Burns & McCoy Exhorresco
Note: This sauce appeared in Season 7 of The Hot Ones.
Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhdTSMQe9rQ
This is one I've had on the list for a while and I held off getting it, at first because it was (and still is) a pricey little number, but also it was in the #9 slot on the show and I try to be judicious about how many of the strongly superhot-oriented sauces I have open at once, since they take longer, typically, to work through. This was also out of stock for a time, once I was ready, so kind of a long road to finally get here...
"Exhorresco" is a Latin-derived word meaning to shudder or shake or quiver or tremble or be horrified or be terrified, be filled with dread, etc., so here we have a near perfect analogue in the label, with a one of the better takes on the head of the fabled Medusa I've seen. It is also a perfect way for us to kick off October and Halloween season. It is also well worth noting that Burns & McCoy continues to impress with the offerings I've had from them.
For a while, I thought this was another Reaper sauce, but once I discovered it was actually a 7-Pot Primo, my interest in moving it up rose several degrees. I love the Primos and was straining my memory prior to this review, trying to break my brain remembering if I've ever had a bad Primo sauce or even one I didn't particularly like. I'd have to check the archives to be sure (this is one of those times having the ability to sort these sauces by pepper type would be handy), but I certainly can't recall one.
Adding into this is the black garlic, a sort of trendy "darling" ingredient, but here, used to great effect. It is far more prominent here than in many of the other settings where it has appeared. There is also the fantastic addition of yuzu, which I almost never see in hot sauces and know mainly from Japanese cuisine. Those three ingredients, the Primo, the black garlic, and the yuzu, comprise most of the flavor notes here and frankly, this sauce is borderline genius. The black garlic works well for umami-heavy things, while the addition of the agave and citrus sort of temper things and add some truly wonderful grace notes. This is not a sauce that will work in every application, to be sure, but where it does, it is borderline heaven.
No small part of this is due to the Primos, which are a pepper I always get excited about seeing in sauces. Out of the gate, there is a burn, to be sure, but this, like Habaneros, is a very nicely building pepper. Unlike the Habaneros, this is definitely a superhot, so you can get quite a good degree of scorch going on as you keep eating and it can sneak up on you a bit as you continue indulging. When it is paired in such a delicious sauce as this, you can definitely find yourself with a good blaze, perhaps stronger than expected, which can be a very pleasant development indeed. This is one that is best kept for chileheads, though, unquestionably.
Bottom line: Another of the better sauces from The Hot Ones show, easily top 5, perhaps even top 3, to my sampling at this point, a great representation of both a 7-Pot Primo sauce and outstanding use of black garlic.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 5
Flavor: 10
Flexibility: 5
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 10
Overall: 8
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