Serious Heat: Hot Sauces That Think Outside the Bottle
Editor's note: Each week, Gretchen VanEsselstyn of Chile Pepper magazine drops by to drop some Serious Heat.
Here at Chile Pepper magazine, masochism is alive and well. For our annual March "Hot Sauce" issue, we tasted a few hundred hot sauces from makers large and small over a four-week period. We categorized them, wrote up notes, took some photos, and assembled the info into a giant buying guide. And then we checked in with our gastroenterologists.
This year, we took a journey through the alphabet, from A for Asian and African sauces through Z for ZestFest, with stops along the way for categories like Chipotle, Dessert, Garlic, Jerk, Mustard, Texas, and, of course, XXX.
I is for Ideas, and the sauces below think outside the bottle, whether with wacky packaging or innovative flavors.
Dave's Gourmet Adjustable Heat is still the cleverest packaging we've ever seen. Choose your own heat level from warm to really, really hot with a flick of the wrist.
Savannah's Original Screaming Pickle Sauce tastes like pickled jalapeño juice but is even tastier and hotter.
Blair's Sudden Death Sauce with Ginseng--well, ginseng is supposed to help with alertness and mental clarity. One drop of this killer-hot concoction and you'll certainly be alert.
Louisiana Gold Horseradish Pepper Sauce is a bold, fresh-tasting blend that's amazing on oysters or smoked salmon.
Original Juan Pain is Good Jalapeño Harissa is a taste of the Middle East, with fresh herbs and lots of chiles--delicious with hummus or falafel.
Pepper Palace Myrtle Beach South Carolina Ocean Sands has a beautiful, beachy label and is dipped in pearly blue wax--a nice collectible.
Porky's Gourmet Foods Bellycheer Spicy WorcesterFIRE is simply great, hot Worcestershire, and should be stirred into deviled eggs, tuna, or what have you.
Sizzlin Sauces Howlin' Hollar Hot Sauce with Pumpkin is pleasantly sweet and earthy with a powerful kick.
Zack and Zane's Sons of Sam Caffeine Capsaicin Nirvana is made with love, vinegar, coffee and naga jolokia (the world's hottest chile). So darn good.
Tahiti Joe's sauces all use innovative ingredients like dehydrated vegetables, Parmesan cheese, Key lime, and clam juice. Polynesian is sweetish and lip-smacking, while Volcano Ahi X is more savory and Ahi of Kahuna XX is the hottest--and our favorite.
W.O. Hesperus Captain Mowatt's Cocoloco Crazy Coconut has delicious, fresh, hot tropical magic--dare we suggest a splash in your next piña colada?
Keep an eye here on Serious Heat for more sauces--in the meantime, try some for yourself.
[The Hot Sauce issue is available at your local bookstore or newsstand--via subscription at chilepepper.com.]
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5 Comments:
i've found that i can get alot of hot sauces at just one location. go check out www.peppers.com
i've ordered at least 15 bottle of sauce from them and most all have been great.
dozertx at 3:50PM on 02/16/09
Gretchen, Joe Perry's sauces are available once again including his Mango Peach Tango. He's changed the bottle again though so they're no longer in the mini whiskey flasks.
LunaPierCook at 4:26PM on 02/16/09
The adjustable heat reminds me of that foundation makeup with the same packaging. I don't know if that makes me want it more.....or less.
amanda0730 at 9:36PM on 02/16/09
I thought about that adjustable heat, and I think it's a bad idea.
Let's say you like your hot sauce a little hotter than medium. You're going to deplete the hot side faster than the mild. Then eventually, you're going to be left with only mild, but you don't like mild. You like hotter than medium. So, what are you going to do with the left over mild?
You're really are just wasting hot sauce.
rectormsw at 10:43AM on 02/17/09
@rectormsw: I sort of agree for if you have the sauce for personal use only. You could probably refill each side as it runs out. You'd just be refilling one side more than the other unless you liked the exact middle level. This is way, they sell just two levels of heat but cater to people who like any level in between.
Additionally, say you get this for a party or other get-together...then people could adjust it to what they wanted without you having to have multiple bottles.
wunami at 7:34PM on 02/18/09