Ginger Goat Harvest Heat Hot Sauce Review

Ginger Goat Harvest Heat

Yet another very intriguing entry from another company I’m finding increasingly creative, this one hailing from north of the border in Canada. Canada, as a country, digging hot sauce makes quite a bit of sense, particularly in the colder months, but I wonder if they are growing the pods up there directly or if they are bringing them in. I’d think the former, but have no idea what the growing seasons are up there. It seems likely that certain segments regionally of the lower southeastern United States would lend themselves better to this, but I’m not a pod grower nor do I have plants of any kind, truth be told, so perhaps it’s just idle speculation on my part.

Regardless, what they have done with this sauce is to sort of incorporate an almost more historical collection of harvest time goodies into a sauce, with roasted squash and cranberries. I find this a pretty neat idea, though I will also say that the squash seems to contribute moreso to texture than to flavor. This is very definitely a cranberry sauce first, with perhaps slight notes and what very moderate heat there is from the Ghosties, and little side grace notes here and there from the other elements. It is not exclusively cranberry, though that is the most forward flavor.

One of the larger disadvantages of using this particular ingredient is that cranberries tend to get locked fairly tightly into one mostly annual meal, that of the “traditional” American Thanksgiving feast of roast turkey and all the attendant trimmings. That is not to say it’s not eaten outside of that, but cranberry and turkey tend to be thought of hand-in-hand, when people think of cranberries at all, to which I don’t think there is a lot of thought to them outside of that...maybe cranberry juice, for a mixed drink or a change of pace here or there, but by and large, they tend to be more time-locked to that specific time of year and setting.

As good as this sauce is, it is not going to change that and to that end, the flexibility of sauces that use this ingredient tend to take a dip. What this does, it does very capably and effectively and the results are absolutely delicious, without question. I quite enjoy this sauce in that setting and it would probably be equally good in the any of the myriad tv dinner spinoffs (though I don’t usually partake of those) or in sandwiches with say turkey and maybe a bit of cream cheese, but for me, I don’t particularly like cranberry with chicken or fish or anywhere outside of that.

Bottom line: This is a sauce where the application will largely dictate enjoyment, but what it does there, it does remarkably well. Huge gateway potential with this one. 

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 9
            Flexibility: 3
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 7

Overall: 5