Hank's The Linger Hot Sauce Review

Hank Sauce The Linger

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exSk4JLeRbk

Now this, THIS, is more what I was expecting from the Hank's Honey Habanero (reviewed elsewhere here), a nice, rich, creamy sauce that hits the flavor notes hard and well and makes you want to use it. This one doesn't have any sweetness per se, but uses the Italian Long Hots, a gorgeous pepper with some outstanding flavor. The "linger" in the name is in reference to the flavor, not the heat, of which there is decidedly not much to be found here. This, instead is one of the more savory sauces I've come across and probably my overall favorite of the Hank's line that I've had so far (see TOC to the right for a full list). 

Like Hank's Heat (also reviewed elsewhere here), it is a modified Louisiana-style Cayenne sauce, though here, it neatly skirts away from the Cajun stylings of the aforementioned Honey Habanero, and instead becomes far more of its own thing, referencing its antecedent of the Base, but forging its own flavor identity. The website describes it as a warm blanket fresh out the dryer, but for your tongue and that's both a really good description and one I identify with fully. No matter the ambient temperature at the time, there is nothing quite like getting something fresh out of dryer and putting it on. That feeling, that sensation, that je ne sais quoi, is fully present here with this sauce.

Usage would be anywhere you would use a Louisiana-style or Cajun sauce. The website suggests pasta, which is fine if it's a creamy sauce dish, but for a tomato sauce, I find it still a touch too vinegary, though I will also note that the vinegar is muted somewhat, so you could use it conceivably beyond where you want a high-powered astringent vinegar blast. Heat-wise, precious little. Italian Long Hots are like Shishitos in that a slightly spicy variant will show up randomly, but are not generally, as a rule, particularly hot, despite the name. Cayenne as the base is also a fairly low level pepper, so while there is a slight charge here, it is clearly not the focus of the sauce.

Bottom line: Maybe the best example I can think of regarding flavor before heat. Just an absolutely delicious sauce, that in a less competitive year, would be in Sauce Of The Year contention...

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 10
            Flexibility: 10
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 10

Overall: 8

Pex Peppers Purple Pulsar Hot Sauce Review

Pex Peppers Purple Pulsar

Note: This sauce was provided for purposes of review by Roger Damptz of Burn Your Tongue. Check him out on Facebook or, better yet, head on over to his new online outlet where you can shop the widest selection available anywhere, www.burnyourtongueonline.com.

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4PvzjflzTk

Ah, the alliteration. That and the name are of but many reasons to adore this sauce, which also features perhaps my favorite of the superhots, the venerable Ghost pepper. The temptation is to compare this to the Wildberry Whoopass (reviewed elsewhere here), so I will give in and do exactly that. Peppers are different, but the tone, a sweet-hot berry-flavored sauce, is the same. The Wildberry is definitely hotter of the two, but is also sweeter and, if memory serves, uses a different collective of berries. Here, we have just blueberries and strawberries and from which comes a bit of a dilemma. When both of those fruits, particularly the latter, are in full bloom, they can be among the sweetest and most delectable, but when not quite there, such as the strawberries do not seem to be, a bit of sourness is imparted. Here, the blueberries are quite nice, but there is a sour strawberry flavor sort of pervading things, not helped by the usage of Ghost mash and more vinegar, and not offset enough by the honey. The fruit flavors are definitely present and well-represented, but I wish there was more ripening of them.

As noted by the manufacturer, here we do have a sauce that works very well on meats. Blueberry, in particular, as I've noted repeatedly, works well on red meat, though this one is also equally adept at chicken. I find it a bit too sour to extend to pizza or other foods much beyond meats, however, though I should note most of the berry sauces don't really work there, either. I have tried it on desserts, such as pies and ice creams, something I'm wont to do more of these days (no, thank YOU Danger Berry - also reviewed elsewhere here), but, again, the sourness leaves things a bit wanting for me. 

