Angry Goat Red Armadillo Hot Sauce Review

Angry Goat Red Armadillo

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6750K5bG80

So we have here, as they say, another banger from Angry Goat. This one, along the lines of Sweaty Beaver (reviewed elsewhere here), is in the Mexican-style/Southwestern flavoring vibe. We've got the usual suspects you might find in your favorite taco sauce, with chile powder, cumin, and granulated garlic, but additionally, there's the sweet loving kiss of the pure Vermont maple syrup that Angry Goat likes to use as well. For a heat driver, there's Habanero powder, but it's pretty far back in the mix, which makes this a rather tame sauce.

This is clearly intended to be more of a flavor push and in that regard, it does very nicely, in particular with pork. Pork tends to have a bit of natural saltiness, which lends itself well to sweetness, which this sauce has in abundance, though stopping just short of something like the level of a sweet-hot, so there's a very natural fit with that meat. I rather enjoyed tinkering around with different Mexican dishes and it has a nice robustness to the flavor, a sort of rich depth, along with a mouth feel on the thicker side, reminding me a touch of a mole. It worked extremely well in that setting, but my favorite was probably my vaunted breakfast burritos. I liked it there so well that though I tried it in other places, that was fairly limited as I specifically wanted to reserve it just for that.

While this is an utterly delicious sauce, it is, as noted, tending on the sweet side, which may be off-putting a bit for some people who prefer their Mexican-style sauces to not have that characteristic. I'm probably one of them, but I found this such a refreshing change of pace that I was quite happy to have it there. I do have the very slight and minor complaint that I wish they chose a different vinegar other than apple cider and I could have done with it being somewhat hotter than it was, but certainly not enough to dissuade me from enjoying it immensely.

Bottom line:  Another innovative sauce from Angry Goat, this time in the fairly well-established field of Mexican style sauces. The attention to flavor and the sweetness definitely make this stand out among those.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 10
            Flexibility: 4
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 10

Overall: 6

Jersey Barnfire Apples & Spice Hot Sauce Review

Jersey Barnfire Apples & Spice

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHQXI_T0c-8

I don't love the name of this sauce...in fact, despite it having one of my favorite superhots, the vaunted 7-Pot Primo, I consistently passed it over in favor of other sauces because it just didn't strike me. The phrase "apples & spice" reminds me of an air freshener. Or a candle. Maybe a coffee drink of some kind. But not really a hot sauce, per se, dessert sauce, sure, but those are honestly, despite me loving sweet-hot sauces generally, of relatively little interest to me when I'm perusing shelves of sauces. 

After finally rolling around to this sauce, I was pleasantly surprised to see those Primos, as I hadn't noted it before when I was looking at the various sauces. Indeed, when I added this one to the list, it was largely because of an ingredient it didn't have, namely onions. I really like a number of the Jersey Barnfire sauces and when I find a company who makes products that resonate with me, I like to go through their entire catalog. This is, I believe, one of the few I had left from Jersey Barnfire to discover and enjoy (check the TOC for the rest of them, if interested).

Right, with that out of the way not, let's get into this. The very first flavor note I got from this was a sort of toffee/dutch apple pie crumble vibe and this because the brown sugar and apples are very prominent in the flavoring, and in that order. There are quite a few bits and pieces of pepper in here, but the heat is very low. This is quite a tame sauce. It is also slightly runnier than I expected, yet is a very nice medium consistency, which makes it flow smoothly and be distributed evenly. It also sticks extremely well to food. 

It is unquestionably a sweet sauce and a highly enjoyable one. It's yet another in the Jersey Barnfire line that I have to keep trying to throttle myself back, as there are a lot of foods I want to try this on (such as on the grill). I don't find apples and pizza a good mix and this is far too sweet to be of use in cream-sauce dishes, but it is fantastic on the lighter colored meats, easily one of the best sauces I've had ever. I suspect it will make an excellent grill sauce and it is superb as a dessert sauce, which I would say this is more than anything else. 

Bottom line: Yet another outstanding offering from Jersey Barnfire, one of the more exciting companies out there. It is definitely very sweet and clearly a dessert sauce, but never to an overbearing or cloying effect. If you like apples and/or brown sugar at all, you will undoubtedly find this delicious and quite accessible.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 10
            Flexibility: 6
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 10

Overall: 7

Infinity Sauces Ghost Fuck Yourself Hot Sauce Review

Infinity Sauces Ghost Fuck Yourself

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

Anyone who knows me know that there is no possibility I could resist a sauce with a name like this, at least to check it out. Obviously, I did and finding no onions, I picked up a bottle, to see what this was all about. Often, companies choosing risque or, in this case, perhaps outright profane, names can move things into more of a novelty vibe, but that is definitely not the case here. The name is intended as an homage/call back to some punk rock, which definitely fits, but looking around the site a bit, it seems this company is quite devoted to making high end, delicious, quality sauces.

