Volcanic Peppers IO Thor's Hammer
Note: This sauce appeared in Season 12 of The Hot Ones.
Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDStNzWyl6s
So, the gorgeous front label of this is clearly hearkening to old Nordic tales and legends of yore, and the references and callbacks seem pretty pointed towards those epic stories and adventures of antiquity. Io was a maiden seduced by the ever-wandering loins of Zeus in the Greek mythology (or Jupiter in Roman mythology), so combining that with Mjolnir, the Norse god Thor's magic hammer, seems a bit...let's say incongruous.
However, Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system and orbiting it is a very volatile moon called Io, rife with volcanic activity. I imagine by now you're seeing the tie-ins and perhaps even a trend, which will become a lot more pointed as one of those volcanoes on Io is called Thor. The reference to Mjolnir I admittedly don't quite understand and find the full name a bit disjointed, but I love space and all those ancient myths in near equal measure, so the naming convention and lovely label hits a lot of favorable buttons for me.
As to the sauce itself, well here we have a rather action-packed bundle. Starting with a couple variations of Ghosts, we have a veritable smorgasbord of superhots, including the mighty Reaper, Scorpion, and some 7-Pot Douglah, along with a pepper I admit no familiarity with, the Jigsaw, and even some Thais, to round out the list, because dammit why not? In for a penny, in for a pound, and all that. Now, with this many superhots all congregating in one sauce, this is definitely going be both molten and also for chileheads only and that is absolutely the case for at least the latter. It could also make for a very bitter sauce, if not handled correctly.
Along with all of that, we have some garlic, some sugar, vinegar, the rather general "spices," and, in what I find the oddest accompaniment, some chia seed. Now, I like chia seed, and celery seed, and poppy seed, but those things all tend to have a very specific bitterness to themselves. Given all the superhots I mentioned, this is already going to tend towards bitter, but adding in the very specific bitter of the chia seed not only reads through, but also is something I find somewhat distracting, to the point where I wish it was not there. I cannot fathom why it actually is in there, if I'm being honest, but it definitely cut down enjoyment for me.
With that pepper blend, there is also a richness and depth to the sauce, at least before the bitter elements become hugely pronounced. It reminds me a bit of cooking down beautiful, delicious red peppers in to a consistency similar to tomato sauce and there are a number of sauced I've had that sort of take on that quality a bit, even towards flavor. This one approaches that aspect, but doesn't quite make it all the way there, which I find a bit of a shame. For me, I think I'd like this one sans chia and with a touch more sweetness, but as it is, it's great on burgers, perhaps mixed into a spaghetti sauce or other tomato-based sauce, pizza, nearly anywhere you'd use a Louisiana-style, including creamier sauce foods, and it does respectably well on fried foods. Honestly, the more you can pair this with a complex flavor, unless you really like those bitter notes of the chia greatly, the better off this sauce will do.
Bottom line: One of the hotter entries in the Volcanic stable and overall quite enjoyable, if also slightly confusing. If you're a chilehead, I will definitely say this one is a must.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 3
Flavor: 7
Flexibility: 9
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 7
Overall: 7
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