Djablo Original & Power Jab Hot Sauces Review

Djablo Original
Djablo Power Jab

Note: Djablo Power Jab appeared in Season 22 of The Hot Ones.

There is a very long and convoluted story about the Power Jab, of which the Original is also a part (and the Smoked would have been also, if I could have found it). Much of this will be covered in the accompanying video, but suffice to say that I loved the name “Power Jab” and earmarked it for the next available quarterly Wing Thing (those videos have their own playlist at right). When I opened the bottle, I was so taken with the flavor, which I found a fascinating spin on things, that I immediately looked up all the other sauces Djablo made. Seeing there were only three and they seemed related, I might just as well track down, if possible, some Filipino food, in a way similar to what I did in the Turmeric Bomb (reviewed elsewhere here) video. This, however, sent me on a bit of a rabbit hole journey and was far from clear cut.

To the sauces, the Power Jab both did and didn’t live up to its name. It is certainly hotter than the Original, which has precious little heat to speak of, but it also used the Scorpions in a way that accentuated the flavor nicely, no mean feat considering the floral nature, for which I have a general healthy disdain. This has a good balance of the peppers and garlic and some of the more herbaceous notes of the Original. It also flows very nicely, whereas the Original is quite thick and a bit grainy overall. All in all, I think the Power Jab is decently approachable.

Both of them are very interesting approaches to sauces, but for me, who is not so in love with herbs generally, the rather green and vibrant nature of the Original, which reminds me quite a bit of a green curry, is of considerably less interest. They are, all in all, dramatically different sauces, so combining them into one (partially because it was a bit of a struggle to find some Pinoy cuisine at all) review made a lot less sense once I got into the video filming and did them head to head, but by then it was far too late to turn back. The Power Jab I not only liked better, but found a lot flexible, as it not only worked well on most meats I threw it at, it was flavorful enough that it provided an interesting flavor note to several other foods as well. I don’t know that I would make either of these a “regular” per se, but I did enjoy the adventure aspect considerably.

Bottom line: I don’t know enough about Filipino food to comment on how these relate, but the Power Jab, as long as one likes garlic, is a quite excellent and distinct approach.

Breakdown Original:

            Heat level: 0
            Flavor: 5
            Flexibility: 3
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 3

Overall: 3

Breakdown Power Jab:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 8
            Flexibility: 6
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 8

Overall: 6

Cholula Extra Hot Hot Sauce Review

Cholula Extra Hot

Finally, the wait, the long long wait, the years, no, decades long wait is at an end and the sauce that early 90s era collegiate me wanted the most, had pined and longed for, has been released (unleashed?) into the world. This was very much a long time coming and was something that was on my personal wish list for a really long time. I’m not so much a Cholula enjoyer these days, but back then...

So, a little story time...though I’ve been a chilehead and interested in the spicier side of things for as long as I can remember, back when I was a mere lad of single digits of age, I was in a desert...metaphorically. Jalapenos were about as hot as things went in the upper Midwest back then, maybe moving slightly hotter if you hit one of the Asian places, like a Chinese or Thai or especially Mongolian joint, but no hotter. So, when I moved to the Southwest in the early 90s, I finally had a treasure trove of sauces, much of which originated in CA, stuff like Tapatio and so on. Eventually, I came across Cholula and it was very much a right place at the right time, as this was one of my earlier runs at fitness and so my lunch every day at college was some sort of salad with chicken and a combination of ranch and Cholula as dressing, a combination I could tolerate repeatedly and still keep me on the very of healthy eating...but, I always wished it was hotter.

There are rare things for me these days that are instant orders and most of them are food-related. New Samyang ramen noodle flavor will get my interest, new beer flavor I haven’t tried yet will often get my money, but this was instantly go time as soon as I saw it and it didn’t sit on the shelf more than maybe a day after I finally got it in my hot little hands (about a month ago, as of this posting date). The big question, of course, beyond is it hot, was did it live up to my much younger man dreams now 3 decades or so removed?

Kind of...it is hotter and the younger me would have appreciated that. For what I was mostly using it for, younger me would not have been bothered by the much more abrasive vinegar hit. However, younger me was not reviewing hot sauces and didn’t have a blog and older me is not so fond of that. The flavor of Cholula is still there, albeit with that slightly more forward than I would like vinegar hit, and I do like Piquin as a pepper, which is where the heat is coming from. It takes regular Cholula from no heat to a slight heat here, but I’m a bit puzzled why they also added the vinegar hit. All they needed to do really was to just make regular Cholula slightly hotter. As it is, this move knocks down the flavor slightly and, though I rarely mention price, as this sauce is twice as expensive as the regular, it also knocks down the value proposition slightly.

Bottom line: I don’t think it’s overestimating to say this is a dream fulfillment for many who love the Cholula flavor but wish it was hotter nor is there a way to overstate just how profound of an effect Cholula itself has, writ large. This is a product, in my estimation, they needed to make and I’m glad they did, but ultimately, I just wish they would have done it a bit better.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 7
            Flexibility: 6
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 5

Overall: 5