CaJohn's Reaper Sling Blade Hot Sauce
If there is such a thing in the hot sauce industry as a sure thing, it is probably John Hard and his CaJohn's line of sauces. Not to say his track record has been perfect, but if you look through the full list in the Table Of Contents, his sauces are better represented than any other manufacturer, over double the nearest competitor and more than the next two combined. Quite a number of his sauces have been SOTY contenders, with his Happy Beaver (review here elsewhere) winning the first ever of that award. I remember this as being one of the first sauces I saw once the Carolina Reaper really came onto the scene, supplanting the Scorpion, which had itself supplanted the Ghost, which had supplanted the Habanero, which was top of the heap for quite some time prior. Naturally, I was interested, but I was still working my way through various Ghost-based and Scorpion-based concoctions and put it in back of mind. Most of the bottles I saw listed onions, but they were so far down the list, I expected it was probably either dried or powder, but that did put it lower in my interest.
Once I got to the Reaper exploration project of this year (and part of last year), I picked up a bottle and then forgot about it for months. So there it sat, patiently waiting and collecting dust (not a lot, though, rotation is much faster these days) until I moved it into my on-deck queue...and it sat for a few more months. Part of that is that I really want to give other sauce companies a chance. Clearly, CaJohn's is of such caliber, as noted above, that it could literally be in contention every year and I am trying to make an concerted effort to get to the widest array of sauces, peppers, and manufacturers I can.
Anyway, I busted this baby open and was immediately beyond thrilled with the sauce. Here was something that worked as wonderfully on breakfast burritos as it did on pizza and on a very nice shaved pork medley that I've been playing around with, since grill season is over for this year. This very nicely sidesteps the blazing heat of the Reapers by pairing it with the Ghosts, then tempering down the bitterness (which is muted, but still present) by adding in some nice, rich tomato paste, which also lends it an incredible degree of flexibility. I would have preferred just a touch more sweetness to things, but what is here is truly phenomenal, again. I wouldn't say that it's a perfect introduction to Reapers as much as this sauce really exemplifies what that pepper is capable of being.
Bottom line: John Hard has done it again, to no real surprise. As Nuff on the YouTube Main Event Pong channel (check them out also) noted, and I quote, "that...that is a fuckin' great sauce." Indeed. It is also another SOTY candidate for this year.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 4
Flavor: 10
Flexibility: 10
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 10
Overall: 8
No comments:
Post a Comment