Char Man Dos Locals Hot Sauce Review

Char Man  Dos Locals

Note: This sauce was provided for purposes of review by Roger Damptz of Burn Your Tongue. Check him out on Facebook or, better yet, head on over to his new online outlet where you can shop the widest selection available anywhere, www.burnyourtongueonline.com. 

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk3W3xW94UY

Char Man is another name I've had on the list for a while, a long, long while, and am only now barely getting to checking out. This is, I believe, one of their newer sauces and is another that uses booze, specifically a lager called Dos Topas from the Topa Topa brewing company. It also features a "salsa macha," which is a chili oil made with Morita and Guajillo peppers, the former being one I don't run across especially often. It sounded like it might be an interesting adventure, albeit one I expected, given also the heavy presence of Jalapenos, more along the lines of a Mexican-style sauce.

I can't say that I continue to think that, truth be told .This is a fairly difficult sauce to categorize and one that I've spent a lot of time testing, mostly because there are not a lot of natural places that suggest themselves. The company recommends tacos, pizzas, and burgers, but I found it difficult to get a good balance with the tacos, without the flavor of the sauce becoming dominant. So, too, with the pizza, but with the burgers, here we had enough stuff that it tended to complement the food fairly well. On chicken tendies, I found it acceptable, but just. It occurred to me that it might be better as a component of something and that called to mind chili and I figured if this sauce was still around when the weather turned cold enough for me to want to cook indoors again, I could definitely use it there. 

It's not at all a bad-tasting sauce, though very distinct to itself. As noted, I'm not sure how I would categorize it, though I suppose a straightforward, albeit creamier than normal, sauce is probably where I'd go. The flavor is very distinct and we have the beer and the salsa macha very forward in the mix, the former being a flavor I'd prefer not be there at all. I think this may be another of those where if you like beer in your hot sauces, you will probably find this more preferable. For me, it has some fairly narrow flexibility. Heat-wise, this is fairly moderate. What heat there is will blast forward initially, but then as quickly taper. 

Bottom line: Definitely a very unique sauce, but one I found difficult to use without it being obtrusive. The creaminess is also a touch off-putting and I found the flavor of the beer to be a bit distracting.

Breakdown:

       Heat level: 1
       Flavor: 7
       Flexibility: 3
       Enjoyment to dollar factor: 5

Overall: 4