Wicked Provisions Yellow Jacket Hot Sauce Review

Wicked Provisions Yellow Jacket

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4BAiJP2V12s

Hailing from Texas, we have a sauce that piqued my immediate interest as soon as I came across it. The idea of naming it after an insect is one that is a tried and steady habit of Pex Peppers, whom I believe has a similarly named sauce, however, for this one, they also make it a point to emphasize the grilled pineapple component, which was the more exciting part for me. I like grilling stuff and will grill just about any old thing, food-wise, that is, just to try it out, so fruits like apples (not enough moisture), tomatoes, peppers (of course), berries (don't bother), citrus (interesting, surprisingly) and a host of other stuff has all hit those hot grates at one time or another. The one hitting is most consistently has definitely been the pineapple, though, and indeed, that has been one of my favorite things to have at a churrascaria. So, there was no way I was not going to get this, after I'd made sure there were no onions, of course.

I did have a slight bit of pause with the apple cider vinegar and the ginger, two flavors that can wreak havoc in anything sort of subtly flavored, which I find pineapple generally to be. The ginger has no real bearing here, but regrettably, the apple cider vinegar reared its stinky foot-flavor aspect more prominently than I would have wished. The rest of it, the citrus juice, the Habaneros, and the grilled pineapple, combine to make a light and lively flavor, another thing I was wondering about, since the way I grill pineapple (and have it at the aforementioned restaurants) tends to have a heavier concentration of flavor and a lot of the carmelizing from the Maillard effect. That is not really the case here.

The heat here is a bit on the light side, but given the sort of effervescent quality of the sauce overall, tends to always surprise me by being a bit higher than anticipated. For all of that, though, it is definitely on the lower side of things. On pizza, which was the main application I had in mind for this, the apple cider vinegar isn't quite as detrimental, but put it on a lighter meat fried food and it tends to come through a bit more. Texture-wise, this is a lot like a puree and it reminds me a bit of an apple sauce, only from pineapple instead.

Bottom line: I like the concept of this a lot, much more than I liked the actual sauce. It's not unpalatable or anything and I will finish the bottle, but they could have had something unique and spectacular instead of what's here, which is underwhemlingly okayish.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 7
            Flexibility: 4
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 5

Overall: 4