2K20 Q1 Update
I’ve decided, at least for now, to go back to quarterly updates here. It is an interesting challenge, to keep up with the pace I’ve set for myself with the FOH series. The response to COVID-19 is going to impact the FOH series somewhat,
without some major reversion. I have enough in the pipeline to go
through the end of April, but filming further episodes may be somewhat
challenging in the near future. It has been doing a great job of driving content for the blog, so it’s working out well, to this point. It’s also a great load of fun and I’m hopeful that everyone has checked it out and enjoyed it. It both allows me to branch out a bit, as well as to keep this blog consistent, at least in terms of content and tone...aside from one small difference, that being that I have also decided to open things up a bit and accept product, on a limited basis, for review. For now, that is mostly Roger Damptz, of Burn Your Tongue, up in Ogden, Utah, who has provided some products he wanted to see reviewed here and on FOH, but if manufacturers of hot sauce and/or spicy snacks (or restaurants either offering or considering spicy menu entries) out there happen to be reading this want to get in on it, please feel free to contact me.
The biggest posting year that the blog has ever had was 2013, with 52 entries. I’m not sure I’ll ever be enjoying that rarified air again, as I tend to finish through sauces before opening a whole bunch more (hence the inconsistency of posting schedule here), but between this and the FOH series, there should be a lot more content available from me...at least for this year. I don’t know how long I will be able to maintain the posting schedule at FOH, as I’m bound to run out of snacks and so on at some point, though right now, the non-sauce videos are greatly outpacing the sauce videos, at least in terms of planning and scheduling, but sauces should be good to go for (hopefully) at least all of 2020, regardless of COVID-19, assuming I don't wind up getting taken out by it, which is, of course, a very real possibility for all of us.
One of my goals, in addition to getting everything on my Standards AND the previous SOTY winners (as many as I can find, anyway) to have video support, is to start checking though the sauces (barring any that have prohibited ingredients, naturally) featured on The Hot Ones video show. I have posted a full list of The Hot Ones sauces throughout all 11 seasons and linked to the ones I’ve done. I also will be doing a quarterly round-up/fridge door sauce clean-up in the style of The Hot Ones, with the first episode coming out tomorrow, April 01, 2020 (no joke!).
Skip this paragraph and the next if you don’t share my love of statistics, but out of a total of 66 sauces on the show, I have done 7 in full reviews and 7 in mini-reviews. There are 4 sauces that are discontinued entirely. I have rejected 33 due to having onions, which leaves about 15 or so to do, assuming I don’t go back and expand the mini-reviews for the ones I've done there (unlikely).
All sauces that I have done that also appear on the show will have their reviews referencing that factoid, as well as in which season they appeared. There are zero seasons I currently will be able to do to 100%, so my goal now is really just to do as many as I can that I’ve missed, which I may possibly be able to do this year, as there are a lot of duplicates. As long as the show runs, I will keep tabs and update.
I also wanted to mention that due to a counting error, the totals were wrong at the end of the year for 2019 and maybe beyond. By my reckoning, I’m at 203 sauces overall already, with the 200th overall review (including the mini-reviews) being the Bear River Buffalo. I’m still a bit off with 200 full reviews and that total includes, as mentioned, the mini-reviews, but I’m going to wax philosophic for a moment...I always expected, when I started this blog and was doing it, that I would eventually hit that number, but for the early part of last year and even in 2018, it seemed very, very far away and as mentioned, I was considering running out what I had and then letting the blog drift more towards hiatus. Without Roger both bringing back BYT and clearing up a significant sourcing issue for me AND giving me the support, it is certainly possible it may not have happened at all, so, again, my deepest and mightiest heartfelt thanks that Roger is in my corner.
Right now, BYT, as it is situated in a closed mall, is, for all intents and purposes, mostly shuttered at the moment, but I look forward to the day I can triumphantly return to browse those shelves. I'm also hopeful he will move forward with an online shop. The Burn Your Tongue Facebook page seems to be the best place to get updated news from him, which would include stuff like I mentioned, so I will include that here: https://www.facebook.com/BurnYourTongue/. I know he definitely could use your support and definitely deserves it.
Take care, everyone, and thanks for dropping by.
Tuesday, March 31, 2020
Friday, March 13, 2020
Arthur Wayne Limitless Hot Sauce Review
Arthur Wayne Limitless Hot Sauce
UPDATE: Video support available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8igJ6M0i58
Note: This sauce was provided for purposes of review by Roger Damptz of Burn Your Tongue. Check him out on Facebook or, better yet, head on over to his new online outlet where you can shop the widest selection available anywhere, www.burnyourtongueonline.com.
I was looking through my sauces on deck to find something more along the lines of sweet hot. This one, with pineapple listed, likely as a sugar source, seemed a good bet. What I did not realize was that it also is a sauce I would consider more a super hot, with both Moruga Scorpions and Jolokias playing heavily into the mix. The text of this one lists it as "limitless" in application, hence the name, and I'm not sure I would argue that. It worked well on nearly everything I tried it on, though it needed to be used sparingly or would otherwise pretty handily overpower the flavor of what I was using it on. It also mentions this is a hotter version of a different sauce they make, but I was not able to get much of a read on what that flavor might be, as the Scorpions are very prominent here, both in terms of heat and flavor. I may try to track down that other sauce, though, as this seems like a pretty well-crafted sauce, even if it does not strike me as simply a hotter version of something else.
The heat is pretty immediate and comes roaring in, somewhat obliterating whatever other flavors might be there. The predominant flavor profile here is the Scorpions, so it is basically a sweeter aspect to an otherwise very hot pepper. If you don't like the flavoring of Scorpion peppers, you may struggle with this sauce somewhat. It does not have a restrictor cap, which could lead to oversaucing, which you probably really do not want to do with this one, but the sauce is thick enough, that kind of cap would cause issues. Have a care, though, as the heat can build and get fairly intense for a non-extract sauce. In fact, I would also go so far as to say this one is better left solely to the chileheads.
Bottom line: Heat here is pretty stepped up, so this is best to be used solely by chileheads. It can quickly overtake flavors of food, with the dominant flavor here of Scorpion peppers. While I don't love everything about it, it is also our first contender for Sauce Of The Year for 2020.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 8
Flavor: 6
Flexibility: 8
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 8
Overall: 8
Note: This sauce was provided for purposes of review by Roger Damptz of Burn Your Tongue. Check him out on Facebook or, better yet, head on over to his new online outlet where you can shop the widest selection available anywhere, www.burnyourtongueonline.com.
I was looking through my sauces on deck to find something more along the lines of sweet hot. This one, with pineapple listed, likely as a sugar source, seemed a good bet. What I did not realize was that it also is a sauce I would consider more a super hot, with both Moruga Scorpions and Jolokias playing heavily into the mix. The text of this one lists it as "limitless" in application, hence the name, and I'm not sure I would argue that. It worked well on nearly everything I tried it on, though it needed to be used sparingly or would otherwise pretty handily overpower the flavor of what I was using it on. It also mentions this is a hotter version of a different sauce they make, but I was not able to get much of a read on what that flavor might be, as the Scorpions are very prominent here, both in terms of heat and flavor. I may try to track down that other sauce, though, as this seems like a pretty well-crafted sauce, even if it does not strike me as simply a hotter version of something else.The heat is pretty immediate and comes roaring in, somewhat obliterating whatever other flavors might be there. The predominant flavor profile here is the Scorpions, so it is basically a sweeter aspect to an otherwise very hot pepper. If you don't like the flavoring of Scorpion peppers, you may struggle with this sauce somewhat. It does not have a restrictor cap, which could lead to oversaucing, which you probably really do not want to do with this one, but the sauce is thick enough, that kind of cap would cause issues. Have a care, though, as the heat can build and get fairly intense for a non-extract sauce. In fact, I would also go so far as to say this one is better left solely to the chileheads.
