Cayenne Habanero Sauce

I picked up a sauce via online shopping called simply Cayenne Habanero Sauce made by All Spice Cafe. All Spice Cafe is a company out of Downers Grove, IL that has won awards for their sauces from the Scovie Awards and the Fiery Food Challenge, among others.The company started when JD Cowles was convinced to bottle his Buffalo wing sauce that he had been, up until the decision was made to start the company, made within his home. There was one outdated claim on their site, however: they state that the ghost pepper (Bhut Jolokia) is the hottest pepper in the world. This has not been true since the Carolina Reaper gained that title in 2013. On a good vibe, they have quite a few recipes on the site with which to cook their products. I think that's nice.
I love the label as it is a version of the famous photo of Albert Einstein sticking his tongue out but with peppers in place of his facial hair. I've really liked this photo since I was very young and my dad showed it to me. The font isn't mind blowing and a little irksome, but I'll let that go for now. Also there in the word HOT in red letters within a spiky black circle. We'll explore together to verify this particular assertion.
The color is very nice. It's a rich red, though not too crimson, with obvious sediment clinging to the inside of the bottle from where the liquid had touched it. There is a bit of oil separation when I leave the bottle still for too long. You can also see specks of the condiment's ingredients resting in the liquid.
The consistency is a nice thickness. This causes a fairly slow pour but be careful! After the sauce hits the lip of the bottle's mouth, it kind of speeds up. It pours fairly evenly and would be good for coating foods like chicken wings (for which they have a recipe on their site using this sauce in particular).
 The flavor is bright, almost leaving the impression of sweet fruit, though there is none in the ingredient list. The garlic flavor is thankfully rich and there is not any real salt flavor, which it doesn't really need due to the presence of cayenne pepper. There is an earthy note in the aftertaste that I can't really identify.
This product is more of a medium/hot heat. It leaves a tongue burn that lasts a decent amount of time and makes any part of the tongue that it touches tingling. Upon successive tastings the roof of my mouth began to burn and my nose started running a bit. There isn't a noticeable presence of lip burn. The heat overall is a creeping one so use caution.
This is a nice and simple sauce. I like the color, consistency, flavor, and heat of this. At $8.50 for a 5.2 ounce bottle this won't break the bank either. I am going to have to experiment with some of the recipes on the site to further my potential appreciation of Cayenne Habanero Sauce.

Edit: After eating three hot dogs with Cayenne Habanero Sauce on it, there was noticeable lip burn.

Pineapple and Habanero Hot Sauce

Hello all! I apologize about the lateness of this post. For some reason the review I wrote last week was appearing partially in a black font which, over this background was nigh unreadable. So I'm rewriting it to suit the finicky web software upon which I produce reviews and you consume them.
We are going to check out Pineapple and Habanero Hot Sauce by Bravado Spice Company. Bravado makes hot sauces, spice mixes, and even a margarita mix! How festive! Their main focus seems to be hot sauces, though, as suggested in their Mission section: "Our mission is to craft incredible hot sauces that are undeniably bold and delicious". I'm sure that idea is something that we can all get behind.
The label is fine but somewhat unimpressive. Their logo appears to be a simple drawing of three peppers attached to a leaf on the side. The words and color scheme seem intentionally simple. A thing that did catch my eye was what looks like a heat scale. In this case it is five designs of peppers, the first three filled in with black, the last two left hollow. The word "Medium" is below it, apparently describing the heat of the sauce.
The color and consistency of Pineapple and Habanero Hot Sauce does not tantalize me. The hue is a rather sickly yellow which might (and kind of did) make me hesitant. Keeping that in mind, however, this is obviously a pineapple-themed sauce so I'll give the color a pass this time. The texture is very thin and indicates a filtered sauce. It's so thin, in fact, that a drip spout isn't included with the bottle but, in my opinion, should be. However, there does appear to be sediment on the inside surface of the bottle that previously touched the sauce, so that's a plus to me.
The flavor here lives up to its name. A definite fruity sweetness greets the taste buds upon first interaction. This is followed by a hint of a garden-ish taste, like a taste of green leafy vegetables. A zing of garlic is present and perhaps a touch too much salt. I feel that this flavor combination would pair well with food, so I won't completely discount the salt tinge.
The heat is interesting. At first, I was inclined to agree with the rating on the bottle and rank this of "medium" heat. However after multiple subsequent tastings (I'll admit it: I love fruit tastes) a distinct lip burn grew and also left a lasting tongue tingle. So I think this may fly a little above a "medium" sauce.
I think that this would be a good addition to any collection. I think that it would be used well as an ingredient or atop many dishes cooked up in ones kitchen. As a matter of fact Pineapple and Habanero Hot Sauce would work well in fish tacos. And at $5.99 this won't break the bank. Try it out and let me know what you think!

