Review Submission Pause

Friends,

I will not be reviewing sauces here for a short time. I order most of the sauces you see here and until the scourge of COVID-19 is not an imminent threat, I don't want to put the mail carriers, the workers at sauce production areas, or heck anyone, at more risk than they need to have in their lives. I hope that you understand and we'll be together again soon!

Wicked Tickle The Defibrillator

We're together again and that should be a cause for joy in itself! In these times of uncertainty and anxiety we can try to find comfort in each other and in our favorite spicy condiment. This week we'll take a gander at Wicked Tickle's The Defibrillator. This is a ghost pepper sauce that I'm excited to explore.
Wicked Tickle is a line of sauces from Electric Pepper Company. According to their site they organically grow hot chili peppers on a Pennsylvania farm. They also appear to act sustainably as they employ wind power and solar energy in the production of their products. It should be noted here that the label of The Defibrillator has a stamp reading "All Natural" next to the Wicked Tickle logo.
The label truly excites me here. The featured art of a character wearing hospital scrubs and a surgical mask is reminiscent of Iron Maiden album art. The "doctor" appears to be undead and electricity is emanating from its hands. The figure is grinning ferociously and appears to have glowing eyes. The consistency of the sauce appears thin, thinner than I normally favor. There is also no pour guard so proceed with caution upon application. The sediment upon swirling the sauce in its bottle is heavy, however.
The flavor begins with a vegetable taste touched with a sweetness, both presumably from the various peppers in the blend. This is followed by the garlic, which is very present and satisfying. The garlic mixed with a touch of onion, giving it a nice bit of complexity. It's layered but not overly convoluted.
The heat here begins quite acutely, biting the tip of the tongue and spreading the burn to the sides. The lip burn is notable in its longevity and severity; the burn remains hot for quite a while. Upon repeated samplings the roof of the mouth starts to feel the effects. All in all quite a present heat.
This is a nice sauce. Not a particularly jaw dropping one but a nice addition to one's collection. At $8.99, it's not going to be an unreasonable purchase. I think this will make a nice table sauce for someone that might be looking for a little more bite than the standard fare offers.

Ghost Scream Original Hot Sauce

Hello again! Today we're going to take a taste of Ghost Scream Original Hot Sauce. I honestly picked it out because I really liked the name when I first read it. That and I infer from the name that this is a ghost pepper sauce, and of those I'm particularly fond. Let's check it out!
Ghost Scream is owned by Chef Matthew Sisson and his partner Deandra. They combined Matthew's skill in the kitchen with Deandra's considerable design skills to bring to life the Ghost Scream brand. They both have a taste for the spicy foods and peppers and wanted a way to bring bold and spicy flavors to the fore. Matthew said in a Saute Magazine interview that the skills gained in working in some of the finest food establishments in the world enabled himself and Deandra to take an idea and transform it into pure flavor.
The label is fun. It features a depiction of a bearded man with his mouth open, presumably screaming. Surrounding the face is a lace-like design with skulls dotting the image. "Ghost Scream" is along the top and "Hot Sauce" is over the faces chin. To the right side of the face is the word "Hot" as if to reinforce the fact that this is a hot sauce. I have to admit that this excites me a bit. This has a nice red color to it with a feeling of yellow and brown mixed in. The consistency isn't remarkably thick but it isn't thin like a Louisiana sauce either. It has a nice peppery sediment as well. It should be noted that there is no pour protector here, so pour with care.
This tastes slightly sweet at the front, Upon lingering longer in the mouth the garlic comes alive. It finishes with a definite pepper/garden taste, working well with the garlic. I like the layers being tasted individually, and then swirling together. This has a well crafted flavor profile.
Ghost Scream Original Hot Sauce has a bite to it, but it's not off the charts. With that said, watch out if it hits the back of the throat. I got surprised that way. The lip burn is notable in that it stays tingling the lips for a surprisingly long amount of time. The heat on the tongue stayed mostly in the center and not, to my surprise, on  the tip.
Ghost Scream Original Hot Sauce has a great flavor and an enjoyable heat. And at $8.00 for 5.5 ounces of product I can see this becoming a frequently used table sauce in my household. I definitely recommend it. Until next time!

