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!