Hot Ones Brian Burner
Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaGHkCSkL-Q
This was a sauce I got in a 2020 birthday gift pack (which seems no longer available on the Heatonist website, as this sauce nor Constrictor) and have been woefully errant in getting to, but the three sauces, this, Eye Of The Scorpion (reviewed elsewhere here), and Constrictor (coming soon...ish?), did not have an ingredient profile that looked to be exciting to me. All of them (both this and Constrictor heavily feature Reapers) seemed of the type of sauce that was "hot just for the sake of heat," and since I'm flavor first above all, that was not a super appealing prospect. However, Eye Of The Scorpion was on the Hot Ones show (the others, as I understand, were intended for the Hot Ones Game Show), so that went first. That was not a sauce I was probably ever going to like, so no real surprise when I didn't. The other two then sat on the shelf and got passed over time and again in favor of other sauces. So, yes, still trying to finish out sauces I acquired in 2020, which is why I've really tried to put the clamps on further sauce hauls until I get the backlog down to something more manageable.
Anyway, I wasn't expecting a lot out of this sauce and was shocked by a number of aspects. The first of which is the flavor. The ingredients, Reapers, Scotch Bonnets, vinegar, lime, and salt, did not give me a whole ton of clues, other than, with the superhots that far forward, that it would probably be hot. It definitely is that, but it is not the roaring blast fire I half expected. Often with superhots, you have a mere scintilla of flavor before the overwhelming heat overpowers everything, but here, the flavor (and sweetness) of the Reapers is on full display, which is quite a neat trick to pull off. The colors of both these peppers is mixed through the sauce, creating a wonderful hue, notably appealing. Back to flavor, you get the bitterness of the superhots, with a touch of the sweetness, combined with the deliciousness of Scotch Bonnets, without a mouthful of infernal combustion. On the backend is the lime, which I don't love and could definitely do without, but if you're making mixed drinks, for instance, this might be useful there. The lime is not obtrusive and just comes in the finish, which is interesting in that you wind up with flavor after the fact, not always the case in using superhots.
I understand this sauce was developed by Smokin' Ed Currie, generator of the Carolina Reaper, which stands to reason that if anyone knows that pepper and what it can do, it would be him. There are some minor facets I don't like, such as the tendency for this to clog in the neck a bit and the consistency is both runny and chunky, but I think this is meant to be small batch and some of that stuff comes a bit with the territory. One of the stranger aspects of this sauce is that it has solid, but not overwhelming mouth heat, and doesn't create a lot of the internal associated Reaper elements I've mentioned elsewhere, but it does, oddly, cause my head instantly to sweat whenever I eat it, something only the hotter sauces, which comes with an oral solar flare, tend to do. It's an aspect I find curious, I suppose, if not a bit mystifying. Still, the flavor works very nicely with a number of dishes, something I also wasn't wholly expecting, enough that I will happily finish out the bottle.
Bottom line: Very unexpectedly excellent sauce under the Hot Ones banner, definitely hot enough for it to be chileheads only and for those, best for those who favor either vinegar forward or sauces with lime.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 4
Flavor: 7
Flexibility: 7
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 7
Overall: 6
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