Addressing the heat briefly here, Ghost peppers were the hottest superhot in the world for a while and they definitely can bring a punch, along with some excellent flavor, perhaps the reason I prefer them most. This one is rated 8/10 by Pex, which I definitely do not agree with (most of the time, I just halve the rating, sometimes more), as it's punchy out of the gate, but does not really go much beyond a low smolder for me. I would say, however, that non-chileheads will likely find this sauce overly hot to enjoy (which gets us into a discussion of why the rating system is for non-chileheads when they are not the ostensible market for this, but that's a discussion for another time, I suppose).

I've done a few of the Pex sauces and they seem to share a unity in me finding them overall favorable (all of them have FOH videos, which is not always the case for hot sauce makers), but also being a note or two off and away from what I would wish they were. I'll keep giving them a shot, though, as I definitely see the potential.

Bottom line: Solid entry into the sweet-hot berry category, though a touch skewed to the sour strawberry side. 

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 3
            Flavor: 5
            Flexibility: 4
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 8

Overall: 5

Humble House Ancho & Morita Hot Sauce Review

Humble House Ancho & Morita

Note: This sauce appears in Season 5 of The Hot Ones.

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34pPji7tnrM

Initially, this one caused me some confusion. On the label is the slogan, "not hot not sorry," which is fine to just have a tamarind sauce and roll with that, but it creates a conundrum for me. If you eliminate half of the words of "hot sauce," it leaves you with just a sauce and I've steadfastly refused to do anything not actual hot sauces on this blog (see the earliest posts for more info, if interested), including BBQ sauces, wing sauces, and mustards. Indeed, the last category sometimes gives me fits when manufacturers label something that is clearly a straightforward spicy mustard as a hot sauce. If you look through the nearly 350 (as of this writing) posts to this blog, you can see this pop up from time to time. Nowhere on this label do the words "hot sauce" appear together. We have "flavor first, heat second," which I can always get behind as I live that (and you can again check through the blog for many instances of me citing myself as a foodie first and chilehead second). Under the name of this sauce is the slogan "Smokey Tamarind Sauce." Indeed, in the ingredient list, Ancho, despite being the first word of the name, is dead last.

Ok, fine, if you want to make a tamarind sauce, roll with it. I'm good with that idea, though it probably isn't anything I'd be interested in especially, as I find tamarinds to be overly sour as a flavor most of the time. Having a sauce based around that is several steps too far. So, this left me a new question: should I shoot a video without a written review. The FOH series is mainly devised to support the blog, with the Hot Ones being perhaps the most famous mainstream tie-in. Did they use a non-hot sauce in one of the past seasons, which, if true, then means my understanding of the show is in complete. If that is the case, do I keep the integrity of the blog intact (yes) and isolate it alone as perhaps the only sauce on the show that winds up without a written review? In fact, I had planned to do just that very thing when I went to their website to conclude my research into things. On the website, it is listed as an actual hot sauce, which gave me the latitude to do this review. Also, this sauce wraps up Season 5 of The Hot Ones, which means I have now completed entirely 7 of the 17 seasons of the show.

They are very definitely correct when they say this is not hot. I will spare the questioning of calling a sauce a hot sauce if there is no heat, as examples abound in the Louisiana-style category (in fact, to give you an idea of the tameness, this was the lead sauce of that season, followed by the Louisiana Original (Mini-Review available elsewhere here) in the 2 slot. The main flavors here are largely the sour tamarind and the smokiness of the Morita, with a back roundness supplied by the garlic and Ancho. It definitely is a sauce more on the sour side overall, despite both raisins and sugar being additional ingredients. The bottle, nicely, is nearly 10 oz. and is set up to be a squeeze bottle, but they chose the plastic poorly here. While better than some of the other thicker, more opaque ones I've come across, it is not the softness of the Yellowbird bottles. I do like the cap system on this much, much better than the Yellowbird sauces and I suppose combining those would give one a best of both worlds. 