Bottom line: Heat here is pretty stepped up, so this is best to be used solely by chileheads. It can quickly overtake flavors of food, with the dominant flavor here of Scorpion peppers. While I don't love everything about it, it is also our first contender for Sauce Of The Year for 2020.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 8
Flavor: 6
Flexibility: 8
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 8
Overall: 8
Friday, March 6, 2020
Murder By Primo Hot Sauce Review
Jersey Barnfire Murder By Primo Hot Marinara Sauce
UPDATE: Video support for this sauce available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sS-i_LbNTyA
Note: This sauce was provided for purposes of review by Roger Damptz of Burn Your Tongue. Check him out on Facebook or, better yet, head on over to his new online outlet where you can shop the widest selection available anywhere, www.burnyourtongueonline.com.
Now, with a name like this, it's pretty hard to miss remembering it, which is a very smart touch from Jersey Barnfire. I didn't know they were the makers of this, in fact, until I started checking out the label and so on. It sounded like it might have been a superhot at the time I first saw it, so I took a pass. I mentioned it at some point to Roger, who also remembered it and threw in a bottle when he gave me the hook-up for review sauces. I also, it should be noted, did not know it was a marinara, either.
There is indeed a dearth of sauces on the Italian side of thing. Most of the time, if you're hitting up pizza, you're using something that isn't really intended for that, but which works well enough. Move to spaghetti or lasagna or any heavily Italian-oriented dish, though, and you run down pretty quickly into dried pepper flakes. Sure, this will do in a pinch, but quite a number of us have given a lot of consideration to why this style of food, given its prominence and popularity, doesn't seem to have many sauces aimed at it. This sauce goes a long way towards answering that question, I think. More on that in a bit...
First, though, the brilliance of the labeling here. We see nice slash writing across the front, with a sort of black and white montage, instantly calling to mind something out of a Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett story. The throwback to the black and white days is complete with the text on the back, which is clear intended to be a throwback to mafia mobsters of old. Just touches of absolute brilliance and I was pretty excited to try it as well, for the fact that I don't often run across Primo peppers too often in sauces.
So, I cracked the bottle open and immediately got another throwback, this one to more bygotten days of...let's just say it smelled skunky. How about that? If we're thinking the days of skunk weed, which is a scent pretty hard to forget after you're immersed for a while, and even if it's been multiple decades since the last time, any encounter is instantly recognizable, you're on the money. That the exact smell I got and I checked the label to see if it was also made with hemp or something. It, indeed, was not.
Sometimes something will have a fairly foul odor, but an overall good taste, which may or may not also reflect the smell. Not the case here. My guess is some interaction with the vinegar and the herbs and it seems much clearer now why sauce makers are not aiming anything at the Italian food side of things. I thought for years it was the clash of flavors, but that may be only part of the story. Whatever happened here has resulted in a foulness of flavor. If you can mask the flavor, there is a solid and fairly robust heat, but if you can't disguise this...far, far less enjoyable. I can't say it works a lot better on Italian food than any of the other ones I will usually use, even if it is a marinara. It's possible this is spoiled, but you can get quite a few of the shots at Italian flavoring staples to kind of see what they were going for, but this is a major miss for me.
Bottom line: This is a shame. Unless you really like the smell and flavor of skunk weed in your food, or really want to get a feel for Primo peppers and can't find anything else, steer clear of this one.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 4
Flavor: 0
Flexibility: 3
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 1
Overall: 2
Note: This sauce was provided for purposes of review by Roger Damptz of Burn Your Tongue. Check him out on Facebook or, better yet, head on over to his new online outlet where you can shop the widest selection available anywhere, www.burnyourtongueonline.com.
Now, with a name like this, it's pretty hard to miss remembering it, which is a very smart touch from Jersey Barnfire. I didn't know they were the makers of this, in fact, until I started checking out the label and so on. It sounded like it might have been a superhot at the time I first saw it, so I took a pass. I mentioned it at some point to Roger, who also remembered it and threw in a bottle when he gave me the hook-up for review sauces. I also, it should be noted, did not know it was a marinara, either.There is indeed a dearth of sauces on the Italian side of thing. Most of the time, if you're hitting up pizza, you're using something that isn't really intended for that, but which works well enough. Move to spaghetti or lasagna or any heavily Italian-oriented dish, though, and you run down pretty quickly into dried pepper flakes. Sure, this will do in a pinch, but quite a number of us have given a lot of consideration to why this style of food, given its prominence and popularity, doesn't seem to have many sauces aimed at it. This sauce goes a long way towards answering that question, I think. More on that in a bit...
First, though, the brilliance of the labeling here. We see nice slash writing across the front, with a sort of black and white montage, instantly calling to mind something out of a Raymond Chandler or Dashiell Hammett story. The throwback to the black and white days is complete with the text on the back, which is clear intended to be a throwback to mafia mobsters of old. Just touches of absolute brilliance and I was pretty excited to try it as well, for the fact that I don't often run across Primo peppers too often in sauces.
So, I cracked the bottle open and immediately got another throwback, this one to more bygotten days of...let's just say it smelled skunky. How about that? If we're thinking the days of skunk weed, which is a scent pretty hard to forget after you're immersed for a while, and even if it's been multiple decades since the last time, any encounter is instantly recognizable, you're on the money. That the exact smell I got and I checked the label to see if it was also made with hemp or something. It, indeed, was not.
Sometimes something will have a fairly foul odor, but an overall good taste, which may or may not also reflect the smell. Not the case here. My guess is some interaction with the vinegar and the herbs and it seems much clearer now why sauce makers are not aiming anything at the Italian food side of things. I thought for years it was the clash of flavors, but that may be only part of the story. Whatever happened here has resulted in a foulness of flavor. If you can mask the flavor, there is a solid and fairly robust heat, but if you can't disguise this...far, far less enjoyable. I can't say it works a lot better on Italian food than any of the other ones I will usually use, even if it is a marinara. It's possible this is spoiled, but you can get quite a few of the shots at Italian flavoring staples to kind of see what they were going for, but this is a major miss for me.
Bottom line: This is a shame. Unless you really like the smell and flavor of skunk weed in your food, or really want to get a feel for Primo peppers and can't find anything else, steer clear of this one.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 4
Flavor: 0
Flexibility: 3
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 1
Overall: 2
Friday, February 28, 2020
Pepplish Provisions Peach Agave Garlic Hot Sauce Review
Pepplish Provisions Peach Agave Garlic Hot Sauce
UPDATE: Video support available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ctYwBGc8UsQ
Note: This sauce was provided for purposes of review by Roger Damptz of Burn Your Tongue. Check him out on Facebook or, better yet, head on over to his new online outlet where you can shop the widest selection available anywhere, www.burnyourtongueonline.com.
