Yin Yang Hot Sauce Review

Yin Yang

Yin and yang, the forces that contrast and complement to create a unifying whole, a very old observation of balance and the concept of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts. In this regard, I think the sauce is a success at living up to its name. We have some astringency from the vinegar, some light sweetness from the raisins, some minimal heat and smokiness from the fire-roasted Habaneros, and a scant amount of umami as well to sort of round it out and bring it all home, though for me, it could have used a lot more of it. What I will say is that it’s hard for me to describe this as a hot sauce.

I think it’s a fairly daring choice to use raisins. Hot sauces do not generally do that and I suppose on the surface, in a strictly literal sense, you can make any sauce “hot” by adding peppers, in some form or other to it. Spicy ketchup, for instance, could qualify. Yes, ketchup is more or less a sauce and if you add in, say mighty mighty Reapers, it will also be hot. But, if we’re talking about the condiment more colloquially known as hot sauce, it strongly suggests other things.

The reason why I called the usage of raisins a daring choice, other than the fact that I rarely see grapes being used, at all, in hot sauces, whether desiccated or otherwise, is the thought that grapes are rarely used for any sauce and as a flavor, do not really lend themselves especially well in terms of integrating into food. There are limited exceptions, to be sure, but overall, not so much. That is the smaller element here, though. The bigger one is that one of the most well-known brands of condiments utilizes them fairly extensively and has captured the minds and taste buds of people to such a degree that using them will immediately call to mind the comparison. I am, of course, referring to A1 Steak sauce. 

Indeed, in many ways, this reminds me of a much less flavor density, slightly smokier, and somewhat hotter version of that condiment, a familiarity that I find it hard to shake. This is even more strongly reinforced when, despite trying it on a variety of things other than grilled darker meats, I found it kind of baffling. Once I put it on the right food, things locked in and we got some of that food harmony that itself is a callback to the sauce name, particularly those umami-rich foods...which also bolsters the idea that this would do well to have more umami.

Bottom line: I’m not going to directly call this a mislabeled steak sauce, so much as noting that it worked better there than on everything else, where it didn’t work particularly well at all. I really like the concept, but think this either needs further refining or maybe reworking, or just a rebranding as an actual steak sauce. 

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 5
            Flexibility: 3
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 3

Overall: 3