Crabby Shack Zesty Lemon Pepper Hot Sauce Review

Crabby Shack Zesty Lemon Pepper

Note: This sauce appears on Season 21 of The Hot Ones.

Ok, so the Crabby Shack is evidently a restaurant in Brooklyn that also happened to produce sauces, at least for a little while. This is one of them. The other, called "Original Hottie," I believe, I can't find anything about and in fact, on their less than stellar website, can't find any info on this one, either. I actually started wondering if they were still in business, but it seems more like they're concentrating on running the restaurant business, rather than trying to do the sauce sideline. All to the good there, even if the website frustrated me a bit, largely because I liked this sauce so much, I wanted to try other stuff from them.

It's not surprising this is a chef-derived sauce. The combination of ingredients is brilliant. Pairing tomatillos with lemon pepper is something I will readily admit I would never have thought of in a million years, but it makes total sense, given that lemon pepper seasoning is quite nice on tomatoes. A little dash of Habanero to make this thing an actual hot sauce, though heat is very low and quite accessible, and it is brilliant, tasty, wonderful...as long as you like lemon pepper, I suppose. I do, as will be obvious, and especially like how well the notes of cracked black pepper come through, which almost always makes me very happy when it comes in a hot sauce. Lemon pepper can sometimes be a tough bitter and abrasive and the tomatillos do a nice job of mellowing that out a bit, while still leaving those strong flavors more or less intact.

Since lemon pepper has been one of my favorite profiles for as long as I can remember (literal decades now), this sauce made me very happy when I first opened the bottle and I had to dial back so as not to tear into the entire damn bottle before I had a chance to try it on wings. To say I love the flavor profile is perhaps an understatement - I'd put it easily in my top 5 favorite sauces from the show - but I will also note it won't fit everywhere. Citrus, for me, is a square block and food would be a star shaped hole, in that analogy. While I do enjoy it dearly, lemon pepper in particular, in the right places, that is pretty far from universal. 

So, for the things that citrus works well on, such as white meats like chicken and, naturally, given that it's from a seafood restaurant, any of the white fishes, crab, lobster, and shrimp. Where it works, it does so at a near-magical level, again assuming you like lemon pepper, but vary outside of where that flavoring system is nice and you get results that make you wish you had saved the sauce for one of those more magical settings.

Bottom line: An absolute wonder of a sauce and something that is borderline transcendental paired with the right foods, with a heat level that is widely accessible. If you like lemon pepper, this is an absolute must.

Breakdown:

           Heat level: 1
           Flavor: 10
           Flexibility: 4
           Enjoyment to dollar factor: 10

Overall: 6

Two Heads Peach Peri-Peri Hot Sauce Review

Two Heads Peach Peri-Peri

Note: This sauces was provided for purposes of review by Roger Damptz at Burn Your Tongue. Check him out on Facebook.

Peri-Peri (or Bird's Eye) is one of those very small and thin-walled chiles that I think tends to work best in things, such as in powder form and mixed into the batter of a fish fry, for instance, or maybe sprinkled in while greens cook down, or perhaps in a nice chili, so that it can impart the heat while the flavors meld and mesh. Making it the main flavor star of the sauce is a pretty bold move and I'm not there are a lot of sauces where I think it's worked well. This sauce is definitely not the exception to that.

My interest in this was more towards the first word in the name, which is peach. I love me a good peach fruit-based sweet hot and I had high hopes this would be one of those, even if the color of the sauce was "wrong" for that kind of thing. The thinness of the sauce concerned me a bit as well, but nothing ventured, nothing gained and so on, so I opened the bottle and then it sat for quite a while in my fridge door as I tried to come to terms with it. The smokiness of the smoked Reapers is nice and complements the flavor of the peri-peri well, or at least as well as anything can in that setting, but the peach flavor was decidedly absent, aside from a very vague sort of subtle sweet note I caught here and there.

More than anything, I'd put this, as far as usage, definitely not in terms of flavor, more towards a Louisiana-style cayenne or Cajun, as to application. It's fine on creamier dishes and fried foods. I think it would do very nicely indeed in a ramen as well and it does mesh pretty well with food when used. Flexibility is quite pronounced here and there are quite a few places it would do very nicely. When it comes to the flavor of the sauce being front and center, for me it's a bit of diminishing returns, as I don't find the flavor of this sauce solo to be too wonderful, but that's not really how we use sauce most of the time, I'd imagine. Heat-wise, it has enough of a punch that I don't see non-chileheads enjoying this much, so I'd say it's best reserved for chileheads, but definitely, the more complex flavors you can pair it with, the better the end result.

Bottom line: This is a sauce I find to be bold, adventurous, and interesting a bit more than good, but in the right setting, it can definitely contribute well to the increased enjoyment of quite a few and varied foods.

Breakdown:

           Heat level: 3
           Flavor: 3
           Flexibility: 9
           Enjoyment to dollar factor: 5

Overall: 5

Sinaloa Tropical Hot Sauce & Mango Habanero Hot Sauce Mini-Reviews

Salsa Sinaloa Gourmet Tropical
Salsa Sinaloa Gourmet Mango Habanero

This is another of those finds that I stumbled across wandering around a Mexican grocery store one day. I'd not heard of Sinaloa before and fruit-based sweet hots are a style I favor quite a lot, so it wasn't much convincing for me to take the gamble and roll the dice on these two. Initially, I was going to do these as separate reviews, but once I got into them a bit, they are definitely more alike than not, so it didn't seem to make much sense to separate out two entries for what is essentially the same sauce. While there are differences, to be sure -  they are not, after all, absolutely identical - one of them has pineapple and the other does not, while that other has peaches, whereas the one with pineapple does not. So, there has been a switch in fruits as components, as well as some adjustment in ingredient order, with Habanero being higher in one than the other. Flow, smoothness, color, restrictor cap, and all the other remaining ingredients are duplicated.

In comparing the sauces more directly, we have basically a couple areas of difference, flavor and heat. The Tropical sauce is a very tame one, having just barely enough heat to get to a 1, while the Mango Habanero is probably over a 1 by a bit, but not enough to come anywhere near approaching a 2. That leaves flavor, both of which could be described as vaguely tropical. When I initially opened the bottles, the Tropical reminded me of the idea of taking a pina colada smoothie, despite there being no coconut in the sauce, and making it into a hot sauce, or using it for heavy inspiration. The "aspect," which I will address shortly, is a lot lighter in the profile here, though still present. That "aspect" is the mustard flour, which, despite liking mustard, I find to be a polarizing element. I don't know why it's here, but that, in conjunction with the garlic and onion, presents a sort of chili (the dish, like with meat and beans) or taco flavoring, only with the Habanero rather than Ancho flavoring the chili powder. The "aspect" is more intensely distracting the more forward it is and was not something I was ever able to agitate out. 

