TGI Friday's Ghost Pepper Hot Sauce Review

TGI Friday's Ghost Pepper Sauce

This is a pretty curious one, although it didn't seem like it would be from the ingredient list. That ingredient list I scoured over, as I'm wont to do, before buying it from Amazon, where, you know the drill by now, I needed some monies for free shipping. I wasn't aware this product existed, had never heard of it or seen it before, and when stuff like this comes along, that sort of fits the criteria I still have in mind, which is still, to a degree, "Habanero or higher," and has a well-known name attached to it, it strikes me that it's somewhat incumbent upon me to dive in. I have not seen an actual TGI Friday's restaurant in years and see them most in the frozen section of the grocery stores now, but for a time, they were pretty big and I spent a lot of time in one of them in particular, finding it, as I did, much more favorable than either Chili's or Applebee's. 

From that ingredient list, it seemed like a fairly straightforward Louisiana-style or Cajun style sauce. I've had Cayenne and Ghost before, am fond of both peppers generally, and the addition of garlic, while I wasn't super excited about, and the addition of sugar, seemed like this could be an interesting spin on things...that part, at least, is correct. It is interesting, but it's also somewhat confusing. I can't fathom what they were going for with this sauce. There are a lot of stray elements to it, which are listed in vague and undefined terms like "Natural and Artificial Flavors." I can't say for certain which is the cause, but there is a certain aspect to this that only comes from using powdered ingredients and it is a tad distracting.

The best use for this is where you pair it with stronger flavors and are able to mix it in. In places where this sauce would have the flavor be more forward, it falls down. Usage is more or less, then, along the lines of fried foods or creamy dishes, but, because of the additional elements, it can work somewhat okayish on pizza, which the other sauces in those styles tend not to, particularly. It is a touch runny, like those sauces, which may also preclude pizza somewhat, so as always, YMMV. Heat-wise, despite the presence of Ghosties, this is a mass market commercial chain sauce, designed to bring heat at a low level for anyone who walks in the door, which is most likely a non-chilehead, so while there are some light sparks there, it is nothing overly challenging.

Bottom line: Like most of TGI Friday's offerings, pretty solid in a way that puts it over the others in this category, but it is very much a chain sauce, with all the attributes that come with that.

Breakdown:

            Heat level: 1
            Flavor: 6
            Flexibility: 6
            Enjoyment to dollar factor: 8

Overall: 5