Despite the calls to Latin-inspired cuisine on the labeling and the presence of the Ancho and Morita, tamarind to me will always mean one thing first and sometimes only. That is Asian cuisine. It was in Asian foods and in Asian households that I first experienced it and that impression is locked in my mind, though I do know that it is a strong component in Mexican culture as well. I don't, however, find that overall this sauce leads me to Mexican-style dishes. Quite the contrary, in fact, it brings to mind more Asian dishes or Asian influenced ones, particularly the crazy sweet notes that are often found in Hawaiian food. That someone would put it out there for use on wings kind of amazes me, actually, as I never would have thought of this working well there (and I will find out how that goes for the Q2 2022 FOH Wing Thing, coming up at the end of Q2 2022). 

Bottom line: Much more of an accent sauce than an actual hot sauce, the smokiness and tamarind are mostly in balance, though the latter is stronger than the former. The sourness inherent here makes a strong case that this will work best where there is a strong sweet component to the food...unless you're heavily into sour.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 0
            Flavor: 3
            Flexibility: 3
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 3

Overall: 2

Silk City Erotic Fever Hot Sauce Review

Silk City Erotic Fever

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REM_qryEG44

Going back to back entries from the same sauce maker, a bit unusual, but like blue moons, wont to happen from time to time. Silk City is a company I've had my eyes on for a while and I find their sauces to always be interesting, and often delicious. I won't be surprised if they find their way into my running list of favorite hot sauce companies (current list available in the SOTY list to the right). I really admire both the switch to flasks, as well as the flat pricing of $10/bottle for those. This nearly always puts their stuff towards the highest possible marks for enjoyment to dollar.

 Like many, many other sauces, I don't really understanding the labeling of this one (and the confused text on the back label doesn't help much). Importing Eros into zombie-ism, which is rooted in rot and decay, is an odd choice, but one we've seen in comics, movies, and tv shows, so even if I find the concept outlandish, there is certainly precedence. Here, the reference is apparently to Toking With The Dead, which is, from my understanding, a comic book, so another pop culture reference by Silk City, which overall, the calling of attention to their various tributes and influences, I find a very cool thing of them to do.

This is a sauce I've had on the hot list (which is a list I keep of sauces I want to get to on a future haul shopping trip) for quite some time and once I got it, was eagerly anticipating getting into it. I tried to hold off, so as not to have too many open bottles at once, but once I got into this one, it quickly vaulted to another of my favorite sauces for this year. It is a dynamic combination of some of my favorite flavors and elements and creates a beautiful, yet original, sauce.

It starts with roasted red peppers, one of my very favorite things, then goes to fire-roasted Habaneros and I'm sold immediately. From there, we have carrots, garlic, maple syrup, and salt. I get leery when I see maple syrup, as it's a pretty distinctive taste and not always a welcome one for me in sauces, but here, in combination with the carrots and red peppers, it imparts a more general overall sweetness and roundness of tone rather than the breakfast syrup aspect. Garlic doesn't really show up here, other than as an element of umami, as this sauce comes together as more a cohesive whole greater than the sum of its parts. It is a quite brilliant trick as if you want to isolate the carrots and can focus your taste enough, they're there, but unless you intentionally try to pick them out, it does a beautiful job of just incorporating them in the overall flavor.

The heat here is pretty moderate, given the Habanero, but it is definitely present and has a very nice build to it. The selection of ingredients here is also quite clever. In the choices made, we have here a sauce that is incredibly flexible. I've eaten it in a number of cuisine styles and, aside from maybe beef tacos and burritos, it has done exceedingly well. If you like sweet-hots, this is absolutely one to have on the radar.

Bottom line: Yet another entry in an increasingly long line of excellent sauces from one of the more interesting companies out there. Maybe pushing the limits of non-chileheads a bit, but is an excellent sweet-hot.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 2
            Flavor: 10
            Flexibility: 10
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 10

Overall: 8

Silk City Ram Skull Hot Sauce Review

Silk City Ram Skull Blueberry Torch

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-ClIE1sYJg

I believe this is the first time this blog has ever seen a kinda sorta pre-release sauce, as I've not found this for actual sale anywhere online quite yet, and this particular sauce bottle does not contain a back ingredient label. It does have a nifty front label I find a bit confusion, as I don't understand what the name is meant to signify or its relation to either the contents or the character on the front, who is this cool-looking skeletal fella that gives me Skeletor vibes.