Consequently, the Tropical has a more favorable flavor, but much less heat, while the Mango Habanero has precious little mango flavoring (the Tropical does not particularly, either, it is much more pineapple) and is mostly a conflicting sweet flavor colliding with the "aspect" described above. I found the Tropical worked moderately well with things like chicken tendies and here and there with other foods, while the Mango Habanero, which shocked me the first time I tried, I was not really able to successfully pair. It was worth a shot, but I can't say I was particularly impressed with either and the Mango Habanero I did not finish.

El Yucateco Habanero & Chiltepin Hot Sauce Review

El Yucateco Habanero & Chiltepin

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

As part of their 50th year anniversary celebration, El Yucateco made a number of variants. For a while, they were available online only, with the plan to eventually get them to the Mexican market grocers and perhaps beyond. While I was wandering the aisles looking for other stuff, I happened to come across them. Some, such as the coffee one, held moderate interest for me (I may do one or both of the Marisqueras at some future point), but I held some hope for the Ghost pepper one, which regrettably also had onions. After poking around further, I eventually settled on this one.

Immediately, I noticed a sort of off flavor that I couldn't quite place and which never really went away. It's possible this is from the chiltepin, but there is also a number of spices and it could be one of those. Habanero and garlic also come into the mix a bit and, regrettably, so does the acetic acid and lemon. This creates a bit of an issue in that if you don't have something fairly strong-flavored to offset this, it notably detracts from the food. It's not awful or inedible, but is the sort of thing I wouldn't be inclined to do twice. 

Heat is very moderate, so if you wanted to add just a tinge of kick to the food, this might be a good one to go with. I could see this working very nicely in a chili, for instance, where you have a composite of flavors. By itself, it frankly isn't particularly good-tasting and this is somewhat of a problem that cuts down rather notably on flexibility. Most Mexican-style sauces I prefer to keep to that type of food, but the table sauces often will work well on things like pizza and ramen and maybe even mac & cheese in a pinch. That is definitely not the case with this one.

Bottom line: A sort of interesting variation, but for me, the whole is perhaps somewhat less than the sum of the parts and is one I consider sort of a misfire.

Breakdown:

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

Overall: 3

High Desert ToMango Habanero Hot Sauce Review

High Desert ToMango Habanero

Note: This sauce was provided for purposes of review by Roger Damptz of Burn Your Tongue. Check him out on Facebook.

Here we have a bit of an oddity. While I can think of numerous Habanero-mango sauces, and have done quite a few this year as well, I can’t think of any that include tomatoes. Using tomatoes in a sauce will generally tend to make them a lot more flexible, however, in this case, it is sort of the inverse. While I do like that they are fire-roasted, they are a bit on the acidic side and pairing that with the usual vinegar-Habanero-mango combination, particularly, as the mangos here are also a bit on the sour side, we have a lot of astringency to this sauce. It is a pretty unique flavor and I can’t think of anything I’ve had quite like it.   

Heat-wise, High Desert calls this “Sorta Medium,” which is a fine thing to call it. It’s pretty low heat for me and chileheads won’t be challenged at all by it, but there is enough of a charge there for non-chileheads to at least be aware of it before slogging it onto whatever food they want. As to that, while it is a very nicely blended more or less medium thick sauce, I found it worked best when you can let it be the dominant flavor, so think lighter meats like fish, pork, or chicken, as in battered and fried or grilled or roasted.

Bottom line: This is a pretty novel, intensely curious sauce that I like more than I dislike, but finding things to pair with it proved to definitely be somewhat of a challenge.

Breakdown:

           Heat level: 1
           Flavor: 6
           Flexibility: 3
           Enjoyment to dollar factor: 5

Overall: 4

Anderson Pepper Co. Don't Touch The Baby Hot Sauce Review

Anderson Pepper Co. Don't Touch The Baby

Well, it's been a long while since I've had one of these...we'd have to go all the way back, nearly three years, to June 2021 and the Xtreme hot sauce, for the last time this happened, which is a sauce I found so unpleasant that I binned it because I didn't want to experience it again, even for just shooting an FOH video. It comes with the territory of being a food explorer a bit, launching out there into the unknown, with sauce companies you're unfamiliar with, this one being another on Amazon who came up at the right time I needed something else added for free shipping. This one is also a touch on the expensive side for this kind of sauce, ordering it that way.

There is a lot, peripherally, to like. The label design here is fantastic, emphasizing the niftiness of the name, which itself ties back into the company's early days. This is the original sauce as well from the company, the first in the lineup. The color scheme and the font sizing, all of it works extremely well. The color of the sauce is a very nice and quite attractive slightly reddish orange. I found the name amusing and the idea of a nice sweet Habanero sauce to be a good entry point. I've mentioned this before, but onion granulate or onion powder (actual onions in the ingredients are a hard no) is somewhat of a crap shoot. Most of the time, I can tolerate sauces with either of those, as long as they're in smaller doses and with that ingredient listed last here,  I had hopes that would be the case here.

What was in the bottle, however...diplomatically, it wasn't quite what I'd hoped. The initial smell, when I opened the bottle, struck me as it being another sriracha. Not the end of the world, by any means, but I've had quite a few of those over the years and I'm fairly well-tired of that flavor by this point. Once I poured it out and tasted it, however, the sriracha impression ended. The first flavor was a blast of onion (listed as the last ingredient and in powder form) that nearly made me toss the bottle on the spot. Even when sauces are bad, which regrettably is how I'd classify this one, I usually won't toss them out immediately, but will try chilling them and agitating them as I get more space in the bottle. 

I was pretty gun shy for quite some time with this one, as if the flavor of a sauce makes me gag a bit, as this one did, I have little interest in continuing with it. Eventually, I got back to it and the temperature change and intense agitation did not change things. If anything, those elements made it a touch worse. So, regrettably, I had to break a nearly three year long streak and bin this, as I found it unusable and didn't want to go through it again on camera, which, considering some of the sauces I've done over time, is its own sort of statement. Granted, I didn't eat much of it, but of what I struggled down, I didn't find the heat to be particularly prominent. 

Bottom line: While I'm not sure entirely what they were going for here, this strikes me as aiming at a more "everyday" type vibe. Beyond the flavor issues I mentioned, I find it a touch too vinegar-forward for that, but YMMV.

Breakdown:

           Heat level: 0
           Flavor: 0
           Flexibility: 0
           Enjoyment to dollar factor: 0

Overall: 0

Radiation Therapy Prototype C Hot Sauce Review

Radiation Therapy Prototype C

I have asked this question, aloud, rhetorically, into the thin air, before, of course, namely that which is if a sauce is not hot, regardless of which chiles are in it, can it verily be rightfully called a hot sauce? I suppose the answer varies by person and I'm not moving from my position of leaving it up to the sauce makers to determine if they intend on making a hot sauce or not and then reflecting that on the label, but this is another that raises that question. This, while pretty tasty overall, is very much an exceedingly mild sauce, to the point where I cannot give it a numerical value at all on the heat scale. 