Brine Damage

At it again folks! This week I have a very special sauce to review. This was a limited edition sauce only for sale at a Louisville Gore Club meetup on March 1, 2020. I apologize in advance for not delivering the goods on a sauce that's publicly available. This one is just near and dear to my heart.
Our feature this week is a sauce called Brine Damage from the nice folks at Peril Hot Sauce. Those fine humans have shown this review site a lot of love and now they've shown Louisville Gore Club some too, which warms me to the bones. This sauce is a Louisville Gore Club exclusive, so it may be difficult to get your paws on. In the past, I've heaped the praises on Peril Hot Sauce (and will continue to do so) but today I'd like to introduce you to an organization of which I'm a part and means a great deal to me.
Louisville Gore Club is a group of like-minded individuals that share a love for horror of all varieties. We meet on Sundays in Louisville, KY at a pub named Seidenfaden's to watch horror movies, some obscure, some not so much, and enjoy libations together. We often cook food to share in a potluck manner. From Louisville Gore Club's own self description: "Every Sunday night at 9pm the ghoulish and the grave turn up to enjoy the best and worst in horror/sci-fi/ fantasy cinema! 9pm-4am every Sunday night. You have been warned." I look forward to our meetups and enjoy them very much.
The label is very fun. It has "Brine Damage" at the center top in ominous red letters. Below is an illustration of a man screaming with both hands on either side of his head. Below him is a (presumably) human brain with a cherry on the top and a straw sticking out of it, a la milkshake-style. The lower right corner labels it a "special edition" with Louisville Gore Club's logo above. The color of the sauce is a rich and dark red. This sauce has very heavy sediment. You can see seeds and pepper bits aplenty. The consistency is quite thick and the pour is slow. No pour guard is present here, nor is it needed.
The flavor begins with sweet notes, very shortly followed by a vegetable taste. Presumably the latter is from the peppers, which this sauce is full of a large variety. The comfortable presence of garlic is warming and, while I can detect vinegar, the strong influence of the peppers softens the bitterness.
This is a sauce not skimping at all in the heat department. It lights up the tip of the tongue as expected but quickly spreads to the roof of the mouth. In fact the burn is surprisingly acute here and the tip of the tongue remains being affected for a considerable time. Of course there is a presence of lip burn but it's surprisingly strong and long lasting.
My friends at Peril Hot Sauce have done it again with this one. I suggest that you sample their wares in the store that's now up. At $6.66 for each bottle, you can be ready for a good time while not draining the resources too badly. Until next time!

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!

Last Dab XXX

Today I have a special treat for us all. Before getting to the meat of the matter, I want to welcome you back (or maybe for the first time) and thank you as always for coming along in our adventure into the world of hot sauces! I got my hands on a bottle of the newest sauce from Heatonist named Last Dab XXX. This is the last sauce to be sampled on the YouTube show Hot Ones. Normally I try not to review sauces featured on this show but this one seems right up my alley. It contains pepper X, chocolate pepper X, and peach pepper X. I'm excited for this one so lets get right into it.
Heatonist is a small hot sauce shop in Brooklyn, New York. It was started by Noah Chaimberg and Tyler McKusick in 2013. They exclusively carry small batch hot sauces and are on a constant search for the next best ones. The shop is a bastion of hot sauce and chili head culture.
I won't go too much into the label as it's very similar to the previous iterations of the Last Dab sauce. It features both Hot Ones and First We Feast, the network in which the show is featured. It has stylized flames on the top of the label and is contains reflective gold print. It's understated yet stylish. The consistency is thick and slow pouring. The sauce color is a reddish yellow with obvious sediment throughout the liquid.
The taste is very much along the lines of fresh vegetables. There is a presence of garlic and vinegar, which was completely expected. I suspect there is some ground black pepper mixed in somewhere here, but I wouldn't say that under oath in court.
This is a hot sauce! I assaulted my tounge, starting at the front tip and searing the inside of my mouth as it traveled down. The residual burn after the liquid left the mouth was intense and prolonged. The lip burn is almost instantaneous and long-lasting. The heat also remained on the roof of my mouth for a long time, which is unusual in my experience with other hot sauces.
In summation, this sauce is decently flavorful and quite hot, as it was presumably designed to be, being engineered for a hot wing show. It's pretty pricey at $20 for a 5 ounce bottle. But, if you're a fan like me of Hot Ones, this is worth it. Until next time fellow children on the flame!

