CaJohn's Small Batch Habanero Garlic Hot Sauce
I've been trying to give the CaJohn's a bit of a break, partially because there are more of them than any other sauce maker, both here and on the FOH video series, but also because trying to keep up with his numerous variations can be challenging and if I chased after those, I wouldn't have a lot of time left for some of the other equally deserving sauces out there (also my substantial backlog). I will say, though, if there is one maker I can count on to be as close to a sure thing as there is, and who has been that way for as long as I've been doing this blog, it is CaJohn's. So, when I found that this was an important sauce to him, based on the very historic recipe, given his prominence in the industry itself, I bumped this to the top of my life as my introduction to the Small Batch series, which I've definitely been meaning to get into more.
This has won a number of awards, but one of the more curious to me, as it won for being a Lousiana-style sauce. I would put this as more of an everyday/table or Habanero sauce, maybe even extending it to Cajun, to a degree, but Louisiana-style seems inaccurate. This is a very smooth pouring, but perhaps medium thickness to the sauce and would be problematic with a restrictor cap. It is pretty far from watery. So, in terms of both consistency and flavor profile, it does not meet that style of sauce well, if at all.
That aside, it is a fairly pure-tasting sauce, which one can surmise from the label itself, which is transparent, with white text. It clearly is meant to emphasize that this sauce is something special. Honestly, I don't know if I would go that far, as it is a bit on the basic, one-note side, but it does taste quite good. If you like Habaneros more than I do, of course, you will probably enjoy it more. If you've read about the so-called "fruitiness" of Habaneros, this is perhaps the sauce I would choose as the one that best exemplifies it and eating this will give you an immediate understanding of what is meant (and often missing in other sauces). Heat starts off with an immediate blast, then settles into a nice glow, rather like the El Yucateco Red (reviewed elsewhere here), only perhaps hotter. This one also plays nicely with a fairly wide variety of foods, including tacos. This also again lends more to the table/everyday style. I did enjoy it in a pretty wide variety of settings, but I'd put it more solidly in the middle for most of them, in that, while I did find it solid, it was not near the top of sauces I'd tried in that application.
Bottom line: A very well-done, nicely rounded sauce that will work well in a variety of settings and would serve as a great introduction point to Habaneros (or possibly a solid reminder).
Breakdown:
Heat level: 2
Flavor: 8
Flexibility: 8
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 10
Overall: 7
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