Firebolt

Today I want to take a look at Firebolt Habanero Sauce by Firebolt Foods. Firebolt Foods is a Louisville, Kentucky hot sauce-centered company newly minted by Jesse See Tai, a local entrepreneur. Always a proponent of local start-ups, I happily agreed to give his maiden product a whirl. Here's what I found:
The first kudos I have to deliver on the sauce is the label. GREAT design, not flashy yet not understated or meek. Simple but efficient, it borders on elegant. When I saw the first picture of the sauce bottles, I was taken aback by the design. Great job Jesse!
Upon getting the sauce and opening it I, as many of you have probably picked up by now that I tend to, examined the color. It's a nice red color, but a bit lighter than I expected, with hints of orange and yellow. While still a red sauce, it's not as deep of a red as I had initially expected. No matter, the color of a sauce has never been a deciding factor and with my repertoire of sauces expanding daily, some of the nicest surprises have come with the most unexpected colors.
The consistency of a sauce is of far more importance to me and this product does not fail to please. It is a considerably thick sauce which I like, as many of you know. It's definitely an unfiltered sauce, not at all like a Louisiana styled variety. It does tend to collect in the spout of the bottle, necessitating in a "clearing of the chamber", if you will, to get flow resuming. This is a small effort considering the rewards.
In the flavor category, this sauce is definitely going down as a favorite in my collection. It has a nice richness to it, but accentuated by notes of freshness of vegetables. It is a layered flavor, that of habanero cut with a mustard tinge, which is quite nice. Slightly more garlic would please me in this condiment, but I'm a garlic fiend, so I say this about pretty much everything.
The heat was a pleasant surprise, especially after I read the list of ingredients, as I expected it to be more focused on flavor that the hot. While not saying anything negative about the flavor, as this is delicious, I was not expecting the bite of spice that hit my tongue upon first taste. It contains a definite front-of-tongue burn at times yet, upon further sampling, I discovered that it sometimes has a creeping heat. The heat is quite intense, the form of which it takes notwithstanding.
In summation, this sauce is a new favorite of mine. While the price may seem steep at $9.00 for a 4 ounce bottle, be assured that this is worth it. The flavor is marvelous, the heat palpable, and the overall composition top notch. I encourage you to order a bottle and enjoy it. I am putting it on tacos tonight, myself. Enjoy!

Pain is Good Habanero Pepper Sauce

Today I'm going to take a look at (and a taste of) Pain is Good by Original Juan Specialty Foods out of Kansas City, KS. I originally found this sauce as featured on the show Hot Ones (but as a slightly different variation). This company also makes Pain 100% (which shouldn't have surprised me, but somehow did). At any rate, this sauce has a reputation that precedes it and I wanted to see if it lived up, and share some of my discoveries with you.
The consistency is nice and thick, not runny like Tabasco-style sauces. However, it's not so thick as to be a terribly slow pour. I think this is a nice middle ground of viscosity that can match many dishes without altering the textures of them.
 The color is not as red as I would have thought that it might be. Rather, it's almost a dull yellowish orange. To be honest, I'm not a huge fan of this part. I rarely say this, but I think the sauce might have benefited from some tomato sauce in the mix, or even some food coloring to change the hue. Maybe I'm nitpicking here but the color affected my initial reaction to this product.
In the flavor category, the spice is met with some bit of citrus. It has an almost floral feeling on the tongue. There was also a hint of something that I couldn't identify until I looked at the ingredient list: mustard brought out by mustard seeds in the mix.While I don't normally go for this sort of a profile in hot sauce, it is nice considering the heat.
The heat is obviously my end criteria on any sauce. I'll tell you that the name isn't kidding. In my first sample of this sauce, I attempted to taste too much at once and I paid for it. The heat is intense and was focused at the center of the tongue, although the tip of my tongue tingled for a while after my first foray. Another after effect was that my lips hurt and were left slightly numb.
In summation, I like the flavor of the sauce and the intense heat. The color, not so much. But at just shy of $8.00 to order, I'm glad to have it in my collection. In fact, I'm going to put it on the tacos I'm about to cook for dinner.

Yellowbird Sauce Habanero Condiment

I discovered a sauce via my internet travels that goes by the name of Habanero Condiment made by Yellow Bird Sauce, a company from Texas, that piqued my interest based on public discussion as well as a reasonable price of purchase. This bottle cost me about $8.00 for 19.6 ounces which, considering price of product per ounce, is quite affordable.
The first thing the caught my attention about the sauce once I got it home was the color. While everyone has seen the yellow and orange hot sauces, it doesn't really fit in with that category of those sauces the way I conceive of them. I imagine orange sauces to be more of a lighter red pepper fruit sauce and yellow sauces to have more of a mustard context. Both in flavor and in consistency, this sauce threw me for a loop, but more on those factors later.
The consistency of this hot sauce was much thinner than I had initially predicted. While thicker than, say, a Louisiana red, it was not as heavy as I thought it would be before I put it on my taco, the initial testing vector. While this was mildly disappointing, it made up for it in the addition in contributed to the flavor profile of the dish.
The flavor of the hot sauce is probably my least favorite part of this offering. It is far more one dimensional than I generally prefer in this type of thing. It definitely tastes of citrus, which is a nice departure from the richer sauces that I generally consume. While starting with this leads to a nice and refreshing tang on the tongue, it doesn't really grow on the palate after that. With that said, a richer dish, like tacos, having complex layera of flavors (if done right) is a perfect landing pad for Habanero Condiment. Other potential good uses would be in stews or on a sandwich (one with vegetables and cheese, preferably).
Of course flavor leads to a discussion of heat. The heat found here shocked me. It is surprisingly and genuinely hot! Not a growing heat, mind you, but a heat that hits you immediately and lingers for a good length of time. This heat hit more towards the middle and sides of my tongue, with no real lip burn, even after repeated sampling. No matter where the heat is located, it is a definite and strong heat without being a seemingly pointless and macho heat.
As a take away, the sauce is fine but I wouldn't give it super high marks. I feel as if it had every opportunity to impress me considering the neat experimentation of color and ingredients. At the end of the day, however, I don't think that I'll be leaning on this one heavily in cooking or dipping usage.