This is one of those sauces where I'm not sure how to approach it. I would not normally be inclined to pick this up, with the ingredient list in the name not indicating a pepper of any kind. In a bit of BLUF action, I will say that how much you like this sauce will directly depend on how much you like agave. To me, it gets a lot more hype than it deserves and I struggle to think of anything with it as an ingredient that I like. I can tolerate certain margaritas, for instance, but if given my druthers, will tend elsewhere. That said, I try to be as open as possible in food adventuring, as long as there is not an ingredient that makes me actually sick or that I have tried enough to find wholly unpleasant. A read through the archives will give you an indication as to what those are. Agave, I will say, is not among them.
I also have some pause with the Peach part of things. Peach, even if you're eating one fresh, is a fairly light, subtle, even delicate flavor. Most of the sauces I've had with peach as an ingredient tend to have the peach washed out nearly immediately by whatever else is in there. Sometimes the result is still a great sauce, but peach is a flavor for me that, even if artificially amplified, still retains that delicate nature.
This particular sauce seemed to me to be flavored more along the lines of Mexican cuisine. I tried it on both pizza, breakfast burrito, and chicken strips as well. Despite the website feeling this can function as a barbeque sauce, for me, the only way that works is to mix it into actual barbeque sauce. They also mention a smokiness, which I don't find. There is an earthiness that tends to be in a lot of Mexican-style sauces, but it is countered by the strongly present sweetness. Here, indeed, the conundrum. The sauce's flavor profile strikes me as more Mexican, yet the sweetness precludes that working well in that setting. It is an interesting and unique-tasting sauce, but does not seem to have a natural home. It worked the best on pizza, but there's still quite a number of other sauces I'd rather have first there.
Heat-wise, it does have a bit of a spark to it. I'd put it right around a 3. That part was very pleasant and as I kept going with the sauce, I minded it less. I don't really have room for a sauce to grow on me, though. While I admire the spirit of experimentalism (and I think this is a very well-crafted and blended sauce, overall), this does not quite hit for me.
Bottom line: Fans of agave and heat should give this a shot. Very unique flavoring, but one that is just not resonant with me.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 3
Flavor: 4
Flexibility: 3
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 4
Overall: 4
Note: This sauce was provided for purposes of review by Roger Damptz of Burn Your Tongue. Check him out on Facebook or, better yet, head on over to his new online outlet where you can shop the widest selection available anywhere, www.burnyourtongueonline.com.
This is one of those sauces where I'm not sure how to approach it. I would not normally be inclined to pick this up, with the ingredient list in the name not indicating a pepper of any kind. In a bit of BLUF action, I will say that how much you like this sauce will directly depend on how much you like agave. To me, it gets a lot more hype than it deserves and I struggle to think of anything with it as an ingredient that I like. I can tolerate certain margaritas, for instance, but if given my druthers, will tend elsewhere. That said, I try to be as open as possible in food adventuring, as long as there is not an ingredient that makes me actually sick or that I have tried enough to find wholly unpleasant. A read through the archives will give you an indication as to what those are. Agave, I will say, is not among them.I also have some pause with the Peach part of things. Peach, even if you're eating one fresh, is a fairly light, subtle, even delicate flavor. Most of the sauces I've had with peach as an ingredient tend to have the peach washed out nearly immediately by whatever else is in there. Sometimes the result is still a great sauce, but peach is a flavor for me that, even if artificially amplified, still retains that delicate nature.
This particular sauce seemed to me to be flavored more along the lines of Mexican cuisine. I tried it on both pizza, breakfast burrito, and chicken strips as well. Despite the website feeling this can function as a barbeque sauce, for me, the only way that works is to mix it into actual barbeque sauce. They also mention a smokiness, which I don't find. There is an earthiness that tends to be in a lot of Mexican-style sauces, but it is countered by the strongly present sweetness. Here, indeed, the conundrum. The sauce's flavor profile strikes me as more Mexican, yet the sweetness precludes that working well in that setting. It is an interesting and unique-tasting sauce, but does not seem to have a natural home. It worked the best on pizza, but there's still quite a number of other sauces I'd rather have first there.
Heat-wise, it does have a bit of a spark to it. I'd put it right around a 3. That part was very pleasant and as I kept going with the sauce, I minded it less. I don't really have room for a sauce to grow on me, though. While I admire the spirit of experimentalism (and I think this is a very well-crafted and blended sauce, overall), this does not quite hit for me.
Bottom line: Fans of agave and heat should give this a shot. Very unique flavoring, but one that is just not resonant with me.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 3
Flavor: 4
Flexibility: 3
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 4
Overall: 4
Thursday, February 27, 2020
Bear River Bottling Lightning Hot Buffalo Sauce Review
Bear River Bottling Lightning Hot Buffalo Sauce
UPDATE: Video support now available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yfd4lx9lczI
Note: This sauce was provided for purposes of review by Roger Damptz of Burn Your Tongue. Check him out on Facebook or, better yet, head on over to his new online outlet where you can shop the widest selection available anywhere, www.burnyourtongueonline.com.
Next, due to some counting errors, this is actually my 200th written sauce overall review. I still have a few miles to go on the full reviews, but this is 200 overall.
Finally, and this is really related to nothing, but if I were this company, I'd move more towards calling the company BRB, as the "Bottling" part of the name almost makes it sound like a microbrewery.
All that out of the way, we can now get into things a bit. Longtime readers know that Cayenne is probably my overall favorite pepper and Louisiana-style one of my favorite sauces, but I almost never buy Buffalo, despite a certain unmistakable resemblance in flavor profiles. The reason for this is that I don't eat hot wings a lot, combined with my preference for wings, when I do have them, with a bit more of a creamy sauce. A lot of the Buffalo sauces are pretty hardcore vinegary, which is useful in a Louisiana-style sauce, but quite a bit less so in a Buffalo sauce.
This particular one leans a bit more into the Louisiana-style territory, but herein a bit of a conundrum. Should I view it as a Louisiana, it is way too busy in the ingredient panel for my suiting. There is not a great degree of heat here, either, but I don't need a ton of heat as much as I want a purity of flavor for the Louisiana-style. So, we'll look at this more as a Buffalo sauce.
Flavor-wise, it's fine. I wouldn't have too many complaints if I came across this in a restaurant. Again, it is a touch more astringent than I normally like, but I assure you, that would not deter me. The bottle is a larger size and it is pours quite well. The blend is such that I can't pick out overall elements particularly well, but there is a unique composite with overtones of garlic, vinegar and what I would characterize as a blend of the peppers, without one taking dominance over another.
Bottom line: This is not, at the end of the day, a sauce I would seek out, nor will I be replacing it. It occupies such a weird middle ground for me that there is not really a place it would fit nicely. If your taste runs more towards the vinegary side of things for wings, this is definitely one well worth a look.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 1
Flavor: 6
Flexibility: 5
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 8
Overall: 5
Note: This sauce was provided for purposes of review by Roger Damptz of Burn Your Tongue. Check him out on Facebook or, better yet, head on over to his new online outlet where you can shop the widest selection available anywhere, www.burnyourtongueonline.com.
Next, due to some counting errors, this is actually my 200th written sauce overall review. I still have a few miles to go on the full reviews, but this is 200 overall.
Finally, and this is really related to nothing, but if I were this company, I'd move more towards calling the company BRB, as the "Bottling" part of the name almost makes it sound like a microbrewery.
