Friday, June 23, 2023

Angry Goat Cool Hippo & Golden Hippo Hot Sauce(s) Review

Angry Goat "Cool" Hippo
Angry Goat Limited Edition Golden Hippo

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

 After doing a double with the Primo ROCKpotamus and Purple Hippo, also from Angry Goat, and also reviewed here elsewhere, I was so taken with the latter (and also nearing the end of available sauces from Angry Goat I hadn't yet done), that I had to have more, so I hopped on their website to see if there was anything new beyond the Cool Hippo, which I already had plans to get. This was where I discovered the Golden Hippo. As the legend goes, they got a batch of golden prickly pears rather than the usual purple and rather than just using them or returning them or binning them or whatever, they decided once again to fan the spark of creativity into flame and make another variation on the Hippo sauce theme. It is a very limited run and available only on the Angry Goat website (my bottle was close to the halfway point of the 426 total made, bottles which are also autographed by Jason Parker), so if you're interested, I strongly suggest you not wait.

Unlike perhaps musical variations on a theme, what we have here is four distinct Hippo sauces that all stand on their own distinctly, in their own right. You can check out the prior review for the aforementioned sauces in the previous paragraph, but the song remains sort of the same between the Purple and Cool Hippos, with the latter swapping the Habanero of the former with Cayenne. This presents a sort of interesting dynamic between the flavors, wherein there is more a generalized melding of sweetness, a bit more forward on the prickly pear side, but somewhat less robust than the Purple Hippo, and considerably less hot. It is nonetheless quite an enjoyable concoction.

The Golden Hippo takes a number of severe detours from the route and is nearly entirely its own sauce, featuring Scotch Bonnets, along with Datil pepper powder. They are very dedicated to the coloration staying as golden as possible, with a correspondingly fascinating sauce, both somewhat more subtle than either of the sauces from the prior paragraph, but also making the strawberries more accessible as a flavor note. It is also slightly hotter, perhaps very slightly hotter, than the Cool Hippo, but altogether spectacular. The foods they work best with I noted in the prior review, but it is generally meats. 

Bottom line: Another spectacular pair of offerings from one of the most consistently brilliant and innovative saucemakers out there, perhaps a bit more accessible to normies, given the lowered heat of both.

"Cool" Hippo Breakdown:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 8
            Flexibility: 8
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 9

Overall: 7

Limited Edition Golden Hippo Breakdown:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 8
            Flexibility: 8
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 10

Overall: 7

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