Adoboloco Island Wings Hot Sauce Review

Adoboloco Island Wings

Note: This sauce appears on Season 18 of The Hot Ones.

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrAl4Oouh9w

When I first saw the ingredients of this sauce, I was curious if it would be another like other sauces I've had with the "Hawaiian" motif with cayenne and pineapple, in which the pineapple barely shows up, when at all, but the bright orange hue gave me some pause. Further, pineapple here was the first ingredients, not the last, almost as afterthought, so it suggested pretty strong potential as a fruit-forward sweet-hot. Also, Adoboloco's approach to their sauces has been outside of what I'd thought the sauce might be before getting into it, so I was cautiously optimistic and a bit excited to see what they'd done here.

What we have here is a pretty interesting and sometimes dynamic mix of pineapple and some of the assorted spices, such as the onion powder, creating what I'm guessing is supposed to be a balanced mix of sweet and savory, with a bit more emphasis on the sweet. The cayenne provides a small spark of bite, but doesn't factor particularly heavily into the flavoring, which I find a bit of a shame, but clearly a bit outside of the design of the sauce as a main taste element, despite being prominently on the label.

I don't know if this sauce was built for the Hot Ones show or was already part of the plan or in the lineup, but given how nicely it plays with meats in general, I suspect it will work wonderfully on wings, as their sauces have tended to be, at least of the ones I've tried. Pineapple on pizza is something I find to be a compelling combination, but here, I will note, there is too much savory and I didn't find it at all a favorable application. Where it really shines is on fried foods, where it becomes quite delectable. Overall, I think it's a rather delicious sauce (I've had to intenitonally curb usage to keep enough for the FOH Wing Thing coming up - Q3 2023) and probably my favorite of the Adobolocos I've tried, as well as one of the better ones for the show. 

Bottom line: With the heavy emphasis on pineapple, if that's not a flavor you enjoy, may want to skip this one. If you do, this is well worth taking out for a spin. 

Breakdown:

       Heat level: 1
       Flavor: 8
       Flexibility: 6
       Enjoyment to dollar factor: 7

Overall: 6