I  happen to have the ingredients (though not the order), which are blueberries, strawberries, apples, green Habanero, and apple cider vinegar. Though this sauce is very loose and runny, borderline watery, there is not the apple cider flavor that I dislike coming through prominently or at all. Instead, it is much more of a blueberry-forward concoction, though the flavoring is rather subtle and a bit on the light side.

When eating it, I get hints of apple and apple is a steady companion to both the blueberry and strawberry elements. It does take a bit of eating for this sauce to heat up, but there is not really a very strong Habanero presence in either flavor or particularly in heat. This indeed is somewhat of an unusual sauce in that I'm not quite clear of the intent. I find myself wishing that it had been reduced somewhat so as to be less runny, as it can be a bit of a challenge to use, not that it's preventing me from trying. I find it works best on lighter meats, particularly chicken, though I do plan to try grilling with it as well once it finally warms up enough to do that. I could see this potentially being nice on pork as well. 

As it is, I don't find this a hugely flexible sauce. It notably clashed with the ice cream I tried it on and it was there that the vinegar asserted itself unhelpfully. I do think this would also possibly work well in drinks, with lemonade being something I may consider trying. I do quite like the flavor and enjoy eating it, just overall wish it was a lot less loose than it is. I don't see a price tag on the front label, but if it follows the usual pattern of Silk City and goes $10/flask, it will be another good proposition as a buy.

Bottom line: Very watery, but excellently flavored and somewhat unique sauce that is definitely worth a  look.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 10
            Flexibility: 2
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 8

Overall: 5

Tonguespank Pineapple Mango Moonshine Hot Sauce Review

Tonguespank Pineapple Mango Moonshine

Note: This sauce was provided for purposes of review by Roger Damptz of Burn Your Tongue. Check out BYT on Facebook or, better yet, head on over to his new online outlet where you can shop the widest selection available anywhere, www.burnyourtongue.com.

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYSn_Cnw0v8

The last Tonguespank sauce I had, the discontinued Scotch Whiskey Trinidad Scorpion (reviewed elsewhere here) was a contender for Sauce Of The Year and I've been lately really primed, ready, and in the mood for a nice fruit-based sweet hot sauce, although I also readily admit that is now shifting somewhat since grill season is right around the corner. Still, I was excited as soon as I stumbled across it on Roger's BYT Facebook feed and as soon as I heard it was released and stocked, a trip to the hallowed shelves could not be far behind.

With anticipation that high, I admittedly got nervous that it would not live up to expectations, which, I admit, were lofty. Not merely content to have a Pineapple-Habanero or a Mango-Habanero, here they had both, combined in one sauce, which would be a best of both worlds situation, but, as easily, be a worst of both worlds. Their choice of liquor, in keeping with the company's theme, was a smart one, as moonshine tends not to impart a lot of actual flavor to things. My expectations were along the lines of most fruit-based sauces, somewhat thick and a bit chunky, with lots of fruit bits and an overall sweet flavor. 

I must say that in most of the respects of the prior sentence, this sauce did not quite resemble those thoughts. The flavor was a bit mango-forward, but rather subtle overall, and runny, closer to a fruit juice than the usual sweet-hot consistency I was expecting. This particular part makes using it a bit of a chore, as it likes to run off various foods and pool under it. The flavor is also subtle enough that it is hard to get it to a level enough to interact with any of the stronger-flavored foods. I found myself repeatedly wishing it was less runny. 

Heat here is very moderate, with no trace of a raw alcohol flavor nor that really of either vinegar or Habanero. Despite pineapple being the first ingredient in the name, it is not quite as present in the flavor profile as is the mango. Having typed all that out, though, I will say this sauce is absolutely delicious, with a simply stellar flavor, even if it perhaps makes a better beverage addition than what we might think of as a regular hot sauce. 

