Burns & McCoy Mango Habanero Hot Sauce Review

Burns & McCoy Mango Habanero

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZ80us2fhks

Although I was familiar with Burns & McCoy from their fascinating and showy labels and fancily named sauces, my interest was mainly due to the sauce they had on the Hot Ones show, which has been on my list for some time (and remains so). Thus, while I was aware of their line-up, I didn't venture into it until Roger mentioned he was re-adding the line and I looked across the portfolio to see what new goodies might be there. Cue up a burning need for me to get another fruit-based sweet hot and it was providence...or coincidence...one of the "ences" anyway.

Looking at the ingredient label, my first impression was that the sauce included pineapple, which seemed an interesting idea to me, namely to take things that were combined with Habanero in sauces, such as mango, pineapple, honey, and carrot, and combine them all into a sort of supersauce. That is not quite the reality here, as there is not pineapple, but there is sweet potato, which changes the sauce in a really unusual and intriguing way. It serves here as thickener, color agent, and adds a flavor tone that only root vegetables seem to do. Carrots add those notes also, but to a much lesser extent. Both have a slight inherent sweetness, but neither carries a great sweetness charge.

The texture reminds me a bit of using corn starch, just without the accompanying gloppy gelatin-y nature that that ingredient tends to provide to sauces, particularly when they're cold. This one is nicely smooth and creamy. The mango comes through well, again, not particularly sweet, but there is no mistaking they meant for this to be mango-flavored. For the sweet, there is orange juice and honey, but neither are in sufficient enough quantities for this to be quite all the way to the usual sticky sweetness of fruit-based sweet hots. It does stick very nicely to food, though, and the sort of heavier flow nature of it tends to keep it in place.

Despite the usage of Habanero, heat-wise, this is fairly minimal. Peppers come into play somewhat later in the ingredient list and don't really factor much into flavor. The heat is enough to let one know it is meant to be an actual hot sauce, but it is overall rather tame and mild. It is overall quite a fascinating sauce. I can't say it is my favorite mango Habanero or even a good example of that sauce type, but it covers a pretty broad spectrum of uses with those (for sauces) novel ingredients and I must say it's remarkable.

Bottom line: This is a sauce that has grown on me and my impression is steadily improving. Very nice introduction to the Burns & McCoy line, but not a great introduction to mango Habanero sauces. If you're familiar with those others, this is definitely one to get on the list to try, though.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 7
            Flexibility: 7
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 8

Overall: 6