifically, this particular sauce, here you go. Everyone not fitting into that category can keep on moving.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 0
            Flavor: 1
            Flexibility: 1
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 0

Overall: 0

Big Red's Smokey Habanero Hot Sauce Review

Big Red's Smokey Habanero Hot Sauce

UPDATE: Video support available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzqXF6Re2P8

This is a relatively new company to me and it's clear that they definitely like to have fun with the labels. This is the first of the sauces I've tried and, as mentioned, since I somehow got on the old chasing-down-a-standby-Mexican-style-sauce trail again, this one moved to the front of the line. I've said it elsewhere, but I now have a much better idea what I actually want out of this kind of sauce. I've settled down onto the idea of Habanero, as I don't think most of the other peppers would be fitting (ghost also would be fine, but not enough people use it in this style), but with a strong preference towards either fire-roasted or smoked. In this case, we have the addition of a Chipotle powder and smoke flavor, the latter of which is fairly novel to me in this setting. 

I was pretty curious to see how this would work, once I discovered this, but the results are...curious. What we have here is a sauce somewhat reminiscent of a taco sauce, along with a strong Habanero undercurrent. There is quite a number of ingredients in this sauce and some of them seem to be there in appearance only, such as the flecks of cilantro. This has a solid bit of heat, though it's definitely on the lower side of the scale. There is also the presence of Cayenne here also, which I encounter pretty rarely in a Mexican style sauce. The end result, though, is a bit confusing to me, as there are a number of competing flavors. The overall subtlety of this sauce enables different elements to shine through, but it did not ever quite make it to a cohesive whole for me. 

The subtlety is also somewhat of a problem, actually, as it makes this sauce much less universal on foods, even if restricted to Mexican-style foods. If you don't have somewhat of a heavy pour, the presence may show up in a slight heat increase and little else, but too heavy and those grace notes amplify depending on what you put it on and may show up enough to introduce diminishing returns. This aspect makes it a bit of a frustrating sauce to use. In addition to missing the mark on the flavor I'm after, it also dials down the universality, at least in regards to Mexican foods, my ideal standby sauce would have.

Bottom line: Definitely one of the more interesting takes on a Mexican-style sauce I've had, but one that is both a bit too busy and subtle and not particularly resonant with my palate. 

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 2
            Flavor: 5
            Flexibility: 3
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 6

Overall: 4

CaJohn's Black Garlic Ghost Hot Sauce Review

 CaJohn's Black Garlic Ghost Hot Sauce

Update: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYcD7_jIUpw

To a degree, I did not understand the draw of black garlic and why it would be of interest, let alone of use, in a hot sauce. While this did not sell me on the usage in a hot sauce, exactly, I do now more fully understand the appeal of black garlic and the relation to umami. 

Despite doing the Chipotle variation of the CaJohn's Black Garlic sauces earlier in the year, that sauce was, for me, just kind of there, somewhat confusing but best thought of as basically a sweet soy sauce, with not a lot of flavor. This one, on the other hand, is considerably both more flavorful and more punchy and is highly enjoyable. 

I used it in most of the same places I used the other and this is literally worlds better. That it is that radically different is somewhat surprising to me, aside from the idea that chipotle being such a strong flavor, my presumption is that it was used more sparingly so as not to overpower the more delicate flavor notes. Here, with ghost pepper not being a particularly strong flavor, more is able to be used and so not only is there a strong heat presence, but the melding of the Jolokias with those other umami flavors of soy sauce and black garlic helps them to shine all the more. This, unlike the other, is also quite a bit more flexible, equally at home being a curious dipping sauce, to working spectacularly on grilled or roasted meats. 

As to heat, the ghost is tempered somewhat, showing off its more flavorful side and while this is notably hotter than the other, it is pretty far from where I think it would give anyone much trouble, chilehead or not. It is just a very nice, all-around sauce, though heavily pointed at the Asian side, naturally, that does a lot towards answering what all the hype about black garlic is.

Bottom line: This is a very good introduction to the glories of black garlic and I'm simultaneously pleased and saddened I didn't try this first...this may, in fact, be a sauce I consider keeping on hand in future.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 8
            Flexibility: 6
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 7

Overall: 6

Arthur Wayne Montana Rooster Hot Sauce Review

Arthur Wayne Montana Rooster Hot Sauce

Note: This sauce was provided for purposes of review by Roger Damptz of Burn Your Tongue. Check him out on Facebook or, better yet, head on over to his new online outlet where you can shop the widest selection available anywhere, www.burnyourtongueonline.com.

Note: Video support available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq5nUuMH3Q4

Note: I have been reliably informed by the aforementioned Roger that the label for this bottle may be changing, so possibly this is the old label. A number of other labels throughout this blog are possibly similarly changed...my suggestion is to look on the respective web sites of the various sauces and see what the current look is.

