13 Stars Nuclear Option Hot Sauce Review

13 Stars Nuclear Option

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=EPvEstxiYAs

This is, I believe, the very first sauce I've had from a company where the name started with a number rather than a letter and the first (and maybe only) from this company. I say only not because of a bad experience with this sauce, quite the contrary, but because the other ones I looked at all had onions in them, which is a disqualifier. This company is another in the sort of veteran-owned and supporting (though this one includes first responders also) "patriotic," for lack of better term, companies in the spicy food space, with the name referring, unless I miss my guess, to the original colonies that formed the USA. 

That aside, what we have here is an interesting approach to superhots. Both the Ghost and Reaper appear, but the main flavors are the Habanero and red bell peppers, along with a bit of astringency from the vinegar. That it is the first ingredient, but doesn't interfere with the other flavors reading through, which is a neat bit of sauce sorcery. The bitterness of the superhots, along with some very nice heat, certainly enough to put it in a chilehead-only category, come roaring in hard on the heels, but definitely this showcases that Habaneros can be used to good and tasty effect...at least in the right hands.

This is an interesting consistency in that it seems fairly watery, but there's enough pulp in there to stick reasonably well. It's almost an odd occupation of territory both of sauces like Blair's Pure Death (reviewed elsewhere here) and a Louisiana-style sauce, but is somewhat more flexible than the latter category, while the color and some of the ingredients remind me of the former.Flavor-wise, though, it is unlike either. 

For me, the runniness and the superhot bitter effect is enough that it cuts down somewhat on flexibility, but even if oversaucing and getting a mouthful of heat more than anticipated or desired, it is flavorful enough that it doesn't diminish to the point of something not being edible. It does nicely with heavier cream or cheese-based sauce, excels on nearly any meat you can throw at it, but trips up a bit in places where it needs to blend in. It is pretty adept at meshing with flavors, when it has room to do it, but it generally needs to be a food that can accommodate a looser sauce.

Bottom line: All in all, this is a very solid sauce, chileheads only heat level, and with a couple of minor tweaks, could definitely wind up being one of the better entries from any company in this space.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 4
            Flavor: 8
            Flexibility: 8
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 7

Overall: 7