Angry Goat Aurora Berryalis Hot Sauce Review

Angry Goat Aurora Berryalis

I had finished up all of the entire Angry Goat lineup, at least of sauces I wanted to do, i.e. those without onions, some time ago and then noticed this gem popped up last year. I loved the label and it is probably one of my favorites from them, though most of them I view pretty favorably. Since Angry Goat is a sauce company I admire quite a bit (see the list of my favorite sauce companies in the SOTY list - link at right), so, after first checking the ingredient list, I put it on my list to get acquire ASAP. It took a while longer than expected, but I finally got my grubby little mitts on it. Once I did, I wasted no time in cracking it open and diving in.

Douglah peppers, as a superhot, are one that I have decided mixed feelings about. I have had them in places where I thought the flavor worked, but for the most part, they come across as way too sour for me to enjoy much. I figured if they were going to be in the optimal setting, it would probably be in those steely Angry Goat hands. I generally find most berry sauces to be intriguing, but berry sauces in general tend to be a bit on the lower flexibility side. Where they work, such as on red meat and pork, they work spectacularly well and decidedly less well elsewhere.

This one I put through its paces, with a bevy of tastes covering nearly everything I could think of, from the Arby’s Poppers (not sweet enough for that), to ice cream and desserts (way not sweet enough for that), to tendies and burgers and roast beef sandwiches and so on. The smell was very much superhot and the combination of Douglah with Ghosties was kind of a smart one, as in taking a questionably flavored chile and pairing it with the glory of Ghosties. There was also some tempering here with the berries, though I think they do get lost a bit, and maple syrup and black garlic powder, to dial down the sourness a bit, but there was still, for me, ultimately just a touch too much of it. There are a lot of interesting grace notes to be had and this is absolutely one that benefits from frequent agitation.

Douglahs are unquestionably superhots. Ghost peppers are unquestionably superhots. There has been a lot of discussion that the chocolate versions of chiles generally are the hottest varietals. I don’t know if that is true or not, as I’m not a pod guy, per se, but this sauce is absolutely chilehead only territory. It smells of superhot and tastes mainly of superhot and it’s hard to imagine normies enjoying this much.

Bottom line: One of the more blazing entries from Angry Goat, that both earns the bear on the label and delivers yet another quite intriguing flavor prospect, albeit a very chile forward one.

 Breakdown:

            Heat level: 3
            Flavor: 8
            Flexibility: 4
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 8

Overall: 6