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