It's that time of year again, yes, a major holiday, but also the time that Dat'l Do It and Wal-Mart get together to whip up some hot sauce collection packs...and when those later go on heavy discount clearance.
Before we get too far into this, the naming convention of this is kind of silly. Volcanic Eruption implies explosive heat and there is precious little heat to be had at all, across this entire set. As last time for one of these, there is a video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ni3sf8UKNUU). Also, like last time, three of the six sauces I tossed after filming, as they were bad sauces and as we like to say here, life is too short for bad sauces. Specifically, those were the Island Fire (Krakatoa/Indonesia) Jalapeno sauce, the Smolder & Smoke (Mt. Vesuvius/Italy) Smoky Bourbon, and the Green Wasabi (Mt. Fuji/Japan).
I should speak to the naming convention. We had a regular name, such as Island Fire Jalapeno, then a reference to a volcano, in this case, Krakatoa, then a region, Indonesia. Those appear to just be references for the label as they bear little to no relation to the sauces. The bottles are all of the 3 oz. variety, with a restrictor cap built in and I will say that all of the labels look really nice. Packaging overall is pretty good and I know it's cheesy, but I kind of dig the red foil wrapping paper thing behind the cutout over the volcano to simulate heat.
The other three worth keeping were the Hawaiian Heat (Kilauea/Hawaii) Garlic Herb, the Red Chili (Mt. Raupehu/New Zealand), and the Icelandic Ash (Katla/Iceland), that last one being the only outright good sauce and not only the best overall, but also the hottest. The sauces again were all very
vinegar-forward and we had basically variations on two styles - the red Louisiana-style Cayenne-based and a green highly astringent Jalapeno-based.
Sauce by sauce breakdown looks like this (in order of appearance, as pictured):
Red Chili (Mt. Raupehu/New Zealand) - this was your basic stab at a Louisiana-style sauce,
but it was fairly cheap-tasting. It is good enough for me to use entirely, but just barely and mostly because Louisiana-style and Cayenne are among my favorites.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 0
Flavor: 5
Flexibility: 5
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 6
Overall: 4
Island Fire Jalapeno (Kratatoa/Indonesia - Probably my least favorite of all the sauces, this one was nearly inedible, given how incredibly sour and astringent it was. Coloration is like split pea soup, which I'm not a fan of, but would drink gallons of instead of using this sauce. Binned directly after filming.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 0
Flavor: 0
Flexibility: 0
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 0
Overall: 0
Smolder & Smoke Smoky Bourbon (Mt. Vesuvius/Italy) - this is the sort of trend-jumper hot sauce, trying to capitalize on a trend that I see a lot of people attempting, but which I don't think has really caught on to the extent that people keep trying to make it happen, that being liquor in stuff, hot sauces in this case. Here, this is essentially the first sauce in this list, but we're not using actual liquor but a bourbon flavoring or extract. Like most of that type of thing, there is a flavor artificiality that carries through. This creates an off-flavor that ruins the otherwise ok sauce it's built on and which isn't awful, but I find kind of jarring and unpleasant enough not to warrant further experience.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 0
Flavor: 0
Flexibility: 0
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 0
Overall: 0
Hawaiian Heat Garlic Herb (Kilauea/Hawaii) - Another spin on the first sauce, here we have the addition of Habanero, garlic and some additional spice add-ins. None of those really contribute much in the way of flavor, though I suppose this is slightly closer to a Cajun than a Louisiana-style. Despite the Habanero, this is not notably hotter than the first sauce, either. Another solid enough to use.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 0
Flavor: 4
Flexibility: 5
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 6
Overall: 4
Green Wasabi (Mt. Fuji/Japan) - built on the back of the overly astringent Island Fire, this one adds in some artificial wasabi flavoring, which comes through rather mildly, but tames the abrasiveness of the former somewhat, making it much less offensive. It does not make it particularly good, however, as that fakeness of flavor is also translated here. Better than the other, but that's not saying much and ultimately not worth the bother.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 0
Flavor: 0
Flexibility: 0
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 0
Overall: 0
Icelandic Ash (Katla/Iceland) - easily the hottest of them all and a sauce that is outright good. It also is making me question the label, as this sauce has some actual heat to it, but there is nothing on the label to really indicate why that might be the case. It reads more as a vinegary Mexican-style sauce, somewhat reminiscent of Valentina or others along that line. Heat is still pretty minimal overall, but notably hotter. This is the only one I actually outright liked. As I mentioned in the initial posting, I did wind up trying this on Mexican food. It works abysmally as a tamale sauce, but hot sauces can be kind of hit and miss there. I also had it on a couple of soft tacos and while it was ok, I found it to be slightly more vinegary than my preference.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 1
Flavor: 8
Flexibility: 7
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 8
Overall: 6
Bottom line: This set is way better than the Brewer's Six Pack overall, but there is quite a bit less variety than in that other set. Again, here we have two basic sauces and everything is a variation on those, but for a fun little novelty buy, if you get it on clearance, it can be well worth the trip.
Cumulative Breakdown (Entire Set):
Heat level: 0
Flavor: 4
Flexibility: 4
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 5
Overall: 3
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