Radiation Therapy is a newer company and this perhaps a relatively new sauce, as the batch number on this is in the low single digits. The label mentions chipotle prominently and that is definitely one of the more forward tastes here, but on the ingredient panel itself are many ingredients, but none of them are chipotle. I also strongly question the ordering of the ingredients on the label. The first one is orange, but there is little citrus here generally and I can't say I found the flavor of orange to be present at all. Certainly one would expect a lot more for a sauce with that as the first ingredient. There are a few other chiles as well, including Morita, Cayenne, and Ancho. At times, this sauce reminded me a bit of the old Ghost Of Ancho from Born To Hula (reviewed elsewhere here), which was my SOTY once upon a when (full list at right). 

While the label copy is suggestive of the idea that the company really meant for this to be an everyday "table" sauce, it's hard to see, given all the ingredients, which point pretty strongly to a Mexican-style or Southwestern sauce, that this would work out especially well. In addition to the Chipotle, which I could have actually used more of, there are old staples of onion (powder), garlic, cumin, and honey as well, though the honey again doesn't really show up as a flavor and of those others, garlic is by far the most prominent, though only as an accent. 

I did kick this around on a number of other foods, but definitely Mexican-style food is by far the best application here. It's not awful, per se, on things like chicken and pizza, but I definitely wanted something else. On Mexican food, it pairs very well with complex stuff like tacos, carne asada or shrimp or fish (not so much chicken or pork), but also in more stripped down foods, such as refrieds. I think it they marketed it more in that direction and ramped up the chipotle more, maybe added in some fire-roasted Habaneros, they'd have a pretty solid winner on their hands. As it is, this is more just a solid and somewhat promising entry.

Bottom line: Not quite ready for prime time, this one is more a sauce reflecting promise for the maker in the future rather than being an outright good sauce. 

Breakdown:

           Heat level: 0
           Flavor: 7
           Flexibility: 3
           Enjoyment to dollar factor: 6

Overall: 4

Hot Ones Last Dab XXX Hot Sauce Review

Hot Ones Last Dab XXX

Note: This sauce appears on Seasons 10 - 12 of The Hot Ones.

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57nA47I0Y9E

This one is the first of the sauces in the #10 slot on that show for me to finally do a full review on and like most of the sauces slotted in the higher numbers on the show, this is definitely a sauce for chileheads only. This one is a modification of the original Last Dab, changing things around by adding in a couple variations of the Pepper X (hence the "XXX"moniker addition) to the mix. 

While I think I've found most of the stuff I've had Pepper X in to be favorable, I don't find that to be the case here and I believe it's because of the coriander element. That, along with cumin, points this a bit more over towards the Indian food side of things, which are flavor profiles I'm not generally a huge fan of. I don't know what Ed Currie had in mind when he was designing this sauce, but while I thought the taste was interesting initially, when it leaned a bit more towards the mustard and turmeric, it wore out its welcome fairly quickly after, given that I was not able to find any food where I thought it fit especially well. While I would not call this a bad sauce, it is not one that fits my palate particularly well.

I think it's okayish on chicken and I believe I'm going to take a wild swing and see what it does on hot dogs, at some point, but on red meat in general, while not awful, is not something I care to repeat. Even though I think it works marginally better on chicken, that is also not something I much care to repeat, as I'd rather have something else. If I liked Indian food, this would be more fitting, but I don't. The flavor profile of this also does not lend itself particularly well to meshing with other flavors, so I think to be able to reach for this, you'd have to like what's here and I can't really say that I do, though I also wouldn't say I outright dislike it, either. It is hot enough that tinkering with the heat is kind of amusing, but that's definitely lemonade out of lemons for me.

Bottom line: A sauce I find somewhat confusing, but for chileheads with a wider range of foods they enjoy, it may be worth a go. Definitely this is one where YMMV.

Breakdown:

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

Overall: 3

High Desert Not Mama's Chamoy Hot Sauce Review

High Desert Sauce Co. Not Mama's Chamoy

Note: This sauce was provided for purposes of review by Roger Damptz of Burn Your Tongue. Check him out on Facebook.

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

I am officially going to add High Desert to the list of sauce companies with a streak of inventiveness and creativity as this is the third sauce in the row of theirs I’ve had which I’ve found highly unique and unlike nearly anything else that comes to mind. This time, they’re taking on a fruit-based sweet hot, with raspberry as the fruit. That berry is not one that I find used frequently in sauces, so I was already interested. Additionally, the reference was to chamoy, which I honestly am only familiar with in passing from those goofy red pickles that the kids like to eat in their short form videos.

The pepper here is a 7-Pot Douglah, a superhot I’m only passingly familiar with and intended to explore a bit more in 2024, but thus far, I can’t say I’ve had a sauce with it that I’ve really liked. The pepper reads to me as sour and part of my exploration was to determine if that was those particular sauces or the pepper itself. I still have at least one more Douglah sauce to go, but I’m leaning pretty hard towards the pepper itself being sour, as it is here. The Douglah is definitely a superhot, though, so this is probably a sauce better reserved not only more for chileheads, which the labeling is pretty clear about, but also chileheads who are also foodies, so as to better appreciate the balance and harmony of flavors masterfully created here.

This works to the sauce’s advantage in the right hands, though, such as here. The additional of the raspberries and honey, leaning in a bit and combining with the Douglah sour notes, creates a very intriguing and quite flavorful balance. While the sauce is definitely more on the tart side, it is overall quite pleasant. The thickness of the sauce also lends itself well to sticking to things and since this is a berry fruit-based sweet hot, it does very nicely with pretty much any meat you might care to throw at it. And cheeses. And chocolate. Honestly, part of the joy for me with this sauce was just trying it on different stuff to see how it would go, including everything suggested on the label. While I didn’t love everything, it was definitely a lot of fun.

Bottom line: A very intricately balanced sauce, leaning into the strengths of the ingredients, all which delivering a pretty satisfying heat charge. If you like fruit-based sweet hots and are a foodie chilehead, put this on the list. 

Breakdown:

           Heat level: 2
           Flavor: 9
           Flexibility: 8
           Enjoyment to dollar factor: 10

Overall: 7

Hellfire Angry Orange/Tangerine Hell Hot Sauce Review

Hellfire Angry Orange (formerly Tangerine Hell)

Note: This sauce comes courtesy of Roger Damptz of Burn Your Tongue for purposes of review. Check him out on Face book.

Here we have a sort of tale of two sauces, not so much in the naming convention, with the "Tangerine Hell" moniker being evidently a working title for the sauce before changing to Angry Orange, with a slight label copy change, but more in the actual flavor dynamics. When I first opened the bottle, I found myself a bit perplexed as this tasted more or less like a Reaper puree, with that being far and away the dominant, and for a while, nearly exclusive flavor. It rendered any of the inherent questions, such as whether or not it would be even possible to pick out tangerine flavor more or less than that of orange in this complex of a sauce, rather moot, as even the cherry description on the label seemed to be absent. Once I got into the bottle more, I found it more enjoyable. In some ways, it almost became a different sauce entirely...almost.

