Maritime Madness Newfoundland Screech Hot Sauce Review

Maritime Madness Newfoundland Screech

Support video available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J8_QG5du6g

Very interestingly named sauce, with wording that apparently has a variety of meanings and subtexts, though in this case, I think it refers more specifically to the brand of rum used in the sauce. This is one where the intent is to sort of straddle the line between a BBQ sauce (which Maritime Madness also has as a separate and distinct line from the hot sauces) and a hot sauce, which it rather deftly does. Therein, though, is a bit of a challenge.

I’ve spoken before about sauces becoming food-locked and in an effort to gain traction in two different worlds, say mustards and hot sauces or, in this case, BBQ sauces and hot sauces, it tends to diminish the overall flexibility of the sauces, in that you have to pair to multiple styles of condiment and usually fairly distinctive and often times quite forward flavor profile, whereas if you stick to just one, it reduces the things to pair with just down to overall flavor profile. While I suppose someone might add a BBQ sauce to Alfredo, for instance, it probably won’t be an especially happy flavor union.

So, with this one, the flavor sort of reminds me of a couple things. There used to be a BBQ sauce called Open Pit (no idea if it’s still around) that was fairly popular in the Midwest when I was a kid. I find this a bit reminiscent of both that and the Arby-Q sauce, which I’ve never quite understood what they were trying to do there, although it is better than either of those. It is perhaps closest to the Arby-Q sauce, just a much better version of it and not dreadful tasting, like I find that sauce to be. If you lean more into the BBQ side, this is where this sauce tends to do best, though I find the flavor to be overall somewhat subtle, with the garlic and rum showing up here and there, but frequently also with flavor cancellation, depending on where you use it. Heat-wise, this is Habanero & Cayenne, so it’s not particularly punchy. In fact, the heat sort of comes on a bit slowly and tamely and I doubt too many will find it to be particularly challenging.

Bottom line: A very likable sauce that manages to pull off the nifty trick of having a foot in both the BBQ and hot sauce worlds, respectively, though it tends a bit towards the latter.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 7
            Flexibility: 3
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 8

Overall: 5