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