The Chechen Smokin’ Chipotle Sauce

We're back together again looking at unique hot sauces! Today I want to share a sauce that I picked up via some passive internet sleuthing. I bring you The Cheech Smokin' Chipotle Hot Sauce! With that name, this was something I could hardly pass on. As well, I've been wanting to taste more chipotle sauces in general. With that, on with the show!
I honestly couldn't find much on the sauce in the way of back story. Thecheech.com only yielded me a 404 error. Interestingly, it is imported and distributed by Melinda's Foods, LLC, makers of the Melinda's hot sauce line. This line of sauces is one of which I'm particularly fond. With this lack of information in mind (and readers, if you have the skinny on this sauce, please let me know by emailing the deets to moltenhotsauce@gmail.com) I'd like to share what drew me to the sauce initially. I've always had a soft spot for Cheech and Chong, and of course Richard "Cheech" Marin is from whom this sauce gets its title. I loved Marin in From Dusk Till Dawn, the Quentin Tarantino film take on vampires.
The label has an adorable depiction of Cheech holding up red peppers in both hands. He has a cartoonish guitar slung across his torso and is grinning widely. This art is just joyous and it makes me smile. The color is a reddish brown with a LOT of sediment traversing the liquid. This is a very thick sauce with a super slow pour. A pour guard is present here, which I find a curious choice. However upon pouring I discovered that it's not a super hindrance. Nonetheless, I removed it.
The flavor has fresh elements to it with not a heavy presence of vinegar, though it is detectable. The garlic is nice and up front with a hint of carrot. Past that, there isn't a very complex flavor profile here. Pleasant and tasty? Yes. Complex? No. I, sadly, didn't detect much smoke flavor at all here.
This has a nice and fiery heat. It first hits the tip of the tongue and has a sear quality there that lingers for quite a while. For me, the heat didn't travel much. A bit to the roof of my mouth and it has a lip burn that is surprisingly robust and long-lasting. In fact, the lip burn made itself known after just the second sampling. In short, do not underestimate the fire in this one.
This sauce has a pleasing flavor, a nice punch of heat, and at $6.99 for a five ounce bottle, I would give the go-ahead on adding this sauce to your cupboards. The price is right and the taste is nice. Plus it'll warm up whatever you're wanting to increase the heat. Until next time friends!

The Bronx Greenmarket

Hello again fiery friends! Today I want to look at one of my favorite types of sauces yet one that goes woefully unrecognized to it's fullest: green hot sauce. This brought me to a sauce company connected with not only with quality product and flavor, but a higher goal of bringing urban areas into agricultural production. I'm excited to get started so let's do so!
The Bronx Green Hot Sauce initially caught my eye just as a green sauce that I hadn't yet tried. Looking a little into Small Axe Peppers, the sauce company responsible for our focus today, I found that there is much more to the story. Small Axe sources all of their peppers from community gardens in urban areas to encourage urban agricultural thriving, and thereby greater cultural synthesis. Every time they sell one of their sauces, financial support goes to more than 75 community gardens in 15 cities across the U.S.
The label is fairly unremarkable. A depiction of what is presumably a jalapeno is placed central to the front with raised letters reading "The Bronx Hot Sauce" featuring a green banner with the word "Greenmarket" within. The color is a dull green with quite prominent sediment appearing in the model made visible with the slightest swirl of sauce. The consistency is thin, but not thin to the point of resembling a Louisiana style sauce. There is no pour guard on this bottle so pour with care.
The flavor here is somewhat unexpected. An initial taste of sweetness his but is quickly tempered with a more earthy flavor. Garlic is prominent after the apple cider vinegar sweetness as well as your commonly found onion and salt. Surprisingly the vinegar taste is not as powerful as I hypothesized it might be. I can only nod to the though that the sweetness of the cane sugar and apple in the vinegar tempered it. The end experience is one of a happy mix of sweet and savory with just the right amount of vegetable freshness.
This is a hotter sauce than I though it might be. It hits the tip of the tongue almost immediately, but not before you get the first sweet kick. I got some on the roof of my mouth and it lingered there for a bit. Of course the lip burn is present but does not remain for too long. The only remnant of lip burn after a few minutes is a cool tingle.
I think that this sauce is a winner at the end of the day. The flavor layering is on point and, mixed with just the right amount of heat for cooking and even just topping food, this might be a regularly used sauce in my kitchen. At $6.99 for 5 ounces, I encourage all of my friends reading this to check this out. After all, the cause is one worth supporting.
Until next time friends, stay warm!