This is still a very Reaper forward sauce and presents, I think, a pretty good foot forward for that pepper. If you want to get a sense of the flavor characteristics of that pepper, both the sweetness of it, as well as the ever-present superhot bitterness, it's all there, but tamped down somewhat by the presence of everything else. Are you going to be able to pick out the pineapple, also in this sauce? Probably not, but depending on how you pair it, there will be a sort of lingering cherry grace note, along with a vague semi-tropical citrusy sweetness. I like sauces that teach me things and this one has demonstrated that, despite my lifelong disdain for cherries generally, they do pair particularly well with Reapers.

Of course, with Reapers, you're also going to get some good, solid heat and there is enough here that I will say this is more for chileheads only. It is an excellent entry point into a Reaper sauce, though, and I found the flexibility, thanks to the general low levels of other flavors, to be pretty high. I enjoyed this on a variety of meats, pizza, sandwiches, and I'd give good odds, it might even work in a cream sauce dish, in a pinch. 

Bottom line: Overall, what started as a somewhat confusing sauce, has developed into one of the more solid entries in the Hellfire lineup. If you like either Reapers or fruit-based sweet hots, this one is well worth a look.

Breakdown:

           Heat level: 3
           Flavor: 8
           Flexibility: 8
           Enjoyment to dollar factor: 8

Overall: 7

Silk City Turnip The Heat Hot Sauce Review

Silk City Turnip The Heat

I can say pretty confidently that this is the only sauce I've ever had with turnips as an ingredient, let alone Gilfeather turnips and slightly less but still very confidently that it's probably the only sauce I've ever had with butternut squash as an ingredient. I'd put it fairly close to the top of the more unique and eclectic sauces in general, let alone hot sauces, that I've ever experienced.

I ordered it and went into it not quite knowing what to expect. Jeff at Silk City is one of the more inventive and creative minds churning sauces out there, but with wild experimentation, such as seems his wont, it's not always a sure bet that the end result is going to be great or even good. To be sure, Silk City is one of my favorites and the only sauce company where I make it a point to do an annual sauce buy (or at least check out the offerings), and they've been in the running for SOTY at least a couple good times now, including this year, 2024, but failure is a part of all experiments and some of these concoctions work better than others.

This one is almost a case in point, but the novelty of it is almost enough by itself to win me over. Flavor and texture-wise, this seems almost more a vegetable puree than an actual sauce, though I suppose you could make the case that is the same for perhaps most hot sauces, but this one seems a bit more hard over towards the vegetable side. In any case, by itself, I think it's more on the just okayish side. I didn't really enjoy it much on the usual meats, but switching over to veggies was more the good move here. It is quite nice on vegetables similar to the ones in the bottle, so things like potatoes, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, carrots, turnips, parsnips, etc., all do quite nicely, as well as on things like cooked peppers. While it doesn't list out the exact peppers, other than to say it is a "blend" on the website, it strikes me that there's enough heat here that, unless I miss my guess, one of those is Habanero.

This sauce seems, beyond where I mentioned it, more intended for things like creamy soups or gravies or maybe a creamy dish, like mac & cheese. Obviously I didn't get to it around Thanksgiving time, but I could definitely see it working there and intend on testing it in as many of those as possible. This is a pretty enjoyable sauce to play around with, to see where it works and where it doesn't (cruciferous vegetables, for instance), and that aspect I've enjoyed quite a lot. 

Bottom line: This is one where your mileage will definitely vary, depending on what you enjoy in a sauce and what you want out of it. If it's creativity along with a satisfying, but relatively low heat, this is a good one to try out. 

Breakdown:

           Heat level: 2
           Flavor: 6
           Flexibility: 4
           Enjoyment to dollar factor: 8

Overall: 5

HAB Sauce Lord Hot Sauce Review

HAB Sauce Lord

Long-time readers and viewers of the FOH content on the Youtubes will know that I like a good bit of cheek, am an enjoyer of a certain cheekiness, and the label and name of this sauce could not have spoke more directly to that aspect of me if it tried. I think the dude on the label is the main guy whipping up the sauce creations, not entirely sure, but the sauce bottles in hand and all contributes to the aesthetic that tickles me a bit.

Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for the sauce. I do like the sauce color, which is orange-y enough to please even Bugs Bunny. The texture is a bit between runny and medium, not quite either, but more in the middle, and it is nicely blended, with no grit or chunks to be found. Heat-wise, given that is is Habanero only, it is pretty moderate. 

Where it falls down a bit for me is definitely in the flavor. At times, you can get hints of the Habanero and carrot, but it is mainly as accents underneath the tidal wave of garlic. That is by far the main flavor. Lime also shows up and here and there, but not in a way I would call good. The taste is not unpleasant, per se, but the big struggle here is in trying to find things to go with it. Even on things like chicken tendies, where it's acceptable, I'd still rather have something else.

Carrot-Habanero is not really a new style of sauce, but the intent of when it was more trendy, was as an everyday sauce. If you want a good everyday sauce, the one thing it has to be is flexible and for this one, not only does the food have to be something that works with garlic, but further has to work with lime. So, it misses the mark somewhat there, due mainly to the garlic trying to overpower everything. Even in foods with complex flavor, it winds up being a bunch of disparate flavors, all clashing and competing with each other, which is not great. Trying to find a place where this worked well was definitely one of the larger challenges with this sauce for me and I think you're better off where this can be the main star and the food component is sort of neutral.

Bottom line: Another diversion from an established sauce style from this company, but this one is perhaps a couple of veering left turns too far.

Breakdown:

           Heat level: 1
           Flavor: 5
           Flexibility: 2
           Enjoyment to dollar factor: 4

Overall: 3

Hot Ones Classic Chili Maple Hot Sauce Review

Hot Ones Classic Chili Maple

Note: This sauce appears on Seasons 19 - 21 of The Hot Ones.

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYgvexWgwq8

The original Hot Ones Classic (reviewed elsewhere here) was not a sauce I enjoyed much. The Classic Garlic Fresno (also reviewed elsewhere here) was a sauce that I liked initially, but was a bit lukewarm on it for a while, until it eventually re-grew on me. When I first opened the bottle of this one, I was shocked, as it was incomprehensible that adding maple syrup to the Garlic Fresno could have somehow wrecked that sauce.

Thankfully, after clearing room in the bottle to agitate it better (this is why I don’t tend to review sauces initially upon opening the bottle), I’m now prepared to say that this is not only one of the better Hot Ones sauces and a definite improvement on the Garlic Fresno, it is one of the top Hot Ones-branded sauces generally.

