Godzilla Force Of Nature
Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFDFTZ2nEtI
Ah, yes, now this is the sort of thing I was more expecting from a novelty sauce. Unlike the Retsuko Rage (reviewed elsewhere here), which was surprisingly excellent, this one, while I will stop short of saying they threw just anything into a bottle and slapped a label on it, is more in line with that idea of selling on the name value of Godzilla rather than the sauce. Indeed, this is a sauce I have a lot of trouble understanding. Much of it has has to do with Godzilla being a very Japanese character and this sauce having a lot of components, such as cumin, that have zero place in Japanese cuisine or culture. One could almost make the case that many ingredients are outright antithetical to that land.
Consider: much, perhaps the majority, of Japanese food is predicated on a heavy reliance of clean flavors, of embracing the subtleties of the various ingredients. Contrast with say Mexican food, which tends to favor more heavy, big bold flavors. The sauces for each, accordingly, needs to match that type of food, which is why the Mexican sauces need to stand up to those flavors and the Japanese sauces more to accent food, in keeping with the theme.
So, my confusion thereby comes when we have a sauce which has Chipotle and cumin, two spices a strong part of Mexican cuisine, but which have nothing to do with Japan. In many respects, this is more or less a Mexican-style sauce, albeit a rather vinegary one, given that they appear to have started out with a Cayenne-based Louisiana-style sauce, but for a very intrinsically iconic Japanese character. Perhaps they were angling for the big, bold nature of an infamously huge monster itself...or maybe we're full circle back to the idea of throwing just anything in a bottle and slapping a Toho-licensed label on it.
This is not to say it's a bad sauce. Baffling, somewhat, sure, but not outright bad. Let's consider still further what images we may conjure to mind when we hear Godzilla. What comes to mind for me is a picture of a skyscraper-sized bipedal dark green tyrannosaurus rex, heavily modified to reduce the head size and to have atomic breath, along with triple rows of back spikes and scaled skin. The atomic breath is frequently portrayed as fiery in nature, which is perhaps the one thing that is universal when calling to mind Godzilla. So, one might expect that this will be a particularly punishingly punchy sauce, but if so, one, as I was, would be wrong. The hottest pepper here, the vaunted Ghostie, doesn't show up until midway through the ingredient list, after both Cayenne and Chipotle. This is a quite tame sauce, belying the "force of nature" part of this sauce name, which conjures images of, at minimum, rather intense and frequently violent natural weather events. I can't imagine anyone who attempts to consume this sauce, rather than parking it on a shelf somewhere in a Godzilla shrine, being challenged by it.
Peculiarities aside, what do we have here? While I did not call it a bad sauce, neither do I call it a good one. The idea of beginning with a very vinegar forward Cayenne sauce is...a decision, I guess, but using Chipotle, garlic, and cumin, will tend to lead to a very specific culinary direction, that being Mexican, which does not rely heavily on vinegar. This drifts and meanders into an odd no man's land that is perhaps more towards the Mexican side of things in terms of flavors. We also have some smoked salt and the aforementioned Ghosties in there, to lend a touch of smokiness to things, but we have overall competing tones. One is a strong lean towards the Louisiana-style and the other towards a more Mexican-style tone and thus, a conflict.
Here's the thing with Mexican foods, for me. If you use ingredients typical to that cuisine, if you step over that line, you can't go back and that's what that sauce is. This one does that but does not seem to readily embrace that world, fully. In terms of sauce flavoring perspective, this is a shame, because this could have made a pretty solid Mexican-style sauce. As it is, with the running battle between that and the Louisiana-style nature, we have an overly astringent Mexican-style sauce, which is not great. It also does not really function at all outside of that cuisine style, either, I will note.
Bottom line: Very definitely a quintessential novelty sauce, with all that entails. This strikes me as more an attempt at selling branded merchandise than trying to make a good sauce. It's more strange than either good or bad, not really fitting into any particular flavor world or style.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 1
Flavor: 4
Flexibility: 3
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 2
Overall: 3
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