This particular one is described as a stripped down version of their Ghost Monkey (which I have not had, as of the time of this posting - I don't know if I will get it or not, though, as this website irritatingly does not include ingredients of the various sauces), by which I'm taking it to mean that a lot of the components of the other sauce are absent here. This one seems to be higher in Ghosties, both fresh and dried, than the other. In terms of flavor, this definitely comes across as a sauce based on powder, or at least heavily predicated on it. I don't personally believe this to be a negative, as I think you can craft some fabulous stuff with that. My interest is nearly always in the end result and here, it's pretty excellent.

One of the better parts of using powders for flavoring is that there becomes a more general pepper sense to the sauce. While this might not always result in it being as heavily pepper-flavored as it could be, it nearly always tends to increase the flexibility, which is definitely the case here. This sauce is as at home on strips or pizza or breakfast burritos or burgers or mac & cheese or anywhere you might use a Louisiana-style sauce, for instance, as it is on Mexican food, an attribute that very few sauces can claim. The specific spices used in this are not delineated, but my impression was that they tended a bit more towards the Mexican-style side of things, which it works well on, even if a tad slightly vinegary. 

This is not to say it's a sauce that will demand it be the flavor focus. It definitely works much better accompanying things than being the star and given the heat, which I'd say belongs in the chilehead only rarified air, it's probably not something you'd necessarily want to oversauce with. It rather nicely ascends to a pretty solid heat level and hovers there, sustaining a very nice burn long after the eating is actually done. This is my first sauce from Infinity and I must say, it was quite an impressive debut.

Bottom line: While perhaps a touch too vinegary for a table sauce, and definitely too hot for non-chileheads, this is a very well-done and highly flexible sauce featuring the somewhat overlooked but still fantastic Ghost pepper.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 3
            Flavor: 8
            Flexibility: 10
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 8

Overall: 7

Hot N Saucy Garlic N Pepperoncini Hot Sauce Review

Hot N Saucy Garlic N Pepperoncini

Note: This sauce appears on Season 14 of The Hot Ones.

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5sW7vCDQ0Y

Pepperoncinis are another of those peppers that aficionados that prefer the pickled varieties will certainly be familiar with...or anyone who's familiar with a Greek or perhaps an Italian deli...or who has ordered a Papa John's pizza. For me, I've not ever found these to be particularly good and rather overrated, mostly delivering a huge pepper-flavored vinegar hit when bitten into and little else. The thin-walled texture I find unsatisfying, while the flavor is often bitter, but rarely there will be a bit of sweetness and even more rarely, a bit of heat, in that regard a somewhat like the much better Shishitos. So, I came into this expecting this sauce to be a complete throwaway that I planned to do mainly for coverage of the sauces on The Hot Ones show.

There are a few interesting things to note about this sauce. In the first place, this bottle was full right up to the cap, which is something I almost never see. I don't know where the actual 5 oz. mark is, in terms of volume, for the 5 oz. glass bottles, but I've lost count of how many sauces don't fill the bottle into the neck at all, let alone up to the cap. The second is the color of this sauce, which is this kind of pea soup green miasma, though it somehow winds up not unappetizing. The third is that Hot N Saucy appears to be a kind of boutique label with all of the sauces featuring the lone capital N in the middle, which is a sort of unique way of going to market, I guess. Lastly, this is yet another that really pushed the boundaries of whether something can, or more to the point, should be called a hot sauce if there is no heat.

This was the sauce in the 2 slot for Season 14, coming in behind The Hot Ones Classic, which is not a hot sauce, but here, it winds up being a decrease comparatively, even though that sauce uses the rather tame Arbol. There is no heat at all to be had here. More what we have is a very sweet garlicky and very vaguely pepper-ish sauce. Pepperoncinis are not peppers I find to have a particularly strong flavor profile and here, despite them being the lead-off ingredient, the main taste sensations are definitely sweet, followed to a lesser degree (and more in terms of aftertaste) by garlic, which is the last ingredient in the list. There is a Pepperoncini flavor here, to be clear, but it definitely takes a back seat.

