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
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