Hot Lady Hot Sauce

It's that time again: time to look a little closer at a hot sauce together! This week we're going to delve into a sauce that I admittedly acquired mostly due to the name. Today's target is Hot Lady Hot Sauce! I have to say at this point that I find comfort from the chilly weather in the warmth of our examinations. It's a nice reprieve from the season when we warm our taste buds together! And for that I'd like to thank you.
Hot Lady was started by Adam Colberg from Connecticut. After his time in the Marine Corps, he became very interested in martial arts and even became a trainer to MMA fighters. Through training he became interested in growing and cooking with hot peppers. After recipe tweaking and no small amount of research, he bottled Hot Lady and teamed up with his nephew and now business partner Lucas Acuna Jr. to bring us Hot Lady.
The label is simple and has a modern design feel to it. It is centered around the outline of a woman with a hat, presumably of cowboy variety. This woman sits upon a saddle attached to a giant red pepper. The woman is wearing a long dress, the bottom of which is blowing slightly back, insinuating forward motion. The liquid is a rich, dark red. It does have a bit of sediment but nothing too assertive.
The consistency is thin with a pour guard to help control application.
The flavor has a sweet beginning while remaining rich with a strong garlic presence. The taste finishes with the same richness, though being less sweet. This is presumably the pepper comping through. The cane sugar is apparent here, though I mistook it for brown sugar at first. I predict that this will ge nicely with chicken.
The heat isn't too extreme but the burn last a decent length of time. The tip of the tongue is where it was mostly concentrated for me. A noticeable lip burn is long-lasting here and is surprisingly acute. A note for heat: don't be shy about application amount. This will definitely increase with greater  amounts.
This sauce is mostly noteworthy for its flavor. It's good but a taste that I didn't expect. I'll have to play with this one in the kitchen. Selling for $9.86, I didn't feel like I wasted money but I remain a bit unsure of its future positive uses. The flavor is just that unusual but not at all unpleasant. Until next time friends!

Fat Cat Caribbean Curry

Hello again friends with a fondness for the furnace! This week we'll be diving into a sauce that caught my eye during my weekly search for a fun review subject. The Caribbean Curry sauce by Fat Cat peaked my interest upon reading the subtitle "Scotch Bonnet Pepper Sauce". That's a pepper for which I have a soft spot and I love Caribbean curry food recipes. This one was an easy sell for me.
Fat Cat Gourmet Foods was born from husband and wife team Eyal Goldschmid and Deborah Moskowitz. Eyal has a love of cooking and would love cooking from wife Deborah's bevy of harvested goods from her garden. The name of the company stemmed from the couples' cat Tiggy. Tiggy loves to eat and her girth makes that apparent. Upon marveling at Tiggy's size one day, Deborah commented "Wow, that's one fat cat!" The rest, as they say, is history.
The label is simple yet whimsical. It features their logo, consisting of a stylized drawing of a cat's head wearing sunglasses with a single-lined mouth with a slight curve, possibly suggesting a smirk. The cute rid circular nose and slightly curved and uniform lines for whiskers are nice touches as well. Emblazoned below the image is the eye-roll-inducing "It's purr-fectly good." Ouch. The color is a slightly reddish yellow with very obvious sediment, so of which appears to be bits of pepper. The consistency is quite thin and, without a pour guard present, it's advised to pour cautiously.
The flavor starts out with a vegetable/pepper freshness that, combined with a slight vinegar presence, is refreshing. There is definite onion at the start too. Then comes a wave of richness with obvious curry powder and my safety warmth: garlic. This layered quality is quite nice but the notes didn't hit my taste buds as strongly and surely as I had hoped.
The heat here is underwhelming. A slight and notably delayed warmth is here that hits the tip of the tongue and will cause a very slight lip burn upon repeated samplings. After that quickly fades away the heat is honestly a bit disappointing.
This sauce excited me from the name and contents but I was left a bit deflated after having tried it. A note here on the flavor: upon trying this a few times, the aftertaste was actually fairly pleasant. I think I'll try and use this as a cooking ingredient. With that said, I'm not sure I can recommend this sauce, but I wouldn't dissuade someone from picking up a bottle. At $7.99, it's not a bad price. Until next time friends, keep enjoying the spice!