Puckerbutt Bad Apple Hot Sauce Review

Puckerbutt Bad Apple

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TRTR0wodMQ

Dessert hot sauces I'm finding one of the more entertaining trends in the space and the re-gearing shift towards actually making things to accommodate that setting, rather than simply labeling any fruit-based sweet hot that happens along as a dessert sauce, is a definitely positive. It is somewhat of an intricate balance, as make it too hot and it deviated pretty wildly from a sort of dessert setting, but to call it hot sauce implies a certain level of heat. So, cue the mighty Reaper, with its inherent bit of sweetness, and the mastermind behind it himself, to come up with one of the better entries in those lines. 

Possibly, he didn't mean this as strictly a dessert sauce. Starting with applesauce and then adding the pineapple and then both pineapple and apple juice suggests to me that setting, but it is also loose enough that it could easily be added to a drink. I don't necessarily find the idea of slugging hot pepper-laced liquid overly appealing, but here, given the fresh ginger adding a nice bit of lightness to things, I could see it working quite well. Overall, this is a wonderous sauce in terms of flavor, very vibrant and delicious, so anywhere you could see a use for apples, such as chicken or pork, this will work exceedingly well. I haven't tried it there, but I think this could be quite interesting added to a salad. It's not quite sweet enough to grill with and I have some reservations about adding it to ice cream, but coverage is still pretty pronounced for this kind of a sauce.

The inherent drawback with that kind of sauce is the applications are a bit on the narrow side and the setting will matter pretty greatly. Definitely, this is not something you could add ubiquitously and with wild abandon. The liquidy nature will create problems for a sandwich, for instance, and it would probably work as well on pizza as actual applesauce, which is to say not at all. Sticking within the framework of the design, though, will yield a truly fantastic experience. Even though this uses the Reaper, heat here is fairly moderate. There is a bit of a blazing burst, which rather quickly tapers off, rather a pleasant surprises, perhaps a bit like a firecracker going off, but just enough to contribute to the overall satisfaction.

Bottom line: Definitely another very solid entry to the lineup from Puckerbutt and one of the better dessert sauces out there. 

Breakdown:

       Heat level: 1
       Flavor: 10
       Flexibility: 5
       Enjoyment to dollar factor: 8

Overall: 6