The General's Dead Red Hot Sauce Review

The General's Dead Red Hot Sauce

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8T4ADHEBgw

This is one that I've seen advertised quite a bit online. The company is definitely doing a solid job getting the word out and have both a message (veteran-owned, militaryish-themed) and a tag (86% pepper content in all sauces) to differentiate themselves. All to the good there, although the usage of 86, which is presumably meant to refer to the slag "86-ing" of something, i.e. erasure, strikes me a lot as advertising more than any other facet. This extends down to the packaging (bottles are hand grenade-shaped, complete with a molded-in lever (non-movable, for appearance only) around the cap, and a dog tag on a chain fitted through the pin hole of said lever, which also reminds you of the 86% thing. Mine was part of a package called "Heatseeker," which is missile nomenclature, but not really representative of any attendant heat of the sauce, at least not for this one. I admit, though, given how much I love Cayenne peppers, I was pretty excited for this sauce, for what promised to be a sort of different, perhaps purer, take on the pepper, but I'd be lying if I said it lived up to that hope.

This is a pretty straightforward Cayenne sauce, with "Dead Red" referring probably to the coloration of the sauce rather than a deceased Communist or Republican. There is the addition of garlic, which moves this a bit away from the idea of a Louisiana-style sauce and more towards a Cajun.  This is also notably thicker than any Louisiana-style sauce and nearly every Cajun style I've had as well and it tends to hang out where it is poured, rather than run everywhere. The flavor, as noted, is definitely dissimilar to that of other sauces in either of the two categories I've mentioned, but it is not as far adrift as the company implies. The only major taste component that is drastically different is a chemically off-note to the flavor of this sauce, which I find rather distracting and annoying. I'm not entirely sure I'll be finishing this due to that. Heat-wise, they rate it 3 stars of 5, which is frankly outright absurd. There is nowhere near that kind of picante level to be found here. 

Bottom line: A lot of advertising and packaging going on here, to fit into the theme of the brand. The sauce itself is definitely unlike other Cayenne sauces and while it didn't really hit for me, fans of that pepper might want to check this one out.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 5
            Flexibility: 5
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 5

Overall: 4