Pepper Nectar Original Hot Sauce Review

Pepper Nectar Original

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.

UPDATE: Video support available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJdc5ctKqbc

I will start off by saying that I find the combination of Habanero and honey to be near magical, and to express my shock every time I encounter it that more hot sauce makers are not utilizing it more. One of my SOTY winners (Z's Shield Maiden), in fact, utilized this very combination to great effect. This sauce initially reminded me of that one a bit but the more I got into it, the more they separated a bit. 

While neither has a great degree of heat, this one is quite a bit more blended and a lot less loose. I find the consistency quite a lot better with this one (and also like the label better, for what that's worth). Ingredient-wise, there's a pretty significant departure as this one is more of an Asian chili-garlic sauce, like Huy Fong or one of those, that comes with the larger green screw-top lids and that you generally see in Chinese restaurants. It is not exactly like that, though, as those sauces do not tend to use Habaneros. It is most reminiscent of that sauce, though, if you blended it much better than those usually are, into the consistency of a sauce, rather than leaving it somewhat chunky, and put garlic way, way ahead of the pepper. And also added honey, of course. This one additionally has carrot, though that doesn't really read particularly here.

When I initially opened the bottle, there was some separation and I really really liked the sauce in the neck and put it on everything I could think of...I thought for a moment that I would be looking at another SOTY contender, but alas...as I got down to the point where I could finally agitate it, though, I liked it a lot less and it stopped working entirely on some foods. The reason for this is that the garlic is way too prominent for me here. Still, one of the great points about this sauce is how well it works on Asian food, which is, for me, one of the more difficult foods to sauce with the majority of hot sauces I have. It is actually quite flexible and does well with meats and on pizzas (though I like other ones better), as well.

Bottom line: This is a very well-done sauce and anyone who likes garlic-forward sweet hots, particularly canting a bit towards the Asian side, would do well to check this one out.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 2
            Flavor: 8
            Flexibility: 8
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 8

Overall: 7