The Ghost

Hello again heat hell hounds! Today we're going to take a look at The Ghost Hot Sauce made with Bhut Jolokia (ghost) peppers. I grabbed this sauce based on an incorrect assumption that I had of there not being a fair number of ghost pepper hot sauces. It took but a cursory bit of searching to find that there were indeed ghost pepper sauces flowing in the market like warm warm rivers.
The label says that it's a product of Costa Rica but it's branded and distributed by The Fig Brothers, operating out of Irving, TX. They are a hot sauce wholesale distributor, among other items like wholesale candy, coffee, and snacks. They are also responsible for the Melinda brand of hot sauces, one of which I've reviewed here before. They say that the name Melinda represents to them "all of the the women who have shared their passion for cooking and family" adding that "she symbolizes the mothers and grandmothers all around the world who make food with love".
The label was admittedly one of the things that initially attracted me to this sauce. Featuring a portrayal of a spectral ghost with red eyes and claws reaching out menacingly toward the viewer, it smacked of Halloween warmth without ever tasting the presumably fiery contents of the bottle to which is was attached! The color is a nice red that remains fairly deep despite being tinged with a bit of orange. There is sediment apparent, though not in over abundance. It appears to consist of mostly seed particles. The consistency is thick and the pour controlled with an overall feel of a thin syrup.
The taste is an interesting mix of sweet and earthy with my ever-comforting garlic present throughout the whole flavor endeavor. At the forefront I got a pleasant but not saccharine sweetness followed by what is unmistakably carrot. A bit of saltiness ended the taste trip but not in excess. Salty hot sauce is not one of my favorite things. I like the layers of flavor that hit one at different times.
The heat doesn't seem too bad at first but creeps upon the tongue and top of the mouth later. As part of said creeping process, it follows the swallow down to the top of the throat and cuts around that part for a brief moment. While that part is brief, the burn lasts a surprisingly long time towards the center and tip of the tongue. There is also considerable lip burn that is more than a tingle but a full heat that lasts a while.
While you can't get a single bottle directly from Fig Brothers via their website, you can pick up a bottle at Amazon.com for $9.95 at the time of this writing. I think that this is a reasonable price for a tasty sauce that packs a mean punch. It's hot for sure but not a burn-for-pain's-sake type of product. I look forward to enhancing food with this soon.
Just as a quick announcement before wishing all of you well, I will not be reviewing a sauce next week in observance of the Halloween holiday. That being the case, I'll still be with you all sooner rather than latter. Ta ta for now!

Jaceno Crushed Jamaincan Scotch Bonnet Pepper Sauce

Greetings yet again my friends! This weeks dive into new hot sauces brings us an examination of Jaceno Crushed Jamaican Scotch Bonnet Pepper Sauce. It caught my eye initially due to the featuring of the Scotch Bonnet hot pepper. I haven't really experienced to many examples of Scotch Bonnet sauces. I'm not sure if that's due to my naivety and inexperience in the hot sauce world or if there is truly a shortage of these sauces out there. No matter! We'll check it out together.
I couldn't really find that much information about Jaceno as a company. If any of my readers have any information please share it with me at moltenhotsauce@gmail.com. I'll post it on the site and be sure to give the sender full credit. The distribution company, Trin-Jam Distributors, offer a wide range of products including (but not limited to) beverages, grocery products, and even home remedy products.
The label is fairly bland, having the Jaceno logo above center. The logo appears just to be a bland font declaring the name with some sort of stylized leaf and stem below. Under the logo is the sauces titular credit inside a designed image of a yellow Scotch Bonnet pepper. The pepper image is simplistic and a little boring. Not a good all around introduction to the product.
The color is a dull orange-yellow with conspicuous sediment including obvious seeds. This gives me hope for a product with a nice heat kick. Another possibility of the contents of said sediment are pepper pieces floating in the liquid. At first I thought from the color that this would be another mustard sauce but after looking at the ingredients list, I withdrew that hypothesis: there are no indications of mustard seeds or powder within. The pour is fairly slow, though not unreasonably so, with nice chunks making the sauce fairly thick. A very controlled deposition of the sauce occurred satisfyingly.
The flavor starts brightly as the garden-like taste of pepper jumps to the fore immediately. This is lessened after a second or two by salt. I mean a lot of salt. They went overboard with that. I did detect a smoky note, possibly indicating the presence of paprika. This could not be substantiated however as the ingredients list just read "Approved Spices". "Approved"? What does that even mean? Approved by whom?
On a heat level, this would be at the one labeled "Be Careful!" It delivers an initial heat that creeps for a few seconds, leaving you surprised at the end of the journey. I, in my brashness, dosed myself with far to large of a dollop of the stuff. This was to later be to my chagrin. The tip of the tongue heat felt sharp as a needle and lingered for too long according to my preference. It luckily didn't migrate to the top of my mouth or the back of my throat but the lip burn was palpable but not entirely unpleasant.
In summation, this sauce has a nice kick to it but the flavor is far too heavy on salt to be in heavy rotation as a direct condiment. I could see using this as a cooking ingredient, especially in a recipe that called for a certain saltiness. The price of $2.99 (but they were going to charge me approximately $8.00 in shipping) is nice but I still can't say that I'd recommend it as a must-have. Until next time fire-lovers, stay hot!