Bottom line: Very, very fruit-forward sauce with more emphasis on the mango, but a spectacular flavor, with a slight heat finish. I find it a bit too watery to use in a lot of applications, but YMMV.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 10
            Flexibility: 4
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 10

Overall: 6

Hellfire Hellboy Legendary AF Hot Sauce Review

Hellfire Hellboy Legendary AF 

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

This is one I mentioned in my Q1 2K22 update as being from 2020 that I had not yet gotten around to doing. The movie (and I believe the sauce itself) came out in 2019, but this sauce still has a page on the Hellfire website, so I presume it is still being produced. To be honest, if it isn't, it's definitely a shame. 

I think I might have come across this on one of Roger's clearance shelves and though I've found Hellfire's stuff to be a bit hit and miss overall, as a non-extract, non-onion sauce, this one definitely had my attention, especially at that price, and no way I wasn't going to pull the trigger. I think there may have been a couple bottles and I now wish I would have gotten both. It wasn't, however, high on my list of sauces of excitement (which is what I sort of call my loose shopping list that I keep pretty regularly updated and from which I use when I get ready to do one of my hauls, which are usually somewhere between 1 dozen to 2 dozen sauces), so I put it on the shelf and it slowly got cycled towards the back and I honestly kind of forgot I had it.

So, I wound up waiting a bit longer for something that is both truly enjoyable and truly remarkable. The pepper mix here starts with Red Habanero mash, which is my favorite form of those, then Ghost mash, then Scorpion mash, then 7 Pot Primo mash, which is then aided and abetted by sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, and cumin. This winds up as a fairly unami-heavy sauce, with a depth and richness that is simply stunning. This is easily one of the tastier sauces I've had in recent years and clearly, I was doing myself a disservice not getting to it sooner. 

Adding in sun-dried tomatoes or tomato paste, any of that more concentrated tomato form, is something that very nicely moves any sauce into a much higher versatility range. This one I tested on Ukrainian, Italian, Mexican, and American foods of various types and it worked well in all of them, meshing and blending in nicely and adding in a most wonderful little sunburst of heat. The heat, obviously with all the superhots, is definitely present, but this has a solid up-front punch and then builds, but is not a punch you in the mush type heat. I will say that it is probably best left to chileheads, though.

I get a bit nervous with what I call vanity sauces, either celebrity-endorsed, or, in this case, a movie tie-in (in retrospect, this sauce seems to have been more successful than the movie), as often those are junk with more time and care spent on the label than what's inside the bottle, but definitely not the case here. This is an absolute marvel of a sauce and not only one of the better vanity sauces I've had, but also, by far, the sauce I would say is the best I've had from Hellfire and it now takes the frontrunner status for Sauce Of The Year 2022.

Bottom line: If you can still find this anywhere, get it. It is one of those rare beautiful concoctions that comes along, where you love it from the start and only love it more as you progress. 

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 4
            Flavor: 10
            Flexibility: 10
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 10

Overall: 9

Dawson's Original Hot Sauce Review

Dawson's Original

Note: This sauce appeared on Season 5 of The Hot Ones.

Note: Video support available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlvUPjCxcRg

This was a find that I happened across stumbling randomly around a store I visit very seldom. Of course, it was on my list as one of the non-onion sauces from The Hot Ones show, but the bottle itself was intriguing, with a sort of running wax down the cap and neck ala Maker's Mark bourbon. I don't know if that was the intended reference, the hot sauce also had a brand stamped into the wax right on the cap, but it was a neat effect. I though it was wax on top of a heat shrink label, but the bottle was sealed by the wax only...which was a bit curious.The sauce inside was this deep, rich red color and I was immediately excited about the prospect of it being a solid everyday-type sauce.

Alas, while it was not that, it was an intriguing sauce, one that took me a bit to get a handle on the flavor profile. After trying it out repeatedly on various of the "usual suspect" type foods, including the breakfast burritos where I most use an everyday sauce, it struck me that the reason it wasn't working was because it resembled mostly the El Yucateco Red Habanero sauce (also from Hot Ones [Seasons 2 & 3], also reviewed elsewhere here), in a much sweeter format. Once I sort of latched onto that, it became a bit easier to place, though it is not quite as simple as just that. It definitely does work more nicely with more Mexican-style foods, as long as you also like a bit of sweetness with it. I didn't know I did, actually, until I started to place this sauce there for testing.

