Tuesday, March 25, 2025

Heatonist x Stranger Things Hellfire Club Hot Sauce Review

Heatonist x Stranger Things Hellfire Club

Often crossovers or “collabs” seem to blur the line between an actual intentional product that’s meant to stand on its own in the respective marketplace, perhaps both as collectible and viable product, and that of a strictly collectible novelty type item. I’m genuinely not sure which this is, as I don’t know if people collecting Stranger Things stuff is an actual thing, but there also seems to be enough design and care put into what the product actually is in the bottle that it moves away from being a blatant novelty type item. This was also part of a set with two other sauces (which I have no interest in, as they are both onion sauces), so if forced to choose, I would say it’s more meant to be an actual legitimate sauce.

If so, it is quite a strange one. Starting with mango as the first listed ingredient, but which does not show up particularly in the flavor profile, to Scotch Bonnet, one of the more underrated peppers in my book, possibly because it keeps winding up in sauces like this, which do nothing to showcase the majesty of the pod and are ultimately a bit on the iffy side. Both of those aforementioned flavors are flooded out by mustard, turmeric, and ginger powder, all of which combine to make an odd and bitter-flavored concoction. It is not quite a mustard and here and there bits of sweetness win out, but I’m not sure the ultimate aim here...possibly a Caribbean sauce of some type.

Without having a distinguishable flavor anchor (and I disregard any suggestion from any maker to put it on “any and every thing,” as that type of idea is just total laziness), it’s hard to know where to pair this, as the flavor gives no real indicator. This is not mustardy enough to go on foods where that condiment would normally be used, thanks to the ginger kind of skewing things, but it also is not really ideal for things like chicken tendies. It’s not bad, per se, but perhaps more unfinished than anything else, as you do have to account for the mustard, but it is far enough away from a mustard not to work in those places much, either. I guess you can say it is certainly unique, but I find more and more that is not an especially good attribute for condiments, especially in terms of pairing. Heat-wise, it’s only a Scotch Bonnet, so there won’t be too much challenge here.

Bottom line: All in all, this is kind of a lost sauce, in that it’s quite unclear who and what this is meant for. 

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 3
            Flexibility: 0
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 0

Overall: 1

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