Watchoutdehnow

Hello again fellow heat explorers! Today we will take a look at J. Anthony Brown's Watchoutdehnow Habanero Hot Sauce. I wasn't able to find too much information about the company other than their catalog of hot sauces, so we'll skip right to the good stuff today: the review.
The label is fairly simple, featuring a mustached cowboy smiling with J. Anthony Brown's signature along the bottom right of the main label image. The font for the titular sauce is reminiscent of one in comic books of yesterday. On one side of the label, it is suggested that we should look at the catalog that presumably would include sauces, salsas, nuts, and chips but I found no such diversity there.
The sauce is a fairly light shade of red with a consistency of a Louisiana style one and that gave me a tinge of anticipatory disappointment. There is very little sediment apparent in the liquid but when the bottle is tipped, it is detectable though minute. A plastic pour protector is present an necessary.
It has a lightness to the flavor, in contrast to some of the products that we've explored together in the past. It has a very light fruit note without giving the impression of too much sweet presence; citrus comes to the fore without taking center stage. The garlic is there but is fairly balanced with the salt in the mixture. There is a garden aspect to this which is emphasized by the fairly heavy carrot flavor here.
The heat is not as intense as I expected/hoped for a habanero sauce. It affects and remains mostly on the tip of the tongue and lips with repeated samplings. To be sure, this sauce amplifies the burn as tastings increase. This effect is more pronounced than some other sauces in my repertoire. The fire dissipates quickly though.
At $15.00 from the home site ($8.99 on Amazon), I think that this might be overpriced. The sauce is more flavorful than some of its more mainstream colleagues but, at the end of the day it's more of a glorified table sauce than anything. I can't say that I recommend this for an addition to one's collection, though I should note that the carrot and garlic tastes pair well with eggs.

Venegaroon Whip Scorpion Table Hot Sauce

Hello friends! Great to be talking to you after our time apart! During our separation I came across a hot sauce that is sure tantalize the taste buds. That is none other than the Whip Scorpion Table Hot Sauce by Vinegaroon. This was inexpensive to purchase (approximately $6.00 on Amazon). Unfortunately I am currently unable to find it there that isn't in a lot of twelve bottles. I'm fairly certain it will be back for sale by individual bottles soon.
I wasn't able to find much about them online, such as a home page. So sadly I'll have to skip right to the review of the actual condiment. That's the good stuff anyway, right?
The black label is fairly understated with what looks to be an ink drawing of a scorpion in black and white at the bottom of the oval that surrounds the front-facing section. It's actually a fairly intricate drawing with shading and fine-line details. The company name is emblazoned at the inside-top of the oval in white. Notably, above "table hot sauce" in the oval's center is a truncated list of ingredients reading "Red Pepper | Vinegar | Salt". On one side of the label is a full ingredients list that states "Contains: Milk" at the bottom. Good warning for those of us with dairy issues.
The color is a deep reddish brown and the pour is of medium speed. That is to say the consistency is not the thickest I've seen but not of the thinness that a Louisiana style sauce exhibits. There is definite sediment and the bottle notably has a pour protector. It is also interesting that when the bottle is tipped with the product inside, the liquid with the sediment trails the rest of the sauce when examining the movement within.
The flavor is rich and surprisingly sweet. Not to say that there is no vegetable feel and taste here. There is and it cuts through the sugariness as to make it not quite saccharine. Upon further examination of the ingredients list I discovered that it contains molasses which is very present throughout the tasting experience. I think that the flavor with make a good accoutrement to red meat as it has a similarity in flavor to steak sauce. The end product turns out to be fairly well-rounded.
The heat level is medium low. It hits the tip and edge of the tongue slightly and then moves to the top back part or the mouth but without the intensity of some of the sauces we've explored together in the past. There is a slight tongue burn but it's almost imperceptible even after multiple tastings. However, the heat level intensifies somewhat upon multiple samplings, much like other sauces.
This sauce is a different kind than I'm used to. Well balanced, slightly tipping the scale toward sweet while remaining fairly layered. The price is very good for what you get and, once it's available for individual sale, I'd back making the slight investment in this. Until next time friends, stay hot!

Extending My Review Vacation

Hey there hot heads! I regretfully wish to inform you that I'm not posting a review this week due to personal matters. We'll see each other next week though! Looking forward to it and I'll see you then!

