Lauren Urban Farms Pink Panther Hot Sauce Review

Lauren Urban Farms Pink Panther

The naming convention of this sauce I find a little curious. There is no connection with the motion picture franchise, nor to Peter Sellers, nor to Henry Mancini, not even to the animated series from United Artists. The color of this sauce is decidedly not pink. Panthers were not a part of the creation of this sauce, which is understandable, given that they don’t actually exist and the word itself translates to leopard and/or jaguars. There is a genus of panthera, but that doesn’t refer to any specific big cat...all very curious indeed.

It is here that I will do that rare thing and directly refer you to the sauce makers website, where we can see pictures of this saucing, utilizing some nifty peppers, in creation and can at least understand the pink part of things. There are a couple of pods here that I don’t think I’ve ever run across before, certainly not in a sauce. They are the purple heirloom Bells, which I may have had in the past in another setting, though I don’t recall specifically now, and the buena mulata pepper, which is an offshoot of the Cayenne. The name is kind of fascinating as it refers in direct translation to a “good,” which is the buena part, though in this context it appears to often mean merry as well, female person of mixed African and European heritage, the “mulata” part. How this got applied to an ornamental pepper pod seems like it would be a fascinating story.

In any case, as far as its usage in a sauce, I found it to be very curious. There are definitely shades of Cayenne, but almost more like Cayenne-lite or maybe a more tamed version of Cayenne. It seems closest to a Lousiana-style or Cajun, given how extremely loose and watery the sauce itself is and this is another that probably needed to come with a restrictor cap. There were a lot of subtleties that were strongly reminiscent of home-canned pickles and the juice thereof, but not overtly...just subtly. I find the flavor here to be fascinating and somewhat light and delicate on the palate. Regrettably, in my experience, it also meant that it would wind up getting lost with various foods and after flavor cancellation, I’d be left with a vaguely peppery vinegar aspect. This is a shame, as the sauce is quite lovely in tone, but also means pairing must needs be judicious. There more you can get out of its way and let it shine, the better, so think some nice roast chicken, but I do believe it will also be exquisite in some vinaigrettes and dressings as well. 

Bottom line: I love coming across new pods and quite enjoyed my experience with this. It perhaps resembles most a Lousiana-style Cayenne or Cajun sauce, though a far more delicate one.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 8
            Flexibility: 4
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 10

Overall: 6