Right, now on to the show...as those of you following along in 2020 already know, an Arthur Wayne sauce called Limitless (check TOC for review) is hovering about in my SOTY consideration list. I did find it a bit piquant for daily usage, however, and was really interested in the sauce it was based on, which is this. Had the heat been taken down a few notches, we could be looking at a battle between sauces from the same company, which is pretty rare. The last time it happened, if memory serves, it was back between a couple of CaJohn's entries. 

Sad to say, this will not be the case here. This sauce does not retain any of the smoothness of the other sauce and has almost no heat at all. There are spiky chunks of pepper bits, which is a touch on the annoying side, when I hit them and this is a far looser sauce, much closer to the runniness of a Louisiana-style. It is possible this is just a batch issue with the bottle I got, which can happen with smaller sauce companies, but I'm far from convinced that is what is at play here.

 I also have some related problems with the naming convention here. Sriracha refers to a pretty specific - and well established - style of sauce. Calling this a spin on sriracha is frankly just misnaming the sauce. If you're going to take a sriracha and spike it with fruit, fine, I guess, but it still has to be mainly a sriracha. This one reads more like a vinegary pineapple sauce and indeed, we have the fairly standard combination of pineapple and Habanero here.

Had the approach here been to take a swing at the sweet-hot and just call it sriracha-inspired, fine, but if you set up expectations, particularly for a well-known and beloved sauce, and then get nowhere near it...it is going to raise some questions. The taste here varies a bit, but never too far from vinegar and pineapple. I don't dislike it and it is mild enough you can use a lot of it. Flexibility is fairly strong, going well on nearly everything, other than Mexican food, where I found it somewhat clashy.

Bottom line: Do not consider this a sriracha-style sauce, regardless of the label. Think of it as another sweet-hot, another entry into the halls of Habanero-pineapple, albeit a runny version, and go accordingly.

Breakdown:

Heat level: 1
Flavor: 7
Flexibility: 8
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 4

Overall: 5

Seafire Classic Habanero Hot Sauce Review

 Seafire Classic Habanero Hot Sauce

Tell me have you ever just taken a spoonful of that concentrated, minced garlic, from Christopher Ranch or someone else and just eaten it right from the jar? Don't get the jars? Ok, have you ever then gotten one of the squeeze bottles or tubes and just blasted it right into your open mouth? No? If you did, did you enjoy it? No? If yes, you may enjoy this sauce. It might stop with you, though.

This is, ostensibly, a "classic" Habanero sauce in the sense that it has Habanero, carrots and some of the other sweet component goodies that other Habanero sauces have had. The twist, as it were, is that this contains, from the website, "an insane amount of garlic." How you should read this is as a garlic puree with slightly sweet and citrusy grace notes. If you did either of those things I mentioned in the first part, you already got the gist of this sauce. If not, if you are not insane enough to do such a thing, it is as close to the experience of trying this sauce as one can imagine, without actually also trying the sauce.

I like garlic. At times, I might even feel an affection for it bordering on love. I've had - and made - my share of garlic burgers, of heavy garlic spaghetti sauce or pizza sauce, even went so far as to roasting entire bulbs in a pie tine with some olive oil, salt, and pepper, then just eating the cloves as a light snack. I did that for a while, in fact, but I've never liked the heavily processed concentratedd kind. This resembles the version I like least and, since there will not be a video accompaniment to this sauce, here is basically how that went:

I started with a breakfast bowl. I sniffed the bottle and nearly gave up right then and there, but went on and managed to coax a bit of this thick, sludgy stuff out. It wrecked everything it touched, nearly to the point of inducing gagging. It was basically straight concentrated processed garlic. So...I poured out a bit of what was in the neck, figuring I hadn't agitated it enough. I then shook it up really well and put it back in the fridge. I tried again with chicken strips and the same result, except I could detect a slight bit of carrot underlying it, as well as a slight sweetness. 

I did not give up there, though, it was pretty clear then, given how I do the video addendums for the sauces, I would, in no way consider do it with this sauce. Rather, I tried to use it how I would use the actual concentrate, which is in various dishes, chilis, etc. It worked well there, equally as well as normal garlic puree would work, though none of the heat one might anticipate from a Habanero nor the sweetness nor the carrot tinge managed to make it through. So, it's fine being cooked into stuff, like the regular concentrate, which is how I will use the rest of it, but this labels itself as a sauce, but the rating reflects the sauce criteria, since the blog is for sauces.

Bottom line: This is a garlic puree masquerading as a sauce, albeit a slightly more expensive way to obtain a puree. Using it as you would those others is fine. Using it as a sauce will produce awful results.

Breakdown:

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

Overall: 0