Tears of the Sun

Hello again lovely lava lovers! I apologize for the delay since we last enjoyed each others' company. Between holidays and a shipping problem, it has been too long since I was able to subject you to my insight into various hot sauces. Of course, over the next two weeks I will also not be posting due to X-mas and New Year Day respectively. Butwit the new year have sprouted and we can spend the cold months warming up to the various hot concoctions the world has to offer us!
Today I bring you Tears of the Sun brought to us by High River Sauces. High River Sauces brought us Rogue (a favorite of mine) and the previously reviewed Foo Foo Mama Choo. As previously reported, the company was founded to stoke Steve Seabury's, the founder passion for spice and music. I have since discovered that the first sauce was made for the 2011 Metal Alliance Tour, something of interest to me as I am a huge metal head as well as a chili head! They also mention beers on both their website and their Facebook page and beers are a guilty pleasure of mine. I like this company more and more!
The bottle itself is of the standard hot sauce glass type. The label is a bit eye-catching in that it has a stylized sun/smiling face as a main focus. The face has a flame on each cheek and is spitting flames out of its hair/sunbeams. The font of the word "tears" is interesting while the font of the word "sun" is considerably less so. The consistency is of medium thickness but has kind of a lightly gelatinous manner about it. Not so much as to make me shy away from it but is worth make note of.
The color is a light brown/dull yellow one which is not particularly attractive but, as we've seen before, I try to look past first impressions that threaten to taint my opinion of a sauce based on color.
The flavor starts off fairly sweet with the presence of citrus and mango rushing to the front of the line. It's not to overbearing but the fruits definitely made themselves known. The pepper flavor trails behind the sweetness, leaving my palate with the impression of sweet vegetables or spicy fruit. Garlic is there but I think that it might be obfuscated somewhat by the sweetness.
The heat was both surprising and not simultaneously. It was surprising in the fact that it immediately hit my lips and tongue tip and was quite direct. It doesn't float about the mouth in a continuous attack strategy but it does leave a noticeable lip burn that, thankfully, dissipates relatively quickly. The tongue heat doesn't last long either so, while it may be an acute type of hot, it's not relentless in its aggression.
While the sweet aspects of the flavor theoretically make it a less versatile sauce than some others, I could see this sauce playing well with grilled chicken, burgers, and eggs. Ooh, grits too! At $5.99 one has to opt on the side of adding this fun sauce to a collection.
Until next year dear friends! Happy Holidays!!

Tattoo Scotch Bonnet Curry

Apologies again for my long absence. I had a mishap last week with hot sauce orders and they didn't arrive on time. Frowny face for me but I'm back in the saddle to share with you my find for this week. I received Tattoo Sauce's Scotch Bonnet Curry and have been so excited to try it. Of course we all know of my (and your) love of the spicy goo that makes everything better. But I also love curry so very much. I make a mean yellow chicken and potato curry over rice let me tell you! So without further ado:
Tattoo Hot Sauce company is dedicated to creating globally inspired and passionately crafted hot sauces. They claim "creating flavor is an art an we express our passion to the craft with Tattoo". Each of their hot sauce is inspired by different global cultures, heritage, and peppers. If the flavor comes out as much as the hype suggests, we'll have a nice time unraveling this concoction.
The bottle is wonderful as it's a squeeze bottle. I LOVE squeeze bottles for hot sauces. They eliminate the need to coax out the thicker condiments and allows great pour (or in this case squeeze) control for application. If I've never said it before in this medium MAKE HOT SAUCE IN SQUEEZE BOTTLES A THING! The label is fairly straightforward with some nice line designs punctuated with full color shapes. The consistency is on the thin side with a dull-ish yellow color and just a hint of sediment.
The taste is nicely layered. It begins with a hint of fruity sweetness without being too up front about it. A savoriness follows very shortly after bring my much awaited curry. Also the tang of the peppers is quite noticeable at this stage. It ends with a slight return of the sweetness but this time tempered by the curry and spice. Quite a nice ride if you ask me.
The heat is firmly present without being too extreme. It seemed to gravitate to the middle of my tongue without much tip of the tongue burn until my fourth or fifth sampling. The lips burn was quite present after this many tastings as well and, without being to pushy, remained idling for quite some time.
In summation, this sauce obviously focuses on flavor using the heat to assist in the taste experience. This is a well done sauce and I think that I'll be using it for some fun cooking explorations in the near future. If you can, pick up a bottle from Amazon as Tattoo doesn't have their products for sale on their site. Until next time scorch searchers!

No Review Again This Week

Sorry again friends. My hot sauce order didn't come in as expected but I'll see you again next week!

No Review This Week

Friends,

Regretfully I will not be sharing my hot sauce experience this week in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday. Have great celebration and I'll be back next week for heat and fun!

