Puckerbutt Chipotle Express Hot Sauce Review

Puckerbutt Chipotle eXpress 

Note: This sauce appears on Season 13 of The Hot Ones.

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOA_c_Gj7W4

I don't run across the Pepper X super often and I think doing the Duel Chip Challenge for the FOH video series was probably my first and I think the only other time was with the Hot Ones Nugget Honey, also available on the FOH video series. Even here, it's not necessarily in a setting that is going to give me a true measure of the pepper, but I will say that when it's mentioned that its heat exceeds that of the Carolina Reaper I can believe. Here we have the proverbial mouth full of blast furnace and unlike the Reaper, this one is immediately scorching. It's a somewhat bitter flavor note, but not unpleasant, reminding me of the Ghosties a bit. Indeed, this sauce is very reminiscent of the Adoboloco Kolohe Kid, reviewed here elsewhere, except we have replaced the smokiness of the Ghost in that sauce with the Chipotle here, which is very different kind of smoky, of course, and amplified the heat considerably with Pepper X.

It's described on the Puckerbutt website as a sweet sauce, which is the first adjective they use in the description, but that is pretty dead wrong. The sauce is very prone to settling, and is quite thin as well, so I've spent a lot of time agitating it both prior to and during use and while I can pick out the smokiness of the chipotles, the bitter of the Pepper X, and the apple cider vinegar, I don't detect sweetness. I suspect this is because honey is used and that is a fairly subtle sweetening agent. It definitely does not show up at all as a flavor note. Same with the lemon and the ginger. Ed seems to like using ginger a lot and I'm a fan as well, but neither of those ingredients has much impact. Really, it's the 3 notes I mentioned above, with subtle passes at those, but not in a very forward manner.

Usage-wise, thanks to extensive testing of the Kolohe Kid, I find works well on similar stuff, in particular meats. It's great on burgers and chicken and frankly meats generally. I personally find the sauce delicious, even though it is unquestionably punishing and this is, for me, one of the tastier blazing sauces I've come across. I like the smoke of the chipotle quite a bit as it does a nice job of dialing down that apple cider vinegar taste, which possibly the honey is also helping to tamp down, even if it doesn't show up as a direct flavor. Altogether a very nicely put together sauce, those is unquestionably far too hot for anyone but chileheads. 

Bottom line: Another of the #9 slot sauces from the show, this is another banger from the legend Ed Currie, as well as yet another quite good entry of show sauces..and surprisingly a bit, another candidate for Sauce Of The Year.

Breakdown:

       Heat level: 6
       Flavor: 8
       Flexibility: 8
       Enjoyment to dollar factor: 10

Overall: 8