All that out of the way, we can now get into things a bit. Longtime readers know that Cayenne is probably my overall favorite pepper and Louisiana-style one of my favorite sauces, but I almost never buy Buffalo, despite a certain unmistakable resemblance in flavor profiles. The reason for this is that I don't eat hot wings a lot, combined with my preference for wings, when I do have them, with a bit more of a creamy sauce. A lot of the Buffalo sauces are pretty hardcore vinegary, which is useful in a Louisiana-style sauce, but quite a bit less so in a Buffalo sauce.This particular one leans a bit more into the Louisiana-style territory, but herein a bit of a conundrum. Should I view it as a Louisiana, it is way too busy in the ingredient panel for my suiting. There is not a great degree of heat here, either, but I don't need a ton of heat as much as I want a purity of flavor for the Louisiana-style. So, we'll look at this more as a Buffalo sauce.
Flavor-wise, it's fine. I wouldn't have too many complaints if I came across this in a restaurant. Again, it is a touch more astringent than I normally like, but I assure you, that would not deter me. The bottle is a larger size and it is pours quite well. The blend is such that I can't pick out overall elements particularly well, but there is a unique composite with overtones of garlic, vinegar and what I would characterize as a blend of the peppers, without one taking dominance over another.
Bottom line: This is not, at the end of the day, a sauce I would seek out, nor will I be replacing it. It occupies such a weird middle ground for me that there is not really a place it would fit nicely. If your taste runs more towards the vinegary side of things for wings, this is definitely one well worth a look.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 1
Flavor: 6
Flexibility: 5
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 8
Overall: 5
Thursday, January 23, 2020
Silk City Mango Madness Hot Sauce Review
Silk City Mango Madness Hot Sauce
Note: This sauce was provided for purposes of review by Roger Damptz of
Burn Your Tongue. Check him out on Facebook or, better yet, head on over
to his new online outlet where you can shop the widest selection
available anywhere, www.burnyourtongueonline.com.
UPDATE: Video support now available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8Bljtd29tw
To the sauce, even though I don't really wind up using them for piles of stuff, mainly pizza here and there, the ubiquitous chicken strips, fish sticks and maybe some pork here and there, I always harbor the thought that there are never quite enough fruit-based hot sauce. What I mean by that really, though, is there are not enough good fruit-based hot sauces. Part of this, I think, is the challenge of driving up heat, while also retaining the flavor signatures and profiles of the various ingredients. The best pepper jellies, indeed, will allow you to both taste the flavor of the peppers as well as get a slight heat charge. Certain peppers and fruits lend themselves better to this partnership than others, with the most famous perhaps being the raspberry chipotle combination.
Mango overall is one of the hardest fruits to use in a sauce, I think, because the fruit itself walks such a fine line. Too unripe and you get a lot of astringency and tartness to it, that is not really possible to counter and that effectively makes it a pointless ingredient and too sweet and it can easily, like nearly all tropical fruits, tend towards cloying. Pineapple in the mix further compounds this type of problem as well.
Here we have a sauce with not only both of those, but brown sugar in there as well. The heat comes from the Habanero, which works here to great effect, leaving us with an actual good fruit-based sauce. In fact, this is one of the better ones I've had overall. It is notably, but not greatly hot, so while it won't give any chilehead pause, they will find much to like in the flavor. It may be edging up there a bit for other folks, though, so one should probably want some heat with their sauce here. This one works pretty well in a variety of settings, as long as one is sticking generally to those foods I mentioned earlier.
Bottom line: Definitely on the higher edge of fruit-based sauces, combining excellent flavor and a respectable, enjoyable heat.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 4
Flavor: 8
Flexibility: 5
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 7
Overall: 6
Note: This sauce was provided for purposes of review by Roger Damptz of
Burn Your Tongue. Check him out on Facebook or, better yet, head on over
to his new online outlet where you can shop the widest selection
available anywhere, www.burnyourtongueonline.com. UPDATE: Video support now available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8Bljtd29tw
To the sauce, even though I don't really wind up using them for piles of stuff, mainly pizza here and there, the ubiquitous chicken strips, fish sticks and maybe some pork here and there, I always harbor the thought that there are never quite enough fruit-based hot sauce. What I mean by that really, though, is there are not enough good fruit-based hot sauces. Part of this, I think, is the challenge of driving up heat, while also retaining the flavor signatures and profiles of the various ingredients. The best pepper jellies, indeed, will allow you to both taste the flavor of the peppers as well as get a slight heat charge. Certain peppers and fruits lend themselves better to this partnership than others, with the most famous perhaps being the raspberry chipotle combination.Mango overall is one of the hardest fruits to use in a sauce, I think, because the fruit itself walks such a fine line. Too unripe and you get a lot of astringency and tartness to it, that is not really possible to counter and that effectively makes it a pointless ingredient and too sweet and it can easily, like nearly all tropical fruits, tend towards cloying. Pineapple in the mix further compounds this type of problem as well.
Here we have a sauce with not only both of those, but brown sugar in there as well. The heat comes from the Habanero, which works here to great effect, leaving us with an actual good fruit-based sauce. In fact, this is one of the better ones I've had overall. It is notably, but not greatly hot, so while it won't give any chilehead pause, they will find much to like in the flavor. It may be edging up there a bit for other folks, though, so one should probably want some heat with their sauce here. This one works pretty well in a variety of settings, as long as one is sticking generally to those foods I mentioned earlier.
Bottom line: Definitely on the higher edge of fruit-based sauces, combining excellent flavor and a respectable, enjoyable heat.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 4
Flavor: 8
Flexibility: 5
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 7
Overall: 6
Wednesday, January 22, 2020
Hot Winter Hatch Chile Hot Sauce Review
Hot Winter Hot Sauce
On to the sauce proper...actually, before I get to that, I should note that the actual name of this sauce is denoted by the chile shape on the bottle label. I'm not a great big fan of that, as I find the practice perhaps a bit over-cutesy. It does list, in much smaller letters, on the bottom, what the pepper the sauce is based on is, but I'd prefer it something more quickly legible.
Anyway, that aside, what we have here is somewhat of a classic green sauce, a sort of chile verde sauce, if you will. Indeed, many of the components of a classic chile verde are here and present, though, naturally modified into a hot sauce variation. It feels and looks a lot like a puree, which, again, hearkens to that chile verde motif.
Flavor-wise, there is a lot of earthiness here, mostly from the apple cider vinegar, which is used sparingly enough and in conjunction with various other elements that it doesn't quite approach the overbearing "stinky foot" issue that apple cider vinegar can easy lend to proceedings. It has a freshness that reminds me a bit more of a tomatillo sauce, though without either tomatillos or cilantro.
I'm reluctant to call this a hot sauce, though, as "hot sauce" at least strongly implies some degree of heat and it is nearly entirely absent here, as it does, featuring the wonderful tasting, but overall quite mild Hatch chiles. This is cited as a medium level sauce, which is using a scale quite beyond my understanding. It works quite well with Mexican dishes featuring either lighter colored meats, such as pork or chicken, or even cheese enchiladas. It works notably less well on redder meats and not especially well outside of that context, unless one really likes green chile flavoring a great deal. I suspect my wife will enjoy this sauce quite a bit more than I did, but it is quite well-made and the blend of ingredients is solid enough that I may check out further offerings from Hot Winter.
Bottom line: Very accessible and quite mild green sauce, which will appeal most to lovers of that sort of flavoring dynamic but offers little of interest to chileheads.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 0
Flavor: 4
Flexibility: 3
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 3
Overall: 3
Of note before I get to the review outright, among the continuing changes, as first started last year, I have decided to accept product for review, this sauce coming from the esteemed Roger Damptz of Burn Your Tongue in Ogden, UT. Where it is the case that a sauce is one that has been provided, I will include both a brief mention as well as something marking the origination, in this case, the BYT logo as well as strongly suggesting you head over to his new online outlet where you can shop the widest selection available anywhere, www.burnyourtongueonline.com.