One of the reasons I rarely bother with Pepperoncinis is that I rarely know what to do with them. I can't think of any regular recipes where I use them regularly and even as a side with a cold cut sandwich, for instance, it's more of a very infrequent change of pace than anything normal for me. If I got one of those jars of Mezzettas, for instance, it would take me years to finish it. I know that because a person who formerly lived with me bought one and it got to maybe the halfway point over 3 - 4 years, before I finally tossed it a year-ish after she left. I think they're ok in salads, but I'd much rather have Banana peppers...or even Jalapenos. This is the main problem with the pepper, for me, is that in all the places where I think it's ok, I'd also rather have something else. So, too, it is with this sauce. It's acceptable on pizza (as long as you like sweet sauces there) and on chicken strips, for instance, but is pretty far from the first thing I'd reach for. The flavor is fine, as far as that goes, no strong feelings one way or the other, which makes it somewhat forgettable and probably not exactly what one would want in a sauce. I will say there is nothing else out there quite like it, at least that I've had.

Bottom line: One of the more curious sauces from The Hot Ones show, a sauce that literally has no heat at all, but an abundant sweetness. I'm not sure who this sauce is for, but can't imagine too many chileheads who will be satisfied by it.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 0
            Flavor: 4
            Flexibility: 3
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 2

Overall: 2

Food Club Louisiana-Style Hot Sauce Review

Food Club Louisiana-Style Hot Sauce

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIp8VqEDP0k

After a really long time of doing the various grocery store sub-lines hot sauces sparingly, and often not at all, we have yet another entry, which is, again, because it's a Louisiana-style and I am in need and both are new entries or at least ones I have not yet seen (the other being Smart Way, reviewed elsewhere here). With store brands, it can be a very mixed bag. You might get get something much worse than a name brand, something that is, more or less, hitting the "good enough" mark, which is where I believe they're generally aiming, or even, occasionally, something better than name brands. For this one, it is definitely a case of the middle description.

By now, we all know, or should know, what a Louisiana-style sauce is, but if not, it is essentially 3 ingredients: Cayenne (or, more rarely, red Jalapeno), vinegar, salt. Most companies with also toss in some xanthan gun, in order to keep things more suspended, and I've seen water here and there as an ingredient also, but generally, this is a fairly stripped down, simple sauce, which relies on the incredibly tasty prowess of the Cayennes. Sometimes companies will throw in additional flavors, such as garlic, which then makes it more of a Cajun sauce, but for a base Louisiana-style, it's those ingredients I mentioned at the start of this paragraph.

Those are the totality of the ingredients here. This one is slightly on the saltier side of things and is more astringent, reminding me more, if I had to pick a brand, of Crystal, but it's not abrasive quite on that level. It's generally fairly middle-of-the-road for this style, aside from those two characteristics I mentioned. I would put this more or less in the middle, of all the other entries out there, but at a buck for 12 oz., this hits that rare target that most store brands are shooting at, which is an excellent value. Heat-wise, like most Louisiana-style sauce, this is fairly minimal.

Bottom line:  A solid representation of this style of sauce. Very low frills, but it comes close enough to hitting all the marks.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 7
            Flexibility: 7
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 10

Overall: 6

Halogi Valkyriesson Hot Sauce Review

Halogi Valkyriesson

Note: This sauce was provided for purposes of review by Roger Damptz of Burn Your Tongue. Check him out on Facebook or, better yet, head on over to his new online outlet where you can shop the widest selection available anywhere, www.burnyourtongueonline.com.

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnPe5ZZ9jJQ

Halogi is a company that came on my radar after seeing them referenced by Bill Moore, back when he was still making videos and it was of interest for a few reasons. First was the Nordic slant (Halogi translates more or less to "high flame," rather apropos for this sauce), which is also part of my own heritage. Secondly was the idea that it came from Brookings, South Dakota. It had never occurred to me there might be a hot sauce maker at all in either of the Dakotas, let alone one in a town I drove by a couple times times annually. So, I checked out their lineup, made a note to try and visit (this is all pre-pandy) mentioned this to Roger as a company he should take a look at the company, as they had some interesting stuff (most of it is lost to me due to the inclusion of onions, however, so this is both my first and possibly only entry from this company) and he's always on the hunt for up and coming sauce makers.