Much of this will be a repeat to the Garlic Fresno, except that the little dash of maple syrup in there changes things considerably. Interestingly, it both brings out the black pepper and works with the apple cider vinegar in a way I found pleasant. Yes, I was just as shocked as long-time readers may be upon reading that, but it’s no less true. The various elements combine here (be sure to agitate this one frequently) in a way that is borderline spectacular and this is a solid upgrade over the Garlic Fresno. The application here is more or less as a Lousiana-style or Cajun sauce, though I think it may have a touch more flexibility than those tend to have.

I’ve actually had to move this up in the schedule so I could get the bottle safely in the lower shelf of my fridge door, where I keep all my FOH Wing Thing sauces, as I was having a lot of fun playing around with it and was getting nervous that my intended goal of keeping it around for successive Wing Things. Heat-wise, this is about the same as the other, which is quite moderate.

Bottom line: One of the better entries of the Hot Ones sauces and perhaps in the entirety of the show. 

Breakdown:

           Heat level: 1
           Flavor: 10
           Flexibility: 7
           Enjoyment to dollar factor: 10

Overall: 7

2K24 Q1 Update

2K24 Q1 Update

I’ve decided that this year, in addition to trying to match FOH video content on YouTube to various holidays, only partially successfully in years past, to, this time, pick some random holidays out and find videos that might actually fit them. I realize I don’t have enough to a following for this to be super meaningful, but it’s fun and even if it’s only a secret thrill for me to hold most of it as a surprise until it goes live, it’s an indulgence I will grant myself. The list is on the YouTube Community tab of my channel (you can get to the page by following any of the Playlist links at right and then going to my YouTube home page), if you’re interested in the latest updates, but so far, here are the days I have stuff planned coming in the days ahead for 2024:

April 1 - April (Fiery) Fool's Day
April 4 - Ramen Day
April 26 - National Pretzel Day
May 4 - IYKYK
May 18 - Chris Cornell RIP
May 29 - Memorial Day
June 12 - National Jerky Day
June 20 - Summer Solstice
July 4 - Independence Day
August 4 - National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day
August 6 - National Mustard Day
Sept 2 - Labor Day
Sept 23 - National Snack (Meat) Stick Day
Oct 21 - National Worm Day
Oct 28  - National Chocolate Day
Oct 31 - Diablo Double Feature
Nov 14 - National Pickle Day

I’ll probably update this list in the Q3 update, though I don’t really have anything planned outside of the “usual” holiday stuff I normally do for November/December.

A lot of being a chilehead is a process of refinement. While that is manifested a bit more directly with the creative endeavors of these written reviews and the FOH video series, it extends a bit beyond that. Case in point: One of my previous customs was, every December, to try to cut down the amount of open bottles lingering in my fridge door. In years past, that selection of bottles of varying levels went beyond the usual top shelf (where I generally keep things in current rotation), overflowing beyond the bottom shelf, where I hold the sauces I want for the quarterly FOH Wing Things (a video tour of my refrigerator door is in one of those Wing Things, by the by, link to the playlist at right), right into the middle shelf, which is where everything else not hot sauce goes, so mustard, mayo, pickles, various Asian sauces, grill sauces, etc. This would be less of a problem now, as I don’t share the refrigerator with anyone else these days, but that wasn’t the case when I started the blog and for much of my life before that.

I think New Year’s is something that culturally we’re conditioned to see as an opportunity for renewal, to start the next calendar year fresh, so to speak, so at the end of December, I’d have a purge for those sauces that hung in there, always waiting for me to get around to finding something to pair them with to finish, but accumulating as I found more appealing sauces and cranked though those. It always kind of bothered me, though, as I hate being wasteful and while life is too short for bad sauces, as I always say, it was, if nothing else, a waste of money that I’d spent if not enjoying the entirety of the bottle in return. So, I always had this on the backburner to remedy. I came close for several years, but it wasn’t until 2023 that I finally ended the year without having a single bottle to toss. None of the shelves were full to the brim as I started off 2024, either.

This January started off on fire. It saw not just one, but two, SOTY candidates, on the way to 6 consecutive hot sauce reviews, the last of which was this blog’s 500th overall post, quite unplanned, but the streak was something I don’t think I’ve ever done before. So, I was cautiously optimistic for the year. Then, naturally, tragedy struck. Continuing the trend of starting off even-years badly in January, which began in 2020, for this year, I finally ran out of luck and acquired COVID-19, which was highly obnoxious, and came shortly after I made the 500th blog post. I guess that is one of the good things about being so far ahead on video content, though, as I was able to take time off to recover without having to also worry about filming new stuff. The blog has no set schedule, so that was never going to be a problem, but if you were wondering why the frenetic pace of the early part of the month suddenly dropped off, that’s why. Definitely, make sure you are vaxxed and boosted as much as can be (I was short one booster total) and I found having albuterol at hand to be enormously helpful. This did create a lot of havoc with the challenges I was planning, as it rather handily reset the tolerance I was building, which I then spent most of February re-building in order to try to film the challenges in March.

All of the challenges I had are filmed now and will appear sporadically on the YT channel in 2024, some of which are on the schedule I posted earlier. Two of them were ½ pound chocolate bars from Willy Pete, neither of which induced much more than very mild cap cramping after the fact. Part of this has to do with my higher tolerance, keyed somewhat pointedly at Reapers, I feel a pretty significant part, maybe a larger part, has to do with my prep being really dialed in, nearly to the point where I’m debating filming an advice video, which will not include my specific methods (I need to get paid on the YouTubes before I’m going to post that kind of thing, as it took me a while to develop to get to this point), but just some general guidance if anyone’s going to attempt these. I guess if there’s enough interest, I can whip one up. If you want to see this, let me know.

Speaking of challenges, since I don’t really do them frequently, it was kind of interesting, the entire process of ramping up tolerance and then maintaining it, with just stuff I had at hand. I tinkered a bit with prep (and action for relief, if cramping got too high) and it was quite a bit more engaging than I’d ever suspected. It certainly won’t become a regular thing with me, but I’m definitely happier I did it now than when I started. As to those challenges themselves, two of them involved both heat and volume. The first one went a lot smoother and easier than expected, but I’m definitely done attempting those again, most likely. It’s just a huge influx of sugar for both of them and I’ve done that kind of things three times now and that’s a pretty good number to stop at. I am going to continue to look at challenges and if I find any I think are 1) interesting, 2) potentially tasty or at least not awful) and 3) do-able, I’ll probably give those a whack. I have one sort of on the back burner for 2024, if I can find it, and then that might be back to the dry spell for challenges again.

In January, I figured since I was doing some challenges for the FOH video series, I may as well make a new playlist (link at right). I then made another in February strictly for chocolate bars, since I’ve been doing so many of those. And then also hit my 500th overall review (counting both mini and full reviews) here on the blog in February. And then yet another playlist in March for meats and cheeses, which turned out to be a lot larger than I had anticipated. Links to all of those playlists at right.

