Alice Cooper Welcome To My Nightmare
Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNuV1za4Oeo
Vanity sauces are always kind of an interesting idea to me, vanity products in general, I guess I should say. Sometimes they turn out to be excellent, such as the Iron Maiden beers or the Eddie Ojeda sauces and sometimes it's clearly more marketing than anything else. Here, I vaguely remember seeing these as something that was designed and listed under the CaJohn's name, but the press release from Alice Cooper himself right around Halloween 2020 and most of the other listings since looks a lot like the intention is to make this an actual Alice Cooper nameplate product separate from the other company entirely. The idea that Cooper took time out to devise and craft not only one sauce but an entire line of them is a bit much, though.
Indeed, the line, with monikers borrowed from various Cooper songs, seem to share profiles with a number of other CaJohn's sauce. This one, for instance, seems a lot like the CaJohn's Serrano Lime (or possibly the Small Batch Serrano) sauce. A lot of the verbiage I've seen from Cooper speaks a bit of ret-conning things to make it seems like he had a more active hand in it, and while I'm sure he was on hand for sampling, imagining Cooper slaving away over a stove is a few bridges too far for me.
I usually don't spend a lot of time with Serranos in sauces, but enjoy the pods quite a lot. One of the major problems I tend to have with green sauces is they are nearly always, invariably, excessively astringent for me and this one is no exception. That aspect tends to intrude on the chile flavor that never seems to be quite prominent enough and here, this comes off as more sour than anything else. The formulation may have changed somewhat (I've seen different listings, which is something I find really annoying and have seen somewhat more frequently than I'd like from various manufacturers), as mine lists a Serrano mash as the start, then more vinegar, then lime juice, then chili powder, rather than the other two peppers I've seen in other ingredient listings online. With all of that, it's not super surprising how this sauce reads. It's a bit of a shame, as it really dilutes the utility of this.
Serranos are not typically particular hot and this sauce isn't really, either. It does have a bit of a punch, but more in the line of just enough to let you know it's meant to be a hot sauce. The problem with that astringency is this is a sauce, with the garlic, chili powder, and cumin, that is clearly angling itself at the Mexican style cuisine. However, with its heavy doses of garlic, it rather constrains what it will meld with. On tacos, for instance, even chicken tacos, the sourness is overpowering. I'd much rather have the chile flavor be more prominent as Serranos are a pretty good tasting pepper. This does a lot better when it's the main flavor and can just serve to flavor what's there, so things like carnitas and lighter meats solo, it does mostly ok.
Bottom line: I realize the Cooper team wanted to use his more famous song titles (and lyrics), but the Nightmare here is a bit more of the flavor profile side than on anything else.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 1
Flavor: 3
Flexibility: 3
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 2
Overall: 2
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