*UPDATE* Video support now available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40H2R7JQMxs
Anyway, that aside, what we have here is somewhat of a classic green sauce, a sort of chile verde sauce, if you will. Indeed, many of the components of a classic chile verde are here and present, though, naturally modified into a hot sauce variation. It feels and looks a lot like a puree, which, again, hearkens to that chile verde motif.
Flavor-wise, there is a lot of earthiness here, mostly from the apple cider vinegar, which is used sparingly enough and in conjunction with various other elements that it doesn't quite approach the overbearing "stinky foot" issue that apple cider vinegar can easy lend to proceedings. It has a freshness that reminds me a bit more of a tomatillo sauce, though without either tomatillos or cilantro.
I'm reluctant to call this a hot sauce, though, as "hot sauce" at least strongly implies some degree of heat and it is nearly entirely absent here, as it does, featuring the wonderful tasting, but overall quite mild Hatch chiles. This is cited as a medium level sauce, which is using a scale quite beyond my understanding. It works quite well with Mexican dishes featuring either lighter colored meats, such as pork or chicken, or even cheese enchiladas. It works notably less well on redder meats and not especially well outside of that context, unless one really likes green chile flavoring a great deal. I suspect my wife will enjoy this sauce quite a bit more than I did, but it is quite well-made and the blend of ingredients is solid enough that I may check out further offerings from Hot Winter.
Bottom line: Very accessible and quite mild green sauce, which will appeal most to lovers of that sort of flavoring dynamic but offers little of interest to chileheads.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 0
Flavor: 4
Flexibility: 3
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 3
Overall: 3
Tuesday, December 31, 2019
Best Hot Sauce 2019 + Recap
Best Hot Sauce 2019 + Recap
Now in it’s 8th year for TSAAF and a lot of changes. Yes, definitely started slow, partially because I was having sourcing issues, that is until I discovered my favorite purveyor, Burn Your Tongue, was back in action again, and Roger, the proprietor of that fine company, gave me a shot in the arm and a boot in the ass to get going again. Thanks again for the support, brother! I can’t overstate it enough, as this blog was clearly headed into me finishing up the remaining sauces and then probably into hiatus, without Roger’s boost. It helps to have someone behind you in projects like this, for sure.
I also had occasion to meet Roger in person and it was great to hang out, check out some of his new stuff and talk hot sauces and the hot sauce world at large. We have a few things on the backburner and hopefully, we’ll be able to get some pretty cool stuff in front of you for 2020. He also gave me some goodies, which is the first time (that I recall anyway) I’ve accepted anything spicy for purposes of review. Many of the sauces will be showing up in 2020, but some of the other items have already shown up on the YouTube FOH series. You can find those in the “Everything Else” playlist, available here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAnn6WnuE_CK6y3X2bCzZTkh3bGUyv8H1
Speaking of playlists, as I first mentioned in the Special Annoucement post a few months ago, I have since added video support on YouTube for some of the sauces, which is in this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAnn6WnuE_CLmTR1bCja2mywi-trXdAJO.
It also bears mentioning that the FOH video series is NOT limited to hot sauces only, as this blog is. Right now, I am posting sauce support videos every Sunday and the additional content as it arises (but mostly Wednesdays). I have gone through a number of subjects not appropriate for the blog, such as snacks, a few head to head battles, including an ongoing nut tournament, a review of all of the hot sauce offerings of the major Mexican fast food chain restaurants in the area (actually, that one is a bit iffy, as it could conceivably fit on the blog and those chains do have some of those sauces on grocer’s shelves now), and intend on going through some of the spicy restaurant menu offerings at some point as well. I’ve tried every single restaurant spicy item, chain or otherwise, I’ve been able to find, both where I am and when traveling, though all of them were prior to me doing the FOH series. A number of them were also prior to me discontinuing eating anything with extract, so not sure how many of those I’m going to re-do on camera. Anything comes out in chains, I’m there, but without exception, everything I’ve had at one of those, ghost pepper, reaper pepper, whatever, has been pretty tame. If there is stuff you want to see, though, let me know. I’m having a blast filming that and hopefully you will enjoy watching as well.
I’m going to be doing some planning in the near future (right now, I have content filmed and scheduled through January), as many of the sauces on the blog are discontinued or otherwise unavailable, so the percentage of previously sauces that I’m able to do video support on is somewhat limited. I had a similar problem, in fact, when I tried to add pictures to the reviews. I want to get all the remaining SOTY winners and all of the remaining standby sauces done and up as quickly as possible, though availability on a number of the SOTY entries is proving challenging.
2019 overall was another slow year for both posts and sauces, though slightly more active than 2018, though, as mentioned, nearly solely in back half. Once again, it was late, as in Quarter 4 late, before I got any SOTY contenders, but once I did, there were some solid entries. Before I get to that, though, a bit of housekeeping. I have moved my unopened sauces to a shelf about a yard away from the desk where I’m typing this now, where they are eyeing me and telling me to hurry up and get to them, so hopefully will be able to keep better momentum or at least more consistency. The videos are a blast, though and I love doing them, so that has proven to be great motivation.
As usual, all sauces can be clicked to from the Table Of Contents page, which, thanks to the FOH video support, I have kept consistently updated throughout the year.
Total posts (including this post): 205
Total views (as of this writing): ~18,072
Total single sauce full reviews: 165
Total double sauce full reviews: 2
Total sauces full reviewed: 167
Total mini-sauce reviews: 26
Total sauces reviewed, combined: 193
Total sauces with FOH video content: 15
Total unopened sauces waiting on shelf for review: 14
Total opened sauces waiting for review: 0
Total open sauces waiting for video support: 1
Total open bottles in fridge: 12
Highest viewed review: 868 - O' Brother Chipotle-Habanero Hot Sauce
Highest viewed article, any type: 868 - O' Brother Chipotle-Habanero Hot Sauce
Current standby sauces are:
*Emeritus Everyday sauce: Trappey's Red Devil
*Emeritus Asian-style sauce: Huy Fong Chili-Garlic Sauce
*Everyday sauce (and current overall favorite): Blair’s Pure Death Sauce
*Grilling sauce: CaJohn's Bourbon-Infused Chipotle Habanero (BICH)
*Pizza sauce (as in used instead of actual pizza sauce): Boar’s Head Jalapeno Pepper Sauce
Mexican-style sauce: ???
*Asian-style sweet sauce: Zenso Sweet Chili Sauce
*Louisiana-style sauce: Irazu Cayenne
Sweet-hot sauce: CaJohn's Happy Beaver
*= Not looking for a replacement
Some changes there. Kroger has 86'ed the delightful Private Selection Shichimi Togarishi, so the Irazu is now doing double-duty there on the ramen. I don’t know that I will get another sauce just for that particular food (as usually happens, I get really, really tired of it). The Shichimi was not useful for anything else, but it was spectacular in that setting. On the Mexican front, I probably should have updated it a year or two ago, when I was first unable to get more of the sauce I had in there, but it was not a priority and I went most of last year without any contenders. I think the Arizona Peppers was something from Target, possibly, and have not been able to find it since. Sloppy, shameful housekeeping on my part. Anyway, finding a good standby sauce there is back on the table for 2020...I had some strong entries this year, but that sauce category seems to be one that I’m particular about, moreso than other sauce types...I am leaning towards the Jersey Barnfire, though...
