Adoboloco Hamajang Hot Sauce Review

Adoboloco Hamajang Hot Sauce

Note: This sauce appears in Season 5 of The Hot Ones.

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxCZp2YEMPE

This is another that's been on the backburner for a bit and shares a similar profile with the Kolohe Kid (reviewed elsewhere here), including down to identical ingredient panels. In the copy, however, there is the addition of Habaneros in the mix here, which makes for a kind of goofy way of listing out ingredients. Unlike the Kolohe Kid, this sauce is much thicker and much hotter, though the taste profile is similar, thanks in no small part to shared Ghost and apple cider vinegar ingredients. Here, however, the vinegar is nowhere near as assertive.

This one additionally has a nice richness with Ghosts being evidently smoked. The highlight is definitely on the Ghosts, as this is quite a bit hotter than the Kolohe Kid as well. There is some good, solid punch to this sauce, though nothing too challenging for chileheads. With the elements of this sauce being somewhat minimal, it also cuts down somewhat on the applications. It's fine on things like chicken strips, pizza and so on, but depending on the flavor notes of the food, this one somewhat easily loses it's additional components and the bitter notes of the superhot are the ones that read. It definitely does much better with either stronger-flavored or less complicated foods. 

There is also the matter of the color, which is a sort of brownish reminscent of beef gravy (though definitely not at all like that flavor profile). This isn't a vibrant hue, so the wow factor of putting it on food and making things more appealing and appetizing is largely absent. I wouldn't say it moves to the opposite direction, like the electric green of the El Yucateco and actually makes things visually less appealing or off-putting, but the color I find somewhat curious. There's not really a good explanation on the label of which varieties of the various peppers they're using, so the entire thing is somewhat shrouded in opacity. There is also the mystery of why a sauce of this consistency comes with a restrictor cap, but I presume its because the manufacturers are buying into their own hype and pretending this is dangerously hot.

Bottom line: If you like your Ghost peppers smoked, this is a pretty straightforward sauce that shows off that pepper variation well. It's a bit one-note for me, but definitely one I like better than the Kolohe Kid. 

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 3
            Flavor: 5
            Flexibility: 5
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 5

Overall: 5