As I mentioned in the Year End wrap up for 2023 (posted end of December), the FOH video series had some momentum. If it keeps that going, in addition to having more videos than posts here, which it already does, it will have more cumulative views. I kind of expected this, because blogs, while maybe not dead outright, definitely do not enjoy their earlier popularity and YouTube has been hotter for quite a while. On a side note, I still, as of right now, have content that is a year old (slightly over) that is not yet posted, but it is minimal compared to other years and should be caught up by next Quarterly update. I’m doing pretty well on not having a huge backlog for this year, since that kind of spacing creates some challenges on the back end and have easily enough non-sauce content to run through this year handily.

In some ways, the disparity between the FOH series on YouTube and here raises the question of why bother at all with the blog. This is my labor of love and the thinking is that perhaps people will check out videos and there will be some pull through. This was always meant to be archival in nature, a big, grand, vast library, much larger than I ever anticipated, to be sure, but still a joy to do...and I still have a lot of sauces on the hit list yet to get to...I suppose one day I will run dry, but until then, lots more to discover.

Finally, as I mentioned in the blog some last year, we seem to be cycling back off of “hot” products and stuff intended more for a chilehead market as far as the commercial sector, so fast food, grocery store items, etc. 2024 so far has been pretty dry, outside of a few Hot Ones tie-in products, which I may or may not get to. Access seems easier than some of the other stuff, but ye gawds, the price point...stay tuned for those, I guess...maybe.

Colorful Colorado Creations Colorado Red Extreme Hot Sauce Review

C3 Colorado Red Extreme

Note: This sauce was provided for purposes of review by Roger Damptz at Burn Your Tongue, greatest hot sauce dispensary on the planet. Check him out on Facebook.

I *almost* bought this when I picked up instead the Colorado Red (reviewed elsewhere here) from this same company in the later fall part of 2023. I had them both in my hands, but decided my entry point for a new company should probably be in the sauce that wasn't meant to be a piledriver. I figured it that one was any good, I would pick this one up or, more accurately, I would pick it up anyone once I'd dialed my tolerance up a bit. As it turned out, despite not really loving the other sauce and struggling a bit to find places to use it, I wound up picking this one up despite that less than auspicious showing.

This sauce is an absolute dynamo and couldn't be more different from the other, which is odd, given that this is named as the more "extreme" version of the other. They are factually nearly completely different sauces. While they both utilize a few of the same ingredients, the Fresnos come immediately to mind, this one is like a somewhat less vinegar forward version of a Louisiana-style or Cajun, just a whole lot more punchy and with some very nice grace notes of black pepper kicking around.

This is, however, a definitely blazing sauce, meant strictly for chileheads. It comes with a restrictor cap, which I didn't mind, for reason I'll get into shortly, but even with that, I can't imagine many non-chileheads enjoying this much. The main sort of issue I have with this is in flavor balance. When using black pepper, then also using a chile powder rather than the actual pepper, you run the risk of creating a high prominence of bitter flavor notes, particularly if that pepper happens to be a superhot as it is here. For me, this sauce winds up frequently being overly bitter, which the restrictor cap did a decent enough job of helping me control. What I think I'd like to see here is one of two things: either the addition of a bit of sugar to temper that bitterness or perhaps using pods instead of powder on the Reaper side. I don't think I've run across too many times when I've run across Reaper powder and enjoyed it, though I think the peppers do have a great flavor and have enjoyed many sauces with that component in it. Not so much on the powder side.

I will say also that this is one of the more flexible sauces I've come across. I wound up using this on the obligatory fried foods, and cream dishes, given the resemblance, to me, of the two sauce types I noted above, but additionally, it was quite good on pizza and burgers as well. In a pinch, I think it's probably neutral enough to at least be passable in Asian dishes, but I'd probably draw the line at Mexican food, given that I tend to dislike vinegar-forward sauces in that setting and there's enough here for me to be dissuaded. This was one of the sauces I used to help me build tolerance when I was prepping for some challenges, so there is that aspect as well.

Bottom line: This is a dynamo of a sauce, very aggressively punchy heat, with some excellent flavor notes of Fresno and black pepper. If you're a chilehead who likes Louisiana-style or Cajun sauces but wish they were less vinegary, this is definitely worth a go.

Breakdown:

           Heat level: 3
           Flavor: 8
           Flexibility: 8
           Enjoyment to dollar factor: 8

Overall: 7

CaJohn's Monster Series Quad-Review

CaJohn's Rougaroux
CaJohn's Leviathan
CaJohn's Cerberus
CaJohn's Hydra

Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IOpSt1_kOLw

This is probably the one and only time I'll be doing this, which is what I said after the last multi-review, which featured a number of sauces from Flashpoint, all variations on a theme, but it is exactly that, variations on a theme, which I guess, in my mind, makes this a more fitting setting, even if I sort of dislike it in practice. Here we have 4 of the 5 sauces of the CaJohn's "Monster" line, the fifth and not present sauce being El Chupacabra, which has onions and thus merits its non-inclusion. I can't speak to that one, but 3 of these share a commonality of secondary ingredients, with varying peppers as the main ingredients being changed out. Those ingredients are: vinegar, garlic, Scorpion, sugar, salt, "spices," and lemon extract. How the peppers interact with those ingredients, in particular either the Scorpion peppers or powder, whichever is present, and the lemon extract, varies, but I will say that the three sauces with this facet would be notably better without the Scorpion and lemon extract. The Cerberus, which does not have either, comes off considerably better, in my view, because of that lack. 

The application for all of these is the same, which is the same vein as a Louisana-style or Cajun vinegar-forward sauce and part of the reason I decided to do the review this way, which is weighted from lowest to hottest heat, by the by, is because when I was doing testing, it was usually all 4 of them at once, on the same food items, in an attempt to differentiate their identities. What I found was that, aside from the Cerberus, there is not much differentiation to be had. They are all generally the same in loose consistency, with the addition of a bit of grit in the Rougaroux being perhaps the main textural difference between them. The Cerberus was definitely its own thing and we'll get into that more as this progresses.

I opened all four of these for a video I was doing called the Lavapuff Challenge and it was my third video in that series (it is in the Challenges playlist at right), and the Rougaroux was one I initially liked quite a bit. I don't tend to actually review sauces upon initial opening, though, as they tend to change and that's exactly what happened with this one. Featuring predominantly yellow peppers, this slightly gritty and very astringent sauce, rather neatly wrecks the Scotch Bonnets in it by overpowering them with the highly floral notes of the Scorpion and Fatalii peppers, and unpleasantly enhanced with the lemon extract. This is one I kept long enough to shoot the video and then binned immediately after, with maybe half of it gone. Heat-wise, it is definitely punchy, on the lower side of a 2, so definitely a challenge for a non-chilehead.
Rougaroux Breakdown:

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

Overall: 2

The Leviathan, conversely, based on the Chocolate Habaneros, a pepper I generally tend to like, fared the poorest of all of them on initial opening. Over time, however, this turned into one that I thought fairly highly of. Heat is somewhat higher than the Rougaroux, figure maybe a mid-2, but we also have the nice richness and depth of those Chocolate Habs, before the Scorpions and lemon extract inevitably rear their ugly heads. This is one, like the Hydra, that I will be slow-walking and may or may not finish the bottle.