With precious little competition, and to no surprise for those of you sharp-eyed enough to see the update to the blog TOC earlier today, the SOTY for 2019 is the Torchbearer Ultimate Annihilation sauce. I had a whole video planned out, where I was going to do me a little bit of competition, but the Ultimate Annihilation was a 9 and there was nothing else that high. Probably, longtime readers knew, as soon as I compared it to Blair’s Pure Death, one of my all-time favorite sauces, that it would be a strong contender, if not a lock outright. Torchbearer tends to make excellent sauces and I’m pleased with this entry into the Hall of Flame for 2019. This is truly a worthy and excellent sauce and even though I initially thought First Blood would be in there closer to the end, once I had the Torchbearer, that became the sauce to beat. Congratulations to the Torchbearer Sauces team!
Previous TSAAF Sauce Of The Year winners (links in Table Of Contents page):
2012: CaJohn’s Happy Beaver
2013: Blair’s Pure Death
2014: Born To Hula’s Ghost Of Ancho
2015: Voodoo Chile’s Voo Dew Honey Doo
2016: Pirate O’s Surface Of The Sun Hot Sauce
2017: Z’s Shield Maiden Hot Sauce
2018: Taco Jesus Cayenne Pepper Sauce
There is also my wine about blog, the Happy Sippin’ Companion (HSC), which has now 71 posts, 63 of which are reviews. It has drawn, to date, ~1,300 views in the 5 years it’s been active. It has been put on inactive status as of 2019, with no plans currently to resurrect it. I both got a bit wined out and also seem to be struggling with a greater influx of allergies this year, which has introduced a number of issues with former consumption items that were previously trouble-free, such as wine.
Then we have Yelp. My distribution of ratings and further metrics are available on my Yelp page, which you can click to from my widget.
As mentioned, I’m very excited for 2020. Lots more sauces to try (once I wade through and whittle down the open bottles in the refrigerator door a bit), lots more food adventures to go on with the FOH video series, which has been incredibly liberating and invigorating. We will hit the 200 mark for overall sauces reviewed next year on this blog, a benchmark which I’m very excited about and who knows, maybe even 200 full reviews outright. I’m already done a written review concurrent with an FOH addendum posting (which is my first ever 6 bottle review) and gotten into a lot more hot treats other than just the sauces, so I’m pretty eager to see what 2020 will bring for new experiences on this front. I’m hoping you’ll join me.
As always, I appreciate you dropping by. If there’s any changes to suggest or sauces you’d like to see me get to or any video ideas you may have, please drop me a line in the comment section of any of the reviews or support videos.
Now in it’s 8th year for TSAAF and a lot of changes. Yes, definitely started slow, partially because I was having sourcing issues, that is until I discovered my favorite purveyor, Burn Your Tongue, was back in action again, and Roger, the proprietor of that fine company, gave me a shot in the arm and a boot in the ass to get going again. Thanks again for the support, brother! I can’t overstate it enough, as this blog was clearly headed into me finishing up the remaining sauces and then probably into hiatus, without Roger’s boost. It helps to have someone behind you in projects like this, for sure.
I also had occasion to meet Roger in person and it was great to hang out, check out some of his new stuff and talk hot sauces and the hot sauce world at large. We have a few things on the backburner and hopefully, we’ll be able to get some pretty cool stuff in front of you for 2020. He also gave me some goodies, which is the first time (that I recall anyway) I’ve accepted anything spicy for purposes of review. Many of the sauces will be showing up in 2020, but some of the other items have already shown up on the YouTube FOH series. You can find those in the “Everything Else” playlist, available here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAnn6WnuE_CK6y3X2bCzZTkh3bGUyv8H1
Speaking of playlists, as I first mentioned in the Special Annoucement post a few months ago, I have since added video support on YouTube for some of the sauces, which is in this playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAnn6WnuE_CLmTR1bCja2mywi-trXdAJO.
It also bears mentioning that the FOH video series is NOT limited to hot sauces only, as this blog is. Right now, I am posting sauce support videos every Sunday and the additional content as it arises (but mostly Wednesdays). I have gone through a number of subjects not appropriate for the blog, such as snacks, a few head to head battles, including an ongoing nut tournament, a review of all of the hot sauce offerings of the major Mexican fast food chain restaurants in the area (actually, that one is a bit iffy, as it could conceivably fit on the blog and those chains do have some of those sauces on grocer’s shelves now), and intend on going through some of the spicy restaurant menu offerings at some point as well. I’ve tried every single restaurant spicy item, chain or otherwise, I’ve been able to find, both where I am and when traveling, though all of them were prior to me doing the FOH series. A number of them were also prior to me discontinuing eating anything with extract, so not sure how many of those I’m going to re-do on camera. Anything comes out in chains, I’m there, but without exception, everything I’ve had at one of those, ghost pepper, reaper pepper, whatever, has been pretty tame. If there is stuff you want to see, though, let me know. I’m having a blast filming that and hopefully you will enjoy watching as well.
I’m going to be doing some planning in the near future (right now, I have content filmed and scheduled through January), as many of the sauces on the blog are discontinued or otherwise unavailable, so the percentage of previously sauces that I’m able to do video support on is somewhat limited. I had a similar problem, in fact, when I tried to add pictures to the reviews. I want to get all the remaining SOTY winners and all of the remaining standby sauces done and up as quickly as possible, though availability on a number of the SOTY entries is proving challenging.
2019 overall was another slow year for both posts and sauces, though slightly more active than 2018, though, as mentioned, nearly solely in back half. Once again, it was late, as in Quarter 4 late, before I got any SOTY contenders, but once I did, there were some solid entries. Before I get to that, though, a bit of housekeeping. I have moved my unopened sauces to a shelf about a yard away from the desk where I’m typing this now, where they are eyeing me and telling me to hurry up and get to them, so hopefully will be able to keep better momentum or at least more consistency. The videos are a blast, though and I love doing them, so that has proven to be great motivation.
As usual, all sauces can be clicked to from the Table Of Contents page, which, thanks to the FOH video support, I have kept consistently updated throughout the year.
Total posts (including this post): 205
Total views (as of this writing): ~18,072
Total single sauce full reviews: 165
Total double sauce full reviews: 2
Total sauces full reviewed: 167
Total mini-sauce reviews: 26
Total sauces reviewed, combined: 193
Total sauces with FOH video content: 15
Total unopened sauces waiting on shelf for review: 14
Total opened sauces waiting for review: 0
Total open sauces waiting for video support: 1
Total open bottles in fridge: 12
Highest viewed review: 868 - O' Brother Chipotle-Habanero Hot Sauce
Highest viewed article, any type: 868 - O' Brother Chipotle-Habanero Hot Sauce
Current standby sauces are:
*Emeritus Everyday sauce: Trappey's Red Devil
*Emeritus Asian-style sauce: Huy Fong Chili-Garlic Sauce
*Everyday sauce (and current overall favorite): Blair’s Pure Death Sauce
*Grilling sauce: CaJohn's Bourbon-Infused Chipotle Habanero (BICH)
*Pizza sauce (as in used instead of actual pizza sauce): Boar’s Head Jalapeno Pepper Sauce
Mexican-style sauce: ???