Much like that other sauce, the heat here flares almost immediately and then drops off. The flavor is very Habanero forward, again like the other, but here, there is a bit more smoothing out with the addition of olive oil and garlic. The sweetness of the sugar melds nicely with the peppers and garlic to create something not just like a blast of red Habanero out of the gate, but indeed, that is the dominant flavor. I wouldn't call it one note so much as one instrument is far stronger in this particular symphony. The heat level is also fairly low overall, once that initial blast, again like the aforementioned sauce. It mystifies me exactly how this was placed above the Adoboloco Hamajang (also reviewed elsewhere here) on the Hot Ones show, as that sauce is considerably hotter. If anything, they should have switched and this been in the 4 slot and the other in the 7 rather than the inverse...

Bottom line: Another fairly solid entry in the Hot Ones sauces. As long as you like the flavor of either red Habaneros or the El Yucateco Red, this will be a winner.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 2
            Flavor: 7
            Flexibility: 6
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 6

Overall: 5

Double Take Scotch Bonnet Mustard Hot Sauce Review

Double Take Scotch Bonnet Mustard Hot Sauce

Note: This sauce appeared on Season 11 of The Hot Ones.

Note:  Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fTAd-8Er2U

Getting in a lot more mustards this year than I planned, even the ones positioning themselves as hot sauces. In the case of the Z's (reviewed here elsewhere), I think it was more misbranding of what is at heart a spicy mustard. For this one, however, it's a lot closer to the line, to the point where I find that, while it could go either way and there is a very hearty mustard component, this is enough hot sauce to fit neatly into that category as well. As an actual mustard, this one brings a lot more heat than one might normally expect to find in even a spicy mustard and I'm not sure if they used actual Scotch Bonnet peppers or a derivative, such as powder, but there is enough accompanying bitterness that I kind of thing it's the latter. It may be overly hot, in fact, for usage as a straight mustard, which tends to be used as a complement a lot of the time.

The start is here with deli mustard, which tend to be more towards dijon. though this one is noted as a yellow deli mustard. So, we already have a degree of bitterness to start with at the base. Scotch Bonnets are one of my favorite peppers and one I do not seem to come across often enough in sauces, but, in the wrong hands, this has capacity to be a truly awful-tasting pepper. It is thankfully rare that I come across this, and certainly not the case here, but when the heat comes on, a bit delayed, it comes on with a powerful degree of bitterness and very little of the actual Scotch Bonnet flavor. There is brown sugar in there, to sort of smooth things out a bit, but it is a flavor note a bit lower key than it should be. I wish there had been either more of it or perhaps paired with a honey, which would have tempered the bitterness somewhat while still retaining the heat charge.

As far as hot mustards go, this is probably among the hottest I've come across. In that respect, it definitely belongs as a hot sauce, but with such a strong heat component, much more of a natural fit for hot sauces. Because mustard is so prominent, though, it does limit the usage somewhat more than general hot sauces. I would not use it on pizza or mac & cheese, for instance, though things like chicken, in nearly all forms, including strips (though using it here makes me really wish it was sweeter), burgers, sandwiches, hot dogs/sausages (where I would generally not use too many hot sauces) work well with it. I have yet to try it in more mustard-specific settings, such as egg salad or potato salad, but if there is still some left, once I get closer to that point, I undoubtedly will. Another very solid Hot Ones show sauce and my first experience with Double Take, a sauce company that states they put flavor before heat. That philosophy is right up my alley, even if this sauce didn't quite live up to that for me, and I'm excited to try more of their stuff.

Bottom line: Delicately straddling the line between mustard and hot sauce, it's at least somewhat functional in both worlds. Smooth, but packing a very solid punch, this one may be best left to chileheads. 

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 3
            Flavor: 7
            Flexibility: 6
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 6

Overall: 6