Hot Ones Classic and Last Dab Apollo Hot Sauce(s) Mini-Reviews

Hot Ones Boneless Chicken Bites Sauces

This package, along with a bunch of particle chicken sponge balls, also had the Heatonist-exclusive Hot Ones sauces you see pictured. The Los Calientes will not be reviewed at all, since it contains onions. The other two did not contain enough sauce for a full review, so I'm getting them in here. The Double Take Scotch Bonnet Mustard hot sauce that I subbed in for the Los Calientes (see video link) will get its own full review, which can be found via the Table Of Contents link to the right.

Support video for the two sauces listed below available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fTAd-8Er2U

Hot Ones The Classic Hot Sauce

Note: This sauce appears on Seasons 7 - 11, 14, 15, 17 of The Hot Ones

The lowest heat level of the Hot Ones sauces to be on the show, this one pairs apple cider vinegar with more vinegar, which makes for a quite astringent and somewhat sour sauce. The apple cider vinegar flavor tends to be the dominant one here, with echoes of garlic and turmeric intermittently. It is also a very runny, watery sauce and not one I'm too inclined to chase after in the future.

Hot Ones The Last Dab Apollo Hot Sauce

Note: This sauce appears on Seasons 13 - 21 of The Hot Ones.

The latest and greatest of the final hot sauce entries on the Hot Ones show, at least to this point, this one contains the Apollo pepper, with vinegar, Apollo pepper powder, and Apollo pepper distillate, which I'm taking as a pepper reduction rather than extract, though I readily admit I could be wrong on that stance. It is definitely a superhot and many of the superhot attributes are there. This one is hot initially, but has a build before it gets quite to blazing. The taste is rather bitter and slightly flowery, perhaps reminiscent of the Fatalii. While very hot and best avoided if not an experienced chilehead, it is not hammering me like the Reaper or high doses of extract have done in the past. This was a lot less worse than I was expecting. Most of the superhots are not good just by themselves and this one is no exception, which makes it less than likely that I will be repeating this sauce, either, though as far as sauces in the 10 slot on the show, this is probably my favorite so far.