Hot Lady Sting
Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6CyZceIhek
Sauces from Amazon are always a mixed bag. I don't generally shop for those there unless I need a fill-in to get up to free shipping and can't find anything else, but sometimes you'll get sauces that are pretty solid and sometimes you'll wind up with ones like this, which are...a bit wanting. It's a little difficult to get a read on what they're trying to do, but the Hot Lady company has some veteran tie-ins, which we're seeing a lot more of and I suppose is perhaps a natural fit for spicy food. The label is pretty slick, as is the website, on which there's a section on the website called "The Legend," in which some lore (Hot Lady is the symbol of courage for all people, I guess?) and stabs at mystery are attempted, such as the super secret facility growing the peppers used in this sauce. All that stuff is kind of fun, but they're careful to avoid specifying which peppers are used, which is another trend we're seeing, but one I find far more annoying. That trend is trying to walk a fine line between FDA violation and keeping the recipe secret, presumably so no one reverse engineers it and steals it to release as their own sauce or just makes it at home and doesn't buy it.
The company also has an odd slogan,"Pepper Up My Friends [sic]," which, given the lack of grammar in the wording, could meant to chase after the author's friends with a pepper grinder in the hopes of dusting them with it. There are two variations to the sauce, both with identical ingredients panels. Naturally, I chose the hotter of the two, which was the Sting, though I strongly suspected there would be little heat, as it struck me that the pepper used here is probably Jalapeno. This sauce, incidentally, is the official sauce of Major League Fishing, so there's that also.
I was half expecting, from the ingredient profile, more or less a sweeter version of a Cajun sauce, thick along those lines, but more what we have here is essentially a sweet sriracha attempt by way of a Louisiana-style. This means it's pretty runny (there is a restrictor cap). It also is highly bitter, which runs all over the cane sugar. For a sauce that continually claims to be the best-tasting sauce in the world, to be frank, it's not even the best sauce in my refrigerator door, let alone anywhere more expansive. My guess here is they were way too heavy with the powdered garlic, as despite that ingredient being listed last, it's rather dominant. No surprise there, a little of the powder goes a long way, though here the flavor is more that concentrated form. This could also be a factory error, as it seems a lot like this sauce is being produced for Hot Lady elsewhere. There are no emulsifiers listed, so the sauce is definitely subject to settling and you can get very different sauces, depending on agitation. Unfortunately, none of those sauces has been very good.
This is not to say they're exactly bad, either, just not particularly compelling on flavor, more a whiff than anything. This sauce works acceptably on pizza and chicken strips, but for the latter, I found myself wanting something else. I do like the concept here, but while we see a lot of marketing and hype, we see little execution, which, after decades of doing this, I can tell you absolutely is a correlation (see also, Frank's). It's possible they're using a Cayenne or possibly different types, this reads to me a lot more like the red Jalapenos used normally in sriracha. There is a bit of a spark here, but heat overall is pretty nominal.
Bottom line: This is not a sauce made for me or any other chilehead and/or foodie. Conceptually, it has some promise, but does not quite arrive at the station of the lofty heights it claims (repeatedly).
Breakdown:
Heat level: 1
Flavor: 4
Flexibility: 5
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 3
Overall: 3
No comments:
Post a Comment