Bumblefoot Bumblicious Hot Sauce Review

Bumblefoot Bumblicious

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxhRwEvMT6A

I remember when this sauce (and the others under the Bumblefoot (guitarist Ron Thal) vanity line) were introduced, back when it was still part of the CaJohn's lineup, before they changed branding. I added it to my mental list as something that might be interesting some day, but it got pretty immediately backburnered (and forgotten) for quite a while as I had a lot of things, even back then, that I wanted to get to first. The last big haul shopping trip I had at BYT, I was a bit light on sauces that were striking me, so I finally got around to picking up a bottle of this.

Looking at the profile, it reminded me a bit of the CaJohn's BICH (both variations reviewed elsewhere here) and also as to why I skipped it for so long (the main heat driver is Chipotle, which is to say, little to none). Getting into it, the flavor definitely reminded me a lot of the BICH again, but moreso the Black Cherry Vanilla variation, just with some changes, such as a lack of both vanilla and Habanero, and it was considerably thicker, much more reminiscent of an actual barbecue sauce than a hot sauce.So, much like the BICH sauces, I find this to work much better as a grill sauce. 

Despite there being precious little to no heat to this sauce, the insistence is on marketing it as a hot sauce, so that is how I will be judging it. It's quite thick and flows slowly and a bit grainy, no doubt from starting with brown sugar as the first ingredient. There are elements of cherry to the flavor, but the smokiness is considerably lower than I would have expected (and wanted). Bourbon also shows up as a flavor note here, but almost more like a bourbon flavoring rather than actual bourbon. I find this note to be a bit disruptive and somewhat unenjoyable overall.

For me, as a "live" sauce, meaning out of the bottle, it does not work for me particularly well as a sauce of any kind and as a hot sauce, not really at all. As a grill sauce, it definitely shines a lot more and is easily sweet enough to carmelize, but like the BICH sauces, which carry this same general characteristic, I won't be using it outside of it being a grill sauce, which ultimately makes it, in the end, somewhat of a more expensive barbecue sauce.

Bottom line: While this sauce isn't exactly awful, in practical usage, I'm not sure why anyone would buy it, as it functions poorly as a barbecue sauce, outside of the grill application, where other sauces perform better, and as a hot sauce not at all.

Breakdown: 

Heat level: 0
Flavor: 4
Flexibility: 2
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 3

Overall: 2