Bajan Style Hot Sauce

Hello again for a surface look at another hot sauce that your author dug up somewhere. This week we're peering into the innards of Bajan Style Hot Sauce by Baron Foods. It's a company with manufacturing facilities in Saint Lucia, Grenada, and Trinidad. Based on their site, their motto seems to be "transforming every culinary endeavor into a gourmet experience".
I wasn't able to find the sauce on their site, which seems okay as it appears that it's only intended for wholesale purchasing needs. With that said, I couldn't elicit a price at any amount input. Baron Foods says that they are committed to providing affordable fine products combined with total customer satisfaction. Now I'll admit that this sounded a bit generic to me until I saw all of the gastronomic consumables that they provide, including but not limited to, non-hot-sauce condiments, sugars, mayonnaise, and spice blends. They also talk about their intent to bring innovative Caribbean-style food products of the highest quality and superior presentation.
The bottle type has become a favorite of mine over the years: a whiskey pint bottle in shape has always tickled me of course. I'm Whiskey Mike! The label interests me a bit. While the color and primary font may not be very exhilarating, I like the peppers under the condiment's title and the logo of Baron Foods itself. It is a stylized approximation of royalty, in this case a baron presumably, that leaves me with an Anonymous feeling, the hacktivist group that has members routinely donning Guy Fawkes masks.
The color is a bright yellow with obvious sediment of differing hues, though mostly red. It leads one to the conclusion that this is a mustard sauce, confirmed by the ingredients list displaying mustard powder fairly high in the list. The consistency is quite thick leading to an impressively slow pour. I had to shake to bottle slightly to summon its contents. The deposition is even and easily controlled.
The taste of this confirms my suspicion of a mustard base: very tangy. It begins with a tang and morphs quickly into a subtle sweetness. After this one is left with the feeling of a salad or maybe, probably more accurately, a vegetable soup.  It's a pleasant flavor and hints of possible uses in creating comfort foods, or at least accentuating them.
The burn of this took me by surprise as the ingredients didn't include the pepper types used for this concoction. It hits almost immediately, kind of threatening to obfuscate the flavor profile. Thankfully it doesn't succeed in this but the tangibility of the burn felt like a smack in the mouth. An assault of sear on the tip of my tongue quickly migrated to the roof of my mouth and created a very very present lip burn. To be clear, this wasn't the pleasant lip tingle that I'm used to but an insistent and aggressive, somewhat caustic feeling the continues for longer than I wished.
In summation, this is a very pleasant tasting sauce and, if one is prepared for the heat, is quite a good all-around product. As I stated earlier, this could really add to the taste of foods. Of course you know that this means that Bajan Style Hot Sauce is taco bound sooner rather than later. And costing $7.98 for a 7 ounce bottle, this won't break the bank. I'll see you all next time friends!

Camouflage Hot Sauce

Hello again my favorite people preferring peppers! I'm sorry for being a day late bringing you a peek into new spicy territory but, due to life and adulting, the review yesterday slipped my aging mind. So belated as it is, I'd like to bring you Camouflage Hot Sauce by Hank Sauce. The product description claims this fiery food adornment is "sweet, tangy, and zesty" as well as being "accompanied by a "hidden heat". I guess we'll have to travel further to reveal the true meaning of the latter part of that statement. Another thing that I noticed while reading about the sauce before I tried it is that this seems to be primarily a wing sauce. I didn't know that upon initial purchase but I do love wing sauces so on we go!
Hank Sauce was formed by three college friends by the names of Hank, Matt, and Josh. Hank had been making his own food sauce for personal use for years but had never made too much of it to others. Matt thought that it would be clever to make a sauce company logo for a graphic design project at the university they attended together. From these roots a company was born!
The label almost seems to be intentionally understated. Appearing with only two colors, it seems drab at first. However, I hops that Matt got an A for the graphics design project because the logo is a nice cross between a shark and the company name. Very clever Matt! Apart from this though, the label doesn't do much for me, being that the two colors seems to be grade school lunch bag and grade school paper towel.
The liquid's color is a red mixed with dull orange. At first this made me feel slightly disappointed, but I realized that this probably meant no artificial coloring. To confirm my hopeful suspicion I turned my attention to the ingredients list. Lo an behold, no artificial coloring was listed! In conforming with this thesis, sediment is apparent while looking at the condiment. It doesn't necessarily jump out but, upon even a cursory examination, its presence is undeniable. The pour is about standard for a wing sauce: fairly controlled and has a thicker consistency. Thicker, but not in the molasses category. Just enough to be satisfying.
In the taste department, this sauce is pretty sweet but not to a saccharine extent. It's heavy on the garlic and vinegar, the latter part being something I wasn't to excited about, but the vinegar flavor blends well with the sweetness. There is a slight dairy vibe that I picked up from it, suggesting maybe butter or cream. I'll definitely have to keep this one in the fridge.
The heat is a bit delayed, perhaps this being the "hidden heat" described above. The sweet comes to the fore immediately followed slowly by the peppery hotness. It focused on the tip of my tongue. A slight lip burn made itself know after a few consecutive samples but wasn't super up front. It's a bit hotter than your standard Buffalo sauce but not by much.
In summary: this is a wonderful craft wing sauce. The flavor has depth, layers, and offers much gastronomical satisfaction. It's hot but not oppressively so. And at $6.00 for an 8 ounce bottle, I'd go so far to say that you can't afford to NOT pick this one up if you're a fried meats lover! Until next time heat-hungry homies!