Long story short, a bunch of shit happened, even beyond the pandy, and not only did I not make it there, but it's unlikely that will ever again be in the cards for me. Fortunately, Roger did bring them in and the company is making a stir for itself, what with appearing on The Hot Ones and all, so that trip might be a whole lot less necessary than it might have been in the past. I still want to do a pilgrimage at some point, though lately, that destination strikes me more and more as Fort Mill, SC, but I digress.

Here we have Valkyriesson, literally "son of Valkyrie," a name which admittedly makes not a lot of sense, given that Valkyries are always female and as the legend goes, would slay any child they bore who was not also a Valkyrie. Perhaps this is loosely meant in spirit, with the idea being that whoever has a bottle of this or perhaps even uses the sauce, has been chosen by the Valkyries. I won't get too far into the lore, other than to observe that entrance into Valhalla was via dying in battle, literally physically fighting, with weapons or blows if you could not wield one, during an actual conflict. Fleeing from a battle and taking an arrow in the back or falling off a cliff or something would not qualify. Being sick and dying or dying of old age or, as the suggestion here, by ingesting something poisonous or toxic, would not qualify. It was a pretty strict entrance criteria.

Anyway, as to the actual sauce, it is a very nice pepper-forward blend of the superhots, which comes out as an amalgamation of notes, sort of like mixing dried pepper powders together, rather than one over another. If I had to choose one, I'd call it a bit more reminiscent of either Reaper or Ghost powder, but I would be overstating it to say that was a heavy flavor emphasis. There is a nice note of sweetness from the agave, though it is very light, and some grace notes from the vinegar and whatever spices are floating about in there, lending it, at times, into an almost herbaceous quality...that aspect, like most of the other notes, are subtle, however. The heavy lifting here is done by the peppers.

This is easily one of the hotter sauces I've had this year (not counting those that were in the Q1 Wing Thing  - FOH video on that is available) and maybe one of the hotter ones on the blog. The label indicates a slow build, but that is definitely not the case. This thing comes in screaming and builds from there, making it potentially rather punishing if not used judiciously. This is perhaps also the epitome of a chileheads only heat level sauce.

Bottom line: Very forcefully hot sauce, with some nice sweet and herby notes sprinkled in here and there. This is well worth a look for chileheads, especially those who are foodies or enjoy gourmet leanings in their sauces.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 6
            Flavor: 8
            Flexibility: 8
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 7

Overall: 7

Hot Ones Classic Garlic Fresno Hot Sauce Review

Hot Ones The Classic Garlic Fresno

Note: This sauce appears on Seasons 12, 13, 16, 18 & 24 of The Hot Ones.

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

It's a bit of a shame that this sauce hasn't appeared in more seasons as it is definitely a rather notable and substantial upgrade to The Classic original version (which I've also done a mini-review on elsewhere here). Gone is the Arbol from that sauce, replaced here by the Fresno, a pepper which continues to impress me, both as pod and in sauces. Here, it adds a bit of sweetness and a slight uptick in heat, along with a much better overall flavor. While the original suffered from a fairly sustained sourness, this one gets away from that slightly. Garlic still shows up here and there, but there is another addition to this which turns things over a bit. That is the black pepper, which is an ingredient I wish was in a lot more sauces generally. There is not enough of it here, but when it hits, it transforms the sauce nearly magically into something that more closely approaches good.

While I would not overall call this an actual good sauce, it is definitely not a bad one, either. I'd probably put it firmly in the middle of all the various Hot Ones sauces, as in it has its moments, but could also be a lot better. My suspicion is that they're going for a riff on a Cajun sauce, but in a roundabout way that involves tinkering around with the ingredients one would normally expect to find there. With the original Classic sauce, it was to somewhat dismal results, with a barely palatable sauce. With this sauce, we have one that I find myself having to chase around a bit to get a handle and feel on it, but a sauce that is enjoyable enough that I don't mind doing that. It is often subtle and inconsistent, so agitation here is a must, particularly if you adore those black pepper notes as I do. 

Heat-wise, like most Louisiana-style, which is the root that Cajun sauces branch off from, it is low to moderate in heat. With sauces at that level, flavor becomes even more of a factor and here, it gets really close at times to living up to that and delivering, but not quite all the way and not quite regularly enough. Still better than the regular Classic, so progress of a sort.

Bottom line: Strong improvement to the regular Classic sauce from The Hot Ones, but still a sauce that is better reserved for persons interested in doing a run at sauces from the show.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 5
            Flexibility: 5
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 4

Overall: 4