School Of Hot Sauce Carolina Reaper Hot Sauce Review

School Of Hot Sauce Carolina Reaper

This is another of those that I came across on Amazon when I needed to throw in on a few extra bucks for free shipping. Sometimes other sauces that have this motivation behind me picking them up have worked out well and sometimes...well, sometimes they’re more like this. I should have probably known when the bottle was in a full shrink sleeve, but figured it was worth a shot. The ingredient list wasn’t super inspiring, but I’ve seen worse, and it didn’t have onions. I didn’t realize they had other peppers beyond the mighty, mighty Reapers, as I probably would have gotten one of those, but not to put too fine a point on it, after this, I’m not too inclined to attempt those...unless maybe someday I wind up needing a few extra bucks for free freight.

So, this is a sauce that does a number of things. It is very loose and comes with a restrictor cap, which it needs. It is in constant need of agitation, as the ingredients do not like to stay in suspension, so you can get wildly different flavor notes and heat at times...unless you remember to shake. It also definitely has Reapers, as this thing is chock full of superhot bitter notes, as well at a rather unfortunate amount of grit in the sauce. I can’t say this is a particularly nicely flavored sauce, as this thing is quite abrasively bitter, even with the chili powder and sugar additions. Given the mighty, mighty Reapers, this will have at least some use potentially as a tolerance builder, as it does have a good amount of punch.

That’s not really why I buy hot sauces, of course, but more for flavor. This one takes a certain amount of tapdancing around, as it can readily overpower flavor in a somewhat negative direction. Usage is probably more where you would use a Louisiana-style sauce, but I’m not sure how long-lived this is going to be for me, even in those applications. At this point, I’m entirely uncertain if I will finish out the bottle, as I generally don’t find this particularly enjoyable, which limits the flexibility for me somewhat.

Bottom line: I’m not really sure what they were going for with this sauce, but the end result is  definitely not one I find very favorable. 

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 2
            Flavor: 2
            Flexibility: 3
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 2

Overall: 2