Like Love But Real

Hello again friends! The folks at Peril Hot Sauce bring us a new treat for exploring today. Our destination is Like Love But Real. A fun name hopefully matching with a fun sauce! Let's hope that our Peril Hot Sauce friends step up to the plate again like they did last week!
I gave a brief review of the company the last time we met for fiery liquid examinations. On the down side their site still isn't up. On the up side I told one of my coworkers, who happens to be a hot sauce aficionado like myself, about the Restless Dead Syndrome sauce and brought him a sample of it. He was so enamored with it that he reached out to them via their Facebook page and they agreed to sell him some sauce! Now I'm not saying that they are ready to do that for everyone but it's nice to see our new friends reaching out to their rapidly forming fan base.
The label is another nod to the horror film fan community, this time in the form of Pennywise from the It films and book. It shows Pennywise's head and shoulders looking at the iconic paper boat that helps lead Georgie to his untimely doom. Again, I love Peril's appreciation and promotion of the horror movie genre. We have another red sauce here with nice sediment that appears to be made up of seeds and bits of pepper. A very appropriate color for the label's apparent theme. This is a thinner sauce than the last one but not to be mistaken for a Louisiana style thinness.
This flavor is layered one might say. At first I got a pinch of a citric tartness like lemon or lime. This was then followed by a garden flavor, led prominently by the taste of carrot. I was left with a salty aftertaste but, sadly, no real garlic flavor. I'm not saying that garlic is a necessary ingredient in hot sauce. Indeed with this profile, it may have overpowered or otherwise interfered with the play of flavor on the tongue.
The heat is more pronounced that it was in the Restless Dead Syndrome sauce. It starts sharply hitting the tip of the tongue immediately, in my case (everyone swallows slightly differently) a burning in the back of the throat. The fire lingered, especially on the tip of my tongue yet not so much in the back of my throat. The lip burn is pronounced and lengthy. I was licking my lips for a while both to appreciate the lingering taste present and to attempt burn alleviation.
Peril Hot Sauce does indeed bring the all around well executed sauce to the fore. I'd like to thank them for granting me the privilege of bringing the skill of the sauce makers to your attention. Be sure to check their site periodically and pick up a bottle or four when it goes live. Til next time dear readers!

Restless Dead Syndrome

Sorry to have been away for so long sauce swillers! I'm back with a small batch hot sauce company just getting started and want to bring to you as makers of products with which to look forward to abusing your taste buds! The folks at Peril Hot Sauce have brought us Restless Dead Syndrome. The company has a domain (perilhotsauce.com) but, as of this writing, there is no content up. I'm assured by its lovely owners that it should be a matter of a week or two before this is rectified. Give them time! A fledgling hot sauce company should have all of our support getting them on their figurative feet.
Peril Hot Sauce is a small batch hot sauce company getting started in Lexington, KY. They ferment their sauces and hopefully the process will come through in the good taste! I met the owners during a weekly horror movie fan social event called The Louisville Gore Club. There we traded stories of making, tasting, and just plain enjoying hot sauce. If being nice and fun were enough to earn your business, you'd be giving it to these fine folks.
This label was definitely a real bit of eye candy for me. As I alluded to just a bit ago, I'm a horror movie fan. Specifically a zombie movie buff. The undead, teeth-baring ghoul that adorns the bottle made me grin. I also liked the pun as name. Now I'm not normally a fan of puns. This one's just cute though. The bottle is a standard one but I have to give props to putting something as gruesome as the depiction as the graphic representation of this product. Its color is a nice and very deep red. I found this pleasing because, not only is it my favorite color of hot sauce (perhaps my favorite color in general), but it's very appropriate for the imagery. The consistency is very think and the pour is super controlled.
The flavor is quite surprising in that it almost has a refreshing quality. It begins with a sweetness akin to a citrus that permeates throughout the taste experience. That is to say it's a pleasant sweetness, not one that is overly saccharine. This is followed by a savoriness assuredly due in some large part to the garlic. There is a light earthy feeling left with the whole adventure that I thought brought out a nicely balanced delivery.
This sauce brings the heat but not in a standard way. It definitely sneaked up on me by beginning the tasting process with light touches of flavor that hinted at the burn coming. Hinted but leaving me still somewhat surprised at the aggression of sear that hit mostly the middle of my tongue. While burning, I was still left contemplating the flavor, which is a win to me. The lip burn is long lasting and quite noticeable after a few samples.
Unfortunately this sauce isn't available for purchase as of this writing but hopefully in the near future you'll be able to roll over to perilhotsauce.com and pick up a bottle or five. And I encourage you to definitely do so when you get a chance. This sauce was a pleasant and fun experience the whole way through!

No Review This Week

Apologies inferno informants:I got caught up in adulting this week and won't be able to share with you my "hot take" (see what I did there?) on sauce until next week. If you can, I encourage you to check out the podcast done by a cohort of mine, Ruthless Reviews. Along with pop culture reviews of various media, I do recorded hot sauce reviews while bringing the sear to not-always-chiliheads! I hope you enjoy!

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!