Splintered Dirty Blues Hot Sauce Review

Splintered Dirty Blues

Alright, a 1 and a 2 and 3 and let's get going. What we have here is the usual Splintered framework, at least as far as the fruit-based sauces that I've done (as well as the one on deck - check TOC at right for any you may have missed), which is vinegar, Reaper mash, Jalapeno mash, salt, and both onion and garlic powder. This is the base upon which the various fruits lay upon and it's very interesting, because it almost functions as a control group. I quite like the idea, though the results vary for me pretty widely. This one, however, I'm happy to say, is my favorite of the lot by a pretty wide margin...at least for now. 

This is because the blueberries have a fresh and lively vibrancy, a freshness to them, along with a wonderful concentration of flavor. In the background, we have the aromatics and the peppers, with the Reapers bringing a slight degree of heat. While I still feel the onion and garlic powders are unnecessary and all the sauces would be better without those things, I will note that their base with fruit combination works the best here and the sauce by itself is pretty nice. It is not sweet enough to use on pancakes and it failed pretty considerably on blueberry pie, but it works well on ice cream and I could see it doing well with other breakfast foods, like sausage. Indeed, it is on meats where this really shines. Chicken, pork, and beef all worked wonderfully with it. I have my doubts on pairing it with fish, but I was tempted to go track down some buffalo to pair it with...I still might. I think it also could come together well with something like cheeses. 

For me, my preference with fruit-based sauces will always be towards the sweeter side of things and that might be my preference generally...discounting the Louisiana-styles and Mexican-style sauces, of course. I do think if you like fruit-based sauces, particularly the ones with blueberry, this one is definitely worth a go, even though it presents a side I don't think I've seen many of the other ones necessarily come forward with. Reaper has definitely been used with blueberries before elsewhere, but the berry taking on and meshing with the other components so well was something I was pleasantly surprised to find. Even with the Reaper, like the other Splintered fruit sauces, the heat here is pretty tame. 

Bottom line: Easily my favorite of the Splintered fruit sauces thus far and to my mind, probably the best. If you're a fan of blueberry hot sauces, this one should be on your radar. 

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 8
            Flexibility: 7
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 8

Overall: 6