Pex Peppers Bangin' Mango Hot Sauce Review

Pex Peppers Bangin' Mango Hot Sauce

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWuD344uC-M

This sauce features the CGN21500 pepper, which is the actual name of it, apparently. It evidently was discovered in Brazil and the naming convention is derived from international pepper series databases and has no other name. Certainly, this is one of the more uniquely named pods, but the flavor itself is quite reminiscent of the Habanero, perhaps even a bit Scotch Bonnet-y, but definitely on the lower end of the heat. It is alleged to be sweeter than either of those, which it may well be, but it would be hard to get that impression from this sauce.

Indeed, if you don't particularly like fruit-based sour-hot for your sauces, you may as well pack it in right now, because that's exactly what this is. Even with a theoretically sweeter pepper, passion fruit and agave syrup, this is still one of the more sour sauces I've come across in a while and my suspicion is that this can be pointed right at the mangos and them potentially being unripe. It is possible this is the intent of this sauce, I don't know specifically, but if your feeling mirrors mine that fruit-based sauces need to be sweet-hots only, then this might be a bit disappointing.

For me, it adds flavors notes I don't want. This renders this much less flexible as it narrows down the foods where I'd consider it an acceptable addition. For now, that is mainly very rich composite foods that don't have another sauce as a strong component of the dish. I don't find the sauce overall to be bad-tasting, particularly. One can get a sense of the pepper flavor, along with a bit of the passion fruit, with some grace notes of mango, but it is that overwhelming sour aspect permeating everything that comes across as dominant and by far the most memorable element. 

Heat-wise, I didn't find it particularly challenging or hot. I tried to use enough that would build, if it carries that characteristic over from Habaneros generally, but nope. Instead, it is more like the sauce I did prior to this (DND Dragon's Breath) on the blog or the Red Habanero El Yucateco (reviewed elsewhere here), in that you get an initial blast of whatever heat it has to offer and then it tapers off fairly quickly after.

Bottom line: While this sauce definitely sparks interest in the CGN21500 pepper, it is hard to say this is a good representation of it in a sauce. Heat is low, but this one necessitates a partiality to sour sauces on the part of the user for enjoyment.

Breakdown:

       Heat level: 1
       Flavor: 6
       Flexibility: 3
       Enjoyment to dollar factor: 2

Overall: 3