*Asian-style sweet sauce: Zenso Sweet Chili Sauce
*Louisiana-style sauce: Irazu Cayenne
Sweet-hot sauce: CaJohn's Happy Beaver
*= Not looking for a replacement
Some changes there. Kroger has 86'ed the delightful Private Selection Shichimi Togarishi, so the Irazu is now doing double-duty there on the ramen. I don’t know that I will get another sauce just for that particular food (as usually happens, I get really, really tired of it). The Shichimi was not useful for anything else, but it was spectacular in that setting. On the Mexican front, I probably should have updated it a year or two ago, when I was first unable to get more of the sauce I had in there, but it was not a priority and I went most of last year without any contenders. I think the Arizona Peppers was something from Target, possibly, and have not been able to find it since. Sloppy, shameful housekeeping on my part. Anyway, finding a good standby sauce there is back on the table for 2020...I had some strong entries this year, but that sauce category seems to be one that I’m particular about, moreso than other sauce types...I am leaning towards the Jersey Barnfire, though...
With precious little competition, and to no surprise for those of you sharp-eyed enough to see the update to the blog TOC earlier today, the SOTY for 2019 is the Torchbearer Ultimate Annihilation sauce. I had a whole video planned out, where I was going to do me a little bit of competition, but the Ultimate Annihilation was a 9 and there was nothing else that high. Probably, longtime readers knew, as soon as I compared it to Blair’s Pure Death, one of my all-time favorite sauces, that it would be a strong contender, if not a lock outright. Torchbearer tends to make excellent sauces and I’m pleased with this entry into the Hall of Flame for 2019. This is truly a worthy and excellent sauce and even though I initially thought First Blood would be in there closer to the end, once I had the Torchbearer, that became the sauce to beat. Congratulations to the Torchbearer Sauces team!
Previous TSAAF Sauce Of The Year winners (links in Table Of Contents page):
2012: CaJohn’s Happy Beaver
2013: Blair’s Pure Death
2014: Born To Hula’s Ghost Of Ancho
2015: Voodoo Chile’s Voo Dew Honey Doo
2016: Pirate O’s Surface Of The Sun Hot Sauce
2017: Z’s Shield Maiden Hot Sauce
2018: Taco Jesus Cayenne Pepper Sauce
There is also my wine about blog, the Happy Sippin’ Companion (HSC), which has now 71 posts, 63 of which are reviews. It has drawn, to date, ~1,300 views in the 5 years it’s been active. It has been put on inactive status as of 2019, with no plans currently to resurrect it. I both got a bit wined out and also seem to be struggling with a greater influx of allergies this year, which has introduced a number of issues with former consumption items that were previously trouble-free, such as wine.
Then we have Yelp. My distribution of ratings and further metrics are available on my Yelp page, which you can click to from my widget.
As mentioned, I’m very excited for 2020. Lots more sauces to try (once I wade through and whittle down the open bottles in the refrigerator door a bit), lots more food adventures to go on with the FOH video series, which has been incredibly liberating and invigorating. We will hit the 200 mark for overall sauces reviewed next year on this blog, a benchmark which I’m very excited about and who knows, maybe even 200 full reviews outright. I’m already done a written review concurrent with an FOH addendum posting (which is my first ever 6 bottle review) and gotten into a lot more hot treats other than just the sauces, so I’m pretty eager to see what 2020 will bring for new experiences on this front. I’m hoping you’ll join me.
As always, I appreciate you dropping by. If there’s any changes to suggest or sauces you’d like to see me get to or any video ideas you may have, please drop me a line in the comment section of any of the reviews or support videos.
Sunday, December 22, 2019
Dat’l Do It Brewer’s 6 Pack Limited Edition Hot Sauce(s) Mini-Review
Dat’l Do It Brewer’s 6 Pack Limited Edition Hot Sauce(s)
As mentioned in the video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV7NNvkc12s), this blog post is being posted concurrent with the video (as in on the same day, not necessarily to the minute, unless I can time it well enough) support for it. I think in concept this six pack of sauces thing is not a bad idea, but like a lot of concepts, execution does not meet the ideal. This a good case in point. Three of the six sauces I tossed after filming, as they were both bad sauces and not something I was about to eat just for the sake of eating. All of them detracted from the chicken chunk I put them on and were far from great shakes solo. Specifically, those were the “Asian Teriyaki,” the Cayenne, and the Garlic.
The other three were marginally better, but managed to make it into the fridge for potential usage. Those were the Chipotle, Jalapeno and Habanero. Of those, only the Habanero had any heat and it was relatively minuscule, basically a 1 on the scale. The labels are meant to mimic various beers and the sauces themselves are an approximation of various other sauces, which I will get into more soon. They were all very vinegar-forward sauces, very astringent and very watery. None of them had a restrictor cap, but all of them needed one.
In addition to the attempts with chicken strips in the video, I also tested the three remaining on some tacos. Of those, the Jalapeno was ok, but the other two read as far too vinegary to be very enjoyable, particularly the Chipotle. I also used them in a bbq sauce base I was making for bbq pork, which transported a ton of vinegar, but not anywhere near the flavor I was also wanting. I think my best bet is to treat them all like vaguely pepper-flavored vinegar and use accordingly.
Sauce by sauce breakdown looks like this:
Cayenne - this was your basic stab at a Louisiana style sauce, but it was cheap-tasting on a level that makes Crystal look high end. This was one of the poorest overall in terms of flavor.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 0
Flavor: 0
Flexibility: 0
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 0
Overall: 0
Garlic - this was the previous sauce, with some sort of garlic concentrate added. Adding a fake garlic taste profile to an already bad-tasting sauce worked about as well as expected.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 0
Flavor: 0
Flexibility: 0
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 0
Overall: 0
Asian Teriyaki - the first that I tried and easily one of the most clumsily and ineptly named, with the superfluous and meaningless “Asian” descriptor added to it. Can’t imagine any actual Asian sauce tasting anywhere like this, which is a much more pungent version of the first sauce, with a very slightly stab at teriyaki on the back end. Definitely never had anything remotely like this in any Asian dish or sauce and particularly not in a teriyaki sauce. Borderline offensive and not only to the palate.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 0
Flavor: 0
Flexibility: 0
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 0
Overall: 0
Jalapeno - this was one was kind of interesting. Lots of astringency to it, lots of pungency, but also a brightness to it that was somewhat interesting. This is one that is on the knife edge and I believe it is taking a shot towards the Tabasco Jalapeno, but also might along the lines of the Culinary Tours Jalapeno as a green hot sauce. This one might be ultimately also hitting the trash, but I’m intrigued enough to keep it around for now.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 0
Flavor: 2
Flexibility: 2
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 2
Overall: 1
Chipotle - rather than being twice as hot as Jalapeno, this one was mostly a flavoring system. Very nice sauce and by far the best tasting of the six, this one tastes like a lower grade version of the Tabasco Chipotle.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 0
Flavor: 4
Flexibility: 4
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 4
Overall: 3
Habanero - easily the hottest of them all (though that is not saying much), this one is more like a Louisiana style sauce, just using a different pepper rather than the Tabasco Habanero. I don’t personally care for the flavor of Habanero a great deal, so the flavor was not so great to me, but was probably the second best tasting sauce, which speaks to how bad some of the others were.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 1
Flavor: 2
Flexibility: 4
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 2
Overall: 2
Bottom line: This is a gift set that it is difficult to see where the appeal might lie. It will not please chileheads or fans of flavor. It is more novelty than anything and does not even remotely live up to the promise of the manufacturer or the idea nor does it represent those styles of sauces or, in a couple cases, even the flavor of the peppers themselves, particularly well. Even for $10, this is ultimately not worth getting.
