Hellfire Detroit Bourbon Habanero Ghost Hot Sauce Review

Hellfire Detroit Bourbon Habanero Ghost

Note: This sauce appears on Season 13 of The Hot Ones.

Note: Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QelLdMulb04

This is one I've had on the shelf for quite a while, since the previous entry from them I found to be okayish, but more a puree than an actual sauce and a bit on the underwhelming side. Further, the leadoff ingredient was apple cider foot vinegar, along with questionable elements such as lime, and with bourbon in the name, that was likely to be prominent. Booze in sauce can very easily go bad and the vast majority of sauces I've had with it in there, from beer to hard liquor to wine, I tend to find an unpleasant presence. This one was another with the impetus more on coverage of sauces on the show and I fully expected to have to use it as a grill sauce.

Looking closer at the ingredients, I did see fire-roasted Habaneros and smoked Ghosties and felt a glimmer of hope. I love fire-roasted peppers, probably my favorite way of having them, and smoked peppers can also be a great addition. Add in black peppers, which this does, and things started to look up. I'd forgotten most of that by the time I actually got around to opening the bottle and was pleasantly surprised at the sauce inside. Like the other sauce from Hellfire Detroit, this one requires near constant agitation and there is quite a lot of pepper pulp, but the sauce overall was quite intriguing. It has a very unique and quite distinct flavor that sets it apart from nearly everything else I've had.

We have the initial hit of the vinegar, which gives way almost immediately to the fire-roasted Habaneros and then the superhot bitterness of the Ghosties. The aftertaste is more one of that black peppers and as you get further into using it, the bourbon begins to emerge more and more. This mirrors the heat as well, in that the initial taste is fairly low, but with a building pepper like Habanero coupled with the Ghosties, this can build a pretty nice little smolder. For me, it was past a 2, but not quite to a 3, so maybe 2.5, but if I give it the push to 3, I'm saying this is a chilehead only sauce, which I don't think is the case. This is strongly flavored enough that I think non-chileheads will find some degree of enjoyment here at much smaller amounts. 

Doing that may be a bit of a challenge, though, as this is not a very smooth sauce and its inherent chunkiness will tend to keep it in place on whatever you put it on, which can be a bit of a dilemma when it comes to blending flavors with whatever you're eating. I'd call that not necessarily a drawback but more something to keep in mind. I find it works better with meats and with less complicated foods where this sauce can more readily shine, so flexibility is a touch lower, perhaps.

Bottom line: This is another of the better sauces on the Hot Ones show and definitely speaks pretty well to my palate. It is also one of the few sauces that I find uses booze effectively in flavor combination. 

Breakdown:

           Heat level: 2
           Flavor: 9
           Flexibility: 5
           Enjoyment to dollar factor: 8

Overall: 6