Leviathan Breakdown:

           Heat level: 2
           Flavor: 5
           Flexibility: 4
           Enjoyment to dollar factor: 4

Overall: 4

 

Before we get to the Hydra, which was the hottest of the lot, we have the surprising Cerberus. Given that it was both the mighty, mighty Reaper and 7-Pot Primo, along with Douglahs, I expected this one to be the hottest of the bunch and it definitely is chilehead-only territory, a very strong 3, it is not the punch I had expected. It is the thickest of the batch and this one thankfully forgoes the lemon and Scorpion and is by far the best-tasting of the bunch. It is quite chili-forward and you can really get a good feel of both the Reaper and 7-Pot Primo flavors, although it tends more towards the Reapers. This one is my overall favorite of the lot here and not just because I like the color of the sauce the best. I will go so far as to say that if it was just slightly sweeter, this one would be something special. As it is, it's just much better by comparison here. One bit of oddness here is that this one tends to get very harsh in the back of my throat, which I find rather odd.

Cerberus Breakdown:

           Heat level: 3
           Flavor: 8
           Flexibility: 6
           Enjoyment to dollar factor: 6

Overall: 6

Last up is the Hydra, which was meant to just be 7-Pot Primos. Maybe even at one time that's all it ever was. Here though, it gets the dreadful base mentioned in the first paragraph and it rather neatly ruins this sauce. You can get traces of the 7-Pot, but it's ultimately beat to death at the hands of flowery Scorpions and lemon extract, which is a shame. This one is easily the hottest, coming in at a 4.That heat level, along with the ghostly off-notes, makes this good for a tolerance builder and little else, sad to say. 

Hydra Breakdown:

           Heat level: 4
           Flavor: 4
           Flexibility: 4
           Enjoyment to dollar factor: 4

Overall: 4

HAB Murder Mango Hot Sauce Review

HAB Murder Mango

Note: This sauce was provided for purposes of review by Roger Damptz of Burn Your Tongue, legendary hot sauce emporium. Check him out on Facebook.

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m21GafIYlvA

There is quite a bit to unpack with this, the second entry from HAB sauces I've had, and I'm not sure I'm up to the task. This is, I will note, a distinct positive. Let's start with the name, which is a reference to this sauce in relation to other Habanero-Mango sauces, and I will dissent on this a best, for reasons we'll get into a bit later. The label features this amazing anime-styled art with a couple of females, one is what looks like an angel on one side and the other side with half of the top of her head missing, like someone took a melon baller to it or something. I don't know what to make of this, exactly, or what relation it has to the sauce, but the artist is incredibly talented.

As for the rest, let's get into that. Again, all the fanciness on the outside of the bottle doesn't matter if the inside isn't any good and this one definitely is not only good, but, dare I say, inspired. Here's the thing: when you're deciding to make a very established sauce type, you can go either one of two ways. You can either do what everyone else has already done and try to make it either better, or close to, what others on that path have done or you can throw it all out and go for something entirely unique. They here have chosen the latter.

We have Bulgarian Carrot Peppers, which I have not ever come across before, along with Habaneros, the mangos, some citrus notes, a healthy amount of apple, and one of the better uses of banana I've had in a hot sauce. This results in one of the most fantastic taste experiences, albeit on the sour side, of a sauce I think I've yet had, which strikes me as remarkable, considering the increasingly hefty list just on this blog (I had quite a few before starting this, of course). The balance of flavors, while also allowing the main ones to get in with their own flavor notes, borders on magical and despite this being a sour sauce, I like it quite a lot. 

Given that it is sour, however, that does dial down the flexibility for me, as well as taking this right out of the running, in terms of "murderizing" the competition of the upper echelon of this type of sauce (which I've discussed somewhat in the Gindo's Mango Habanero, my pick for the best of the lot, review, which is elsewhere here). Heat is also decidedly minimum. It is a strong 1 for sure, but never really builds much beyond that. I find this approach an absolute marvel and if you're a fan of sour sauces or of tropical fruit-based sweet hots, this one should be a must on your list.

Bottom line: An experiment that almost shouldn't work with me, given both the sour direction, and the inclusion of bananas, but yet not only does it, it is a near-breathtaking experience. Very impressive showing. 

Breakdown:

           Heat level: 1
           Flavor: 8
           Flexibility: 4
           Enjoyment to dollar factor: 10

Overall: 6

Merf's Peaches & Scream Hot Sauce Review

Merf's Peaches & Scream

Note: This sauce was provided for purposes of review by Roger Damptz of Burn Your Tongue, ace hot sauce purveyor. Check him out on Facebook. 

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AAUur8o7h4Q

This is a kind of odd coincidence, in that this is the second sauce to not only use the play of words of "peaches and cream," but the second I've done this year, the other being from Ginger Goat, reviewed elsewhere here. And both of them sort of call to mind the question of what's in a name. When I hear a word in the name of a sauce, there are certain expectations. If that word is peaches, I anticipate that flavor. Now, the overall tone may be different, ranging from the aforementioned Ginger Goat, to the absolute best of that type, the Eddie Ojeda peach sauce, which tastes like about the very best peach pie or cobbler you're ever likely to have in this life, but the idea is if you put an ingredient in the name of a sauce, it should be represented, probably heavily, in the flavor profile.

This one, however, seems to dispense with that reasoning. There are many flavors present here, most of them fairly undertoned, but peach is generally not among them. Given that it is, at best, a fairly light flavor and in the ingredient list, it falls behind several other stronger tastes, no real surprise there. This is not the only bit of oddness to this sauce. Generally, when we see sweet-hots, particularly fruit-based ones, they tend to be on the thicker side of things, all the better to hold to stuff, especially when they're also meant to be a dessert sauce. This absolutely will not work there, but it is also quite watery and runny, nearly the equal of your favorite Louisiana-style.

I somewhat question the ingredient label, to a degree, in that the Reaper is the very last ingredient on the panel, but this is quite a fiery sauce, as in chilehead-only territory, well beyond most Habanero sauces (that ingredient is around where peaches is). We also have both carrots and mangos, not to mention vinegar, the flavor profile of all of which show up to a fashion, but are not mentioned in the sauce name. I think part of the issue here is that it's very unclear what this sauce is meant to be. The runniness precludes it from a number of areas it might normally go, and the flavor profile knocks that number down further. What is really curious is that if you use it on breaded foods, which is usually a safe bet for runnier sauces, as it gives something to absorb into, the flavor sort of vanishes and you get this weird effect of the vinegar cutting down somewhat the richness, while leaving a heat charge behind. It's one of those sauces where I have to find places for it to fit and I think this definitely works to disadvantage here. 