Cumulative Breakdown (Entire Set):
Heat level: 0
Flavor: 1
Flexibility: 2
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 1
Overall: 1
The other three were marginally better, but managed to make it into the fridge for potential usage. Those were the Chipotle, Jalapeno and Habanero. Of those, only the Habanero had any heat and it was relatively minuscule, basically a 1 on the scale. The labels are meant to mimic various beers and the sauces themselves are an approximation of various other sauces, which I will get into more soon. They were all very vinegar-forward sauces, very astringent and very watery. None of them had a restrictor cap, but all of them needed one.
In addition to the attempts with chicken strips in the video, I also tested the three remaining on some tacos. Of those, the Jalapeno was ok, but the other two read as far too vinegary to be very enjoyable, particularly the Chipotle. I also used them in a bbq sauce base I was making for bbq pork, which transported a ton of vinegar, but not anywhere near the flavor I was also wanting. I think my best bet is to treat them all like vaguely pepper-flavored vinegar and use accordingly.
Sauce by sauce breakdown looks like this:
Cayenne - this was your basic stab at a Louisiana style sauce, but it was cheap-tasting on a level that makes Crystal look high end. This was one of the poorest overall in terms of flavor.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 0
Flavor: 0
Flexibility: 0
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 0
Overall: 0
Garlic - this was the previous sauce, with some sort of garlic concentrate added. Adding a fake garlic taste profile to an already bad-tasting sauce worked about as well as expected.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 0
Flavor: 0
Flexibility: 0
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 0
Overall: 0
Asian Teriyaki - the first that I tried and easily one of the most clumsily and ineptly named, with the superfluous and meaningless “Asian” descriptor added to it. Can’t imagine any actual Asian sauce tasting anywhere like this, which is a much more pungent version of the first sauce, with a very slightly stab at teriyaki on the back end. Definitely never had anything remotely like this in any Asian dish or sauce and particularly not in a teriyaki sauce. Borderline offensive and not only to the palate.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 0
Flavor: 0
Flexibility: 0
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 0
Overall: 0
Jalapeno - this was one was kind of interesting. Lots of astringency to it, lots of pungency, but also a brightness to it that was somewhat interesting. This is one that is on the knife edge and I believe it is taking a shot towards the Tabasco Jalapeno, but also might along the lines of the Culinary Tours Jalapeno as a green hot sauce. This one might be ultimately also hitting the trash, but I’m intrigued enough to keep it around for now.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 0
Flavor: 2
Flexibility: 2
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 2
Overall: 1
Chipotle - rather than being twice as hot as Jalapeno, this one was mostly a flavoring system. Very nice sauce and by far the best tasting of the six, this one tastes like a lower grade version of the Tabasco Chipotle.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 0
Flavor: 4
Flexibility: 4
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 4
Overall: 3
Habanero - easily the hottest of them all (though that is not saying much), this one is more like a Louisiana style sauce, just using a different pepper rather than the Tabasco Habanero. I don’t personally care for the flavor of Habanero a great deal, so the flavor was not so great to me, but was probably the second best tasting sauce, which speaks to how bad some of the others were.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 1
Flavor: 2
Flexibility: 4
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 2
Overall: 2
Bottom line: This is a gift set that it is difficult to see where the appeal might lie. It will not please chileheads or fans of flavor. It is more novelty than anything and does not even remotely live up to the promise of the manufacturer or the idea nor does it represent those styles of sauces or, in a couple cases, even the flavor of the peppers themselves, particularly well. Even for $10, this is ultimately not worth getting.
Cumulative Breakdown (Entire Set):
Heat level: 0
Flavor: 1
Flexibility: 2
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 1
Overall: 1
Monday, December 16, 2019
CaJohn's Dread Hot Sauce Review
CaJohn's The Formidable Dread Hot Sauce
UPDATE: Video support available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rA-GBob1dPg
Caribbean sauces are always kind of fun to me, treading an interesting line between Louisiana-style and a somewhat complex fruit-based sauce. They are almost always hotter than their bayou cousin sauces and inevitably a lot more complicated, much like the rich history of the cuisine there, which tries to utilize nearly everything available (see various Jerked chicken recipes). Often that propensity can pigeon-hole the sauces a bit, as intense heat and varying sweetness won't always work well in the various settings.
Indeed, that is the case here. It works well with lighter meats, but creates some dilemmas elsewhere, often to the detriment of whatever it's being used on. The lines become a lot more topsy-turvy. For most foods, when we use hot sauce, we want flavor amplified. This sauce likes to run it through a kaleidoscope lens and then set everything on fire. With the ample Moruga Scorpions playing havoc, this is also not a sauce to be taken lightly. I wound up with the full brunt of it trying to chase the complexities of the flavor profile. We have vanilla and lime and rum and a host of other Caribbean (and maybe pirate) staples and I caught fleeting glimpses of the flavor, but never all at once, thanks to the steady flavor profile of the peppers, and ate quite a bit of sauce trying. This is initially a bit low key, but the build gets nice fairly rapidly and I'd put it at a solid 6, maybe edging up a bit towards a 7 at full burn. The label lists it for experienced chileheads and in terms of heat, I'd agree, but also finding those subtle nuances of flavor. Most people would be distracted by the heat, I think.
Bottom line: This is a sauce that I find more of a special occasion sauce. Like the vast majority of CaJohn's sauces, this is extremely well-done, but its distinctness removes it from a lot of foods or even everyday use as a table sauce.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 7
Flavor: 8
Flexibility: 4
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 6
Overall: 6
UPDATE: Video support available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rA-GBob1dPgCaribbean sauces are always kind of fun to me, treading an interesting line between Louisiana-style and a somewhat complex fruit-based sauce. They are almost always hotter than their bayou cousin sauces and inevitably a lot more complicated, much like the rich history of the cuisine there, which tries to utilize nearly everything available (see various Jerked chicken recipes). Often that propensity can pigeon-hole the sauces a bit, as intense heat and varying sweetness won't always work well in the various settings.
Indeed, that is the case here. It works well with lighter meats, but creates some dilemmas elsewhere, often to the detriment of whatever it's being used on. The lines become a lot more topsy-turvy. For most foods, when we use hot sauce, we want flavor amplified. This sauce likes to run it through a kaleidoscope lens and then set everything on fire. With the ample Moruga Scorpions playing havoc, this is also not a sauce to be taken lightly. I wound up with the full brunt of it trying to chase the complexities of the flavor profile. We have vanilla and lime and rum and a host of other Caribbean (and maybe pirate) staples and I caught fleeting glimpses of the flavor, but never all at once, thanks to the steady flavor profile of the peppers, and ate quite a bit of sauce trying. This is initially a bit low key, but the build gets nice fairly rapidly and I'd put it at a solid 6, maybe edging up a bit towards a 7 at full burn. The label lists it for experienced chileheads and in terms of heat, I'd agree, but also finding those subtle nuances of flavor. Most people would be distracted by the heat, I think.
Bottom line: This is a sauce that I find more of a special occasion sauce. Like the vast majority of CaJohn's sauces, this is extremely well-done, but its distinctness removes it from a lot of foods or even everyday use as a table sauce.
Breakdown:
Heat level: 7
Flavor: 8
Flexibility: 4
Enjoyment to dollar factor: 6
Overall: 6
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