Hell's Kitchen Black Forest Hot Sauce Review

Hell's Kitchen Black Forest

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9XdihgJb5U

I had some misgivings prior to jumping into this one. For starters, I'm not generally a fan of cherry, black or otherwise, which seems to be the main fruit featured here. Balsamic is probably my second lest favorite vinegar, which didn't bode super well, especially given that I've found the other Hell's Kitchen sauces I've done to be somewhat of a mixed bag. Still, price on this was nice and it did feature Ghost peppers, still probably my favorite superhot, so, in the name of keeping an open mind, I went forward. Once I got around to opening was when I discovered it also had apple cider vinegar, my least favorite form of that.

To be clear, neither of those vinegars, nor the black cherry, play much of a part in my general dislike of this sauce. Rather, it is the prominence of the sage. Putting herbs in sauces is something that I find to have uneven, at best, results, and largely unfavorable ones. Too little and it may as well not be there at all, but too much and it completely overrides everything else in it, which is kind of what we have here. Sage, which is the herb in question, is very pungent and a little goes a long way. Despite it being the last ingredient here, it is definitely one of the more dominant aspects of this sauce.

Had that been toned down somewhat, this would have been a surprisingly good sauce, I think. The cherry reads less as distinctively that and more as a general berry sweetness, while the Ghosties in there bring a nice heat and flavor to things. The balsamic is definitely stronger in taste profile than the apple cider, but neither is particularly obtrusive, though admittedly, it would be tough for that to be the case with the sage roaring to the fore. The instructions are to shake well and that I can definitely verify. At times, this will be a solid sauce, pleasant enough, if a bit underwhelming, until that sage hit comes in and blows everything else out of the way. Even agitating it fiercely, to spread the sage out a bit, only helps to an extent. This sauce I found rather a challenge to use because of that.

Heat-wise, there are definitely moments when it's clear that a superhot resides in this formula and it gives off a characteristic bit of a bracing heat charge. There are too few of those moments, for my taste, but when they show up, they're pretty nice. The pairings seem to be mostly for unadorned meat (and beer), which I'd tend to agree with, as this sauce does not play nice with other elements, unless you really like sage, I guess. Maybe if you imbibe enough beer, it will improve perception...I may have to just test that.

Bottom line: Another less than stellar entry from Hell's Kitchen and another sauce with herbaceous notes way too forward in the mix. If you really like your cherry and Ghosties with sage, or just like the sage flavor a lot, it's worth a shot. 

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 2
            Flavor: 3
            Flexibility: 2
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 1

Overall: 2