Mega Valley Spicy Sweet Aleppo Hot Sauce Review

Mega Valley Foods Spicy Sweet Aleppo Hot Sauce

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mb8xDwqwIsw

The only Aleppo I was familiar with prior to coming across this was the city in Syria, which is also evidently where these peppers originated (though they are now available from Turkey and the US, due to the Syrian strife). Aleppo typically take a form more similar to the dried red pizza pepper flakes, though they are slightly sweeter and milder than the usual ones. I'd never had a sauce using those peppers, so when I came across what I thought was a new pepper for a sauce, I was immediately interested. Here, however, we have a sauce that starts with those, but then adds Cayenne, Habanero, and another nameless pepper. The resulting sauce is a bit lacking in identity as a result.

This seems modeled as an everyday sauce, but for me, the sweetness from the honey comes across as a bit odd, almost like a funky version of a sweet and sour sauce, almost in a straight split ratio, though it also comes across as a bit strange and off-putting, given the vinegars and pepper combination. The various suggestions are for roasted vegetables, eggs, sandwiches, stews, etc., though none of those foods are ones I particularly like with sweetness. It's a bit sour for my taste on pizza, which leaves generally chicken as the best usage of this, though I'd generally rather have something else. 

Heat-wise, there is basically none to speak of, despite those other peppers. Aleppo is not generally spicy, the next ingredient chile powder (which I'm taking as possibly powdered Arbol, such as you might get at a grocery store), is not particularly either, then Cayenne, which is almost never. There are Habaneros, but such a moderate amount that they serve up little against the preponderance of other elements.

Bottom line: I really haven't found a setting where I like this sauce a great deal and have struggled through about half a bottle of it trying to find where to put it. The flavor is much more odd than interesting and this is one that can be safely skipped.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 2
            Flexibility: 1
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 1

Overall: 1