Bottom line: A rather unique sauce, best reserved for chileheads, and one that does not really have an obvious natural fit, with a the profile and looseness of the sauce working against it somewhat.

Breakdown:

           Heat level: 3
           Flavor: 6
           Flexibility: 3
           Enjoyment to dollar factor: 5

Overall: 4

HAB Pineapple Habanero Hot Sauce Review

HAB Pineapple Habanero 

Note: This sauce was provided for purposes of review by Roger Damptz, of Burn Your Tongue, esteemed hot sauce emporium. Check him out on Facebook.

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

HAB is a sauce company I only recently came across and I find their approach to labels to be pretty admirable, at least on the artwork side. The name of the company, as one might expect, is derived from the venerable Habanero, which appears, if memory serves, in every one of their sauces. All the fancy artwork in the world plastered on the outside of the bottle is great, but it's what inside that matters, of course.

Here, we have a very solid, very steady approach to the Pineapple-Habanero hot sauce, in which we have a strong lean on the pineapple puree side of things. In addition to making it a touch pulpy, it also requires some degree of agitation or else you'll wind up with I did in the early part of the bottle, which was a fairly heavily intensive lime flavor, which I didn't think worked at all well. Fortunately, the flavors settled in as I got further along in the bottle enough to agitate it and we have a ultimately a pretty nice approach.

With only the Habanero, this won't be burning anyone's face to cinders, but the combination of garlic with the pineapple and the soft heat of the Habanero sets this one apart a bit. The salt is used quite effectively and judiciously as well and for this style of sauce, this probably borders on about the best it is ever going to be. Now, for my preference, I would have preferred a bit more sweet to the pineapple and I wish it was a tad less loose, but those are minor quibbles. In every application I would normally enjoy this kind of sauce, it was pretty wonderful and one advantage to using that sort of puree style is that it will work extremely well with grilled meats, up to and including burgers, so nice bonus there.

Bottom line: I got a few, but this is my first introduction to HAB and so far so good. While this sauce isn't a dazzler, what it does very well and if you need an introduction to this style, this is a very good starting point.

Breakdown:

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

Overall: 6

Gindo's Mango Habanero Hot Sauce Review

Gindo's Mango Habanero

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGFBxFUH-Z4

Note: This sauce is courtesy for purposes of review from Roger Damptz of Burn Your Tongue, legendary hot sauce emporium. Check him out on Facebook. 

I don't have a lot of hot sauce companies where any entry from them, in a given year, is automatically going to be a danger of being in contention for Sauce Of The Year, but Gindo's is definitely one of them. Their approach to sauces is, I think, near unrivaled and the output speaks for itself. We have always delicious, high quality bottled results, which do a great job of letting the ingredients shine, will also having its own composite identity. Sometimes that identity works better than other times, to be sure, just the way it goes with these things, but any sauce from Gindo's that I'm having for the first time in a given year is one I tend to view with great anticipation.

It has been a bit since I've had one...I think I wound up skipping them in 2023, due mainly to their model of how they like to go to market, but I was excited to see this one. I surely do love me some fruit-based sweet-hots for a sauces and despite having a lot of Habanero-mango sauces, which are nearly always a mixed bag, I felt a lot safer with my taste buds in those capable hands...that sounded kind of odd, but I do trust Gindo's to deliver, particularly in flavor, and that is always the most important consideration. Indeed, if there was one sauce maker I would point to for those non-chileheads who say hot sauce never tastes good, it would be Gindo's.

So, I do not say this lightly, but this is probably the best Habanero-mango sauce I've ever had. Happily, this one veers toward the sweet side of the fruit and pairing it with some nice yellow and red bell peppers allows those to shine also, as well as drawing in a bit of the fruitiness of the Habanero. Pink Himalayan salt shows up in the mix, which is always a brilliant touch in a sauce, and what we have here is just an incredibly delicious concoction. Given that it's a Habanero sauce, heat was never going to be particularly high and it definitely isn't here, which should make this readily accessible to non-chileheads as well. 

Bottom line:

Gindo's is a sauce company every chilehead should know about and experience and once again, the company delivers the goods here, checking in with my pick for the top of the heap for Mango Habanero sauces. 

Breakdown:

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

Overall: 7

Hellicious Classique Hot Sauce Review

Hellicious Classique

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

This is, if memory serves, my very first review of a sauce hailing from France and I was going to start this off by saying leave it to the land of the heart of cuisine to show everyone how an established hot sauce style should be done, but that would be overstating it quite substantially. While what we have here is very flavorful, vibrant and lively, as well as quite delicious, and certainly it would be in the upper echelon of this style, the formerly hot trend of Habanero-carrot, I find the attempt to gussy it up a bit also tends to limit the flexibility somewhat.

So, let's start with the good parts. I love, as in absolutely adore, the aesthetics of this bottle, from the simulated metal embossed label with the sauce maker's name and logo, to the minimalist approach of the label, while leaving enough room on the surface of the bottle to get a good look at the gorgeous color of the sauce itself, to the bottle, which is definitely a throwback with its very heavy and solid glass bottom, even to the nifty metal cap. Also, I find the flavors of this sauce really emphasize that of the ingredients as vegetables. You get quite a sense of the carrot and the Habanero, as well as an ingredient I don't run across much in general and don't know if I've ever had in a sauce, the Habanada. 

For all of those good, though, there are some not as good. The cap is pretty flexible and seems like it would deform easily. The bottle is listed as 100ml, which is a bit over 3 fluid ounces or 3/5 of what the "normal" hot sauce bottle is here...and then we need to talk about the contents, the sauce.

As to the sauce itself, there is precious little heat here. As it is Habanero, it can build a bit, it just never does to any great extent. Heat is clearly not the goal with this one and it makes a one, but only just, as in barely. Further, there is a tendency of this sauce to want to be the main star and indeed, if your usage is with a focus on this sauce, it's fine. Add it to anything slightly complex, and we get the cancellation effect, which has the negative tendency to really bring out the floral and perfumy aspects of this sauce, which I personally find none too enjoyable. I found this to be best when I used it with relatively unadorned meat and didn't really love it anywhere else, even though I will note this sauce is quite good-tasting solo. For a style that was meant to be an "everyday" sauce, this falls more than a bit flat there.

Bottom line: Ultimately, this is a very interesting and unique take, a spin, as it were, on an established sauce style I don't see a lot of people doing lately. Where you use this, along with how much you enjoy a floral nature to your hot sauce, will greatly influence how much you enjoy this. 

Breakdown:

           Heat level: 1
           Flavor: 6
           Flexibility: 2
           Enjoyment to dollar factor: 7

Overall: 4