Scoville Brothers Reggae
Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cynSFFdzy0c
I didn't notice that this was actually named Reggae, due to some horrendous label design. I actually thought it was just Scoville Brothers and they made one sauce only when I picked it up. This is also not related to the YouTube resident chilehead madman Johnny Scoville, at least not that I've been able to discern. My interest in this was primarily due to the Scotch Bonnet peppers, which is one of those that I've always found to be one of the better-flavored out there and certainly in my favorites list. I suppose I could find it incongruous, given my conflicted relationship with Habaneros and how closely they're related, but Scotch Bonnet have always stood apart for me and it's another pepper I don't see used in sauces as often as I'd like. Here, it is paired with mango, which, as has been noted elsewhere on this blog, can be a dangerous ingredient. However, when done right, such as on the Private Selection Mango Scotch Bonnet (reviewed elsewhere here), the results can be almost magical.
Right off the bat, it's pretty clear that they're going for a complete different tact than some of the other entries. This is not at all a thicker, slower-moving sauce, quite the contrary. It is instead a rather watery sauce, on par with something more akin to a Louisiana-style, which is an approach I found intriguing. Fruit-based sweet hots have a lot of potential uses, but one of the reasons I suspect they're so thick is to hold to food in a way to accommodate usage. When you go watery, one of the inevitable repercussions of that choice is that it dials down flexibility. The more inconvenient a sauce is to use, the less well it works with a wider range and also the less likely it is to be used. Take pizza, for instance. Fruit-based sweet hots, particularly tropical fruit-oriented ones, play very well on pizzas...at least those with red sauces. If you have a watery sauce, though, what happens is it will tend to not hold to the surface and run off and then sog the crust. While sogging the crust, to a degree, is ok for things like breaded meats (fish, chicken, etc.), it is much less ok with pizza.
Another deviation of sorts is that the sweetness of the mango. Here, they're trying to straddle the line between a more sour mango flavor, yet still have enough sweetness in there for that to resonate. It's a bit stunning that someone would attempt this at all, let alone pull it off as well as it's done here. To be clear, it still tends notably towards the sour side of that equation, particularly with the astringent vinegar hit, but the flavor of mango also shines through well. It's a pretty neat trick and makes me suspect they may be skilled sauce makers (as it turns out, they do other sauces also). The flavor profile is angling, more or less, towards a fruity Caribbean (those sauces are often similar to Cajun, which itself is a take-off of Louisiana-style, hence the watery nature) vibe, so a lot of those associated spices show up as well here, though they are not listed out specifically.
Heat-wise, because it's a Scotch Bonnet as the heat driver, it's moderate at best. There is a solid degree of build to it, but the real star here is the interplay between the wonderful flavor of the Scotch Bonnet pepper, which they've captured exceedingly well, and the mangos, which do a nifty balancing act of being sweet enough to bring the mango flavor in that setting, while also retaining enough sourness to keep it from being an actual sweet sauce. It's honestly quite fascinating and this is a company I'll be looking for more from in future.
Bottom line: A very well-done Caribbean sauce that manages several flavor zones deftly, yet still makes the interplay of the mighty Scotch Bonnet and mango the star.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 2
Flavor: 9
Flexibility: 6
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 10
Overall: 7
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