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

Salsa Sinaloa Gourmet Tropical
Salsa Sinaloa Gourmet Mango Habanero

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxfveofz4NA

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.