Captain Mowatt's Blue Flame & Fireberry Hot Sauce(s) Review

Captain Mowatt’s Blue Flame
Captain Mowatt’s Fireberry

A new (to me) sauce company hailing from Maine, more or less halfway between Boston and Bangor and damn near to Canada, one could argue, where the sauces all come in generous 8 fl. oz. bottles. I don’t now remember how I stumbled across it, but they had a few sauces that seemed pretty interesting, so I took a shot at ordering some delectables along with those sauces to sample and these are the first two I’ve gotten to. They are not, I should hasten to add, despite both using Red Jalapenos, Cayenne, and Birds Eye as the chiles in the mix, particularly similar sauces, but because I can’t get it out of my head when I see berries, I immediately think of desserts, as I did for both of here.

This was an error on my part. They are not really dessert sauces, not sweet enough, I would say. The Fireberry (raspberry) is slightly sweeter and the Blue Flame (blueberry) somewhat more umami in nature, but neither really lends itself well to desserts per se. Overall, in fact, I found they worked better on as a less sweet dipping sauce for things like jalapeno poppers and in the case of the Blue Flame, as accompaniment to breakfast foods, pairing with maple syrup a bit. I didn’t find them to stray outside of that greatly, but have considerable plans to put these to the fire when grill season rolls back around on things like burgers and chicken, at least for the Fireberry. I suspect at least one will make a pretty interesting grill sauce.

This is not to say I don’t enjoy them. I do think both of them have an excellent flavor, though I do favor the blueberry a bit more. Part of that comes down to the idea that I think blueberry lends itself well to sauces and syrups a bit more readily than does raspberry, which I generally prefer to be raw, from a flavor standpoint. I am having some fun trying these out on different things, but I can’t say that I’ve discovered any particular new and exciting combination...yet, anyway. Heat wise, neither of them is particularly hot, which is to be expected given the peppers involved.

Bottom line: A more savory approach to berry forward fruit-based hot sauces, which I find an interesting approach, but ultimately more middle of the road as a final result for both.

Blue Flame Breakdown:

            Heat level: 0
            Flavor: 5
            Flexibility: 2
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 6

Overall: 3

Fireberry Breakdown:

            Heat level: 0
            Flavor: 6
            Flexibility: 3
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 6

Overall: 4