Moto Hot Sauce Review

Moto Calabrian Chili

 

Note: This is the 700th overall hot sauce review on this blog. 

Calabrians are one of my more favored pods. There is an entire post to the effect of which pods are my strong preference, which can be accessed via the SOTY Link at right. Consequently, I always get a little excited when they’re used in sauces, though, truth be told, the resulting sauce I enjoy about half the time. Of the half that I do, it tends to be a lot, while the other half I enjoy less well I find a bit underwhelming. Of course, one never knows until you crack open the seal and get into the bottle.

I really like the bottle. The packaging is all-around very slick. On the label, there is a scooter with a background of flame and it’s very nicely structured with the text. “Moto” is an Italian derivative of the Latin “motus,” which means movement or motion and so I figured this was an Italian sauce. I didn’t investigate too closely, though, as I was already sold on the appeal. It is not, in fact, Italian, but from Northern Cal, but I’m wasn’t overly upset with that revelation. The majority of my favorite sauces are from the USA, though sometimes with regional ingredients, like the Calabrian pods, this can work against it.

So, I made a special trip to get a bottle, cracked open the bottle and was nearly instantly dismayed. I am not even remotely a fan of oils and fats. I hate the mouth feel and generally dislike the flavor of it by itself. When used in sauces, it tends to make them a bit thicker than I would prefer and they tend to come across as heavy. This was exactly the case here, more akin to a salad dressing than hot sauce, despite more heat than salad dressings usually have. It is only Calabrians, though, so heat is quite tame. Ok, fine, the first shot was at room temp and maybe I’d like it better chilled, as what happens sometimes with hot sauces. So, I tossed it into the fridge door and forgot about it while I did some of the other sauces around it and contemplated what I could conceivably pair it with.

To that, the best thing to do with this is to try and seek balance. So, anything astringent or on the lighter side, like tomatoes, it works well. Pairing it with cheese was...not great. It is another that would work well with a tomato sauce Italian dish, but not at all with something like a Carbonara, unless you used this in place of some of the heavier parts of that sauce. It is very low in sodium and has no black pepper, so using it on something with black pepper and/or a higher salt content is also quite nice. If whatever you’re thinking is heavier, then it is less useful, unless you want richness on top of richness, which, for me, is just too much. I didn’t love the flavor here, as the Calabrians were not forward enough, but in the right application, it can be pretty nice. You may just have to cast about a bit to find the right light for it…

Bottom line: I can’t really say this is a good representation of Calabrians, as it comes across to me as far too oily, but if you’re up for some experimentation, this can be pretty fun to play with.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 5
            Flexibility: 4
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 5

Overall: 4