Bend Hot Sauce Review

Bend 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: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ChfSCZ7eSk

This was actually a sauce I noticed on Roger's Facebook feed, probably before whatever changes they made that necessitate me having to go through a number of shenanigans to access it. It seems like what might be a very interesting find, a sort of excellent-tasting "diamond in the rough" everyday sauce, so I had it on my radar for a while. I didn't look closely into it, but it always piques my curiosity when I see a company producing just one main product, as it leads me to believe it must be a really good one. I was unsure if it was (or was intended as) an actual hot sauce, however, and it took me some digging around on the website to sort that out, as the label is not really great at conveying that directly.

With Chipotle, a flavor I don't really seek out (or avoid), given it's typically much lower ranging heat, it can easily and quickly be overpowering. I like smoke in the context of flavors generally, i.e., that of foodie, and I've come to believe the Chipotle is one of the hardest flavors to use and get right. It can be done, Tabasco Chipotle, for instance, or a few barbeque sauces I've made and fewer still I've bought, but I don't find that to be normally the case. Now, this sauce is predicted on that particular ingredient, so I got a bit leery once I had bottle in hand, given that history.

I will start by noting the heavy plastic squeeze bottle it comes in. This is somewhat reminiscent of the honey "cylinder" bottles that one comes across, which does not have a lot of give for squeezing. I find this choice to honestly be a bit on the questionable side and wish they would choose a softer plastic, more akin to either Yellowbird or even the ketchup/mustard bottles we see dotting picnic tables. What is inside is honestly less sauce and more paste, but it is kind of in the weird area where it is not a thick heavy paste that needs to be spooned, but more like an aforementioned mustard, perhaps a dijon, along those lines. 

Flavor-wise, they sort of neatly skirt the smoke-flavor issue by adding sweeteners (here agave works well) and some slight astringency from the vinegar. There are a few other flavors in there, but this reads more like a sweeter, less tongue-dense version of a Chipotle puree. I'm pretty good with that, but that one-note aspect does limit my interest in the sauce to a grilling/barbeque application. Looking through the recipes on the website, it appears that is the most common application and I imagine the nice bit of sugar to allow some solid carmelization would be magical, perhaps alone, but definitely with a quality barbeque sauce. There is, as to be expected, precious little heat here.

Bottom line: Think of a sweet, smoky, slightly vinegary Chipotle puree that needs to be squeezed out and you've about got it.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 0
            Flavor: 6
            Flexibility: 4
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 3

Overall: 3