Hey that's not Beer! - Hot Sauce 1
Something different
I started making notes on beer after visiting my local bottle-o and staring at the craft beer section. Then trying to remember what was good and what was not . This substack makes it easier for me to identify the brewers and styles that I enjoy (plus I enjoy writing about it).
But its not just craft beer that has exploded in a kalaidescope of options in the last decade or so, but other things as well. For example hot sauces.
After binging on a few seasons of the excellent youtube ‘Hot Ones’ show and wanting to expand my flavour experience, I went to local grocer to purchase some hot sauce for myself. On arrival I was created by a literal wall of different options
This created a bit of paralysis of decision caused by the impressive variety of options. Not too dissimilar to what you get in the beer section at your local bottle-o these days. So based of some recommendation I picked a couple different sauces up.
So now just like the beers on this substack I will now begin to review hot sauces as well.
I have created some criteria to evaluate the sauce based on my limited experience. Hopefully it makes sense. See below for the first hot sauces I have tried.
1.Dirty Dicks ‘No name’ Chipotle Hot Sauce
Country of Origin: USA
Dab on its on: Heat, a little bit of spice and sweetness on the finish
Heat Level: Mild
Scoville Rating: 21000
Good on Eggs: It’s ok
Verdict: 2.5
Chipotle seems to be a good entry point for hot sauces. For this one it was a bit basic flavour wise despite having a very long list of ingredients. Provides a bit of heat to food but not much else. Not bad but definitely did not wow me.
Pickappeppa ‘Spicy Mango Sauce’
Country of Origin: Jamaica
Dab on its on: Fruity and peppery. Pleasant mild heat.
Heat Level: Mild
Scoville Rating: 10000*
Good on Eggs: Yes
Verdict: 4.0
A great and interesting hot sauce. Lots of fruity and pepper flavours that I found complimentary to the food I was eating. There is a heat to it but it is pretty reasonable but I wouldn’t pour large quantities of it over whatever I was eating. Definitely one I will keep on hand in the fridge going forward.
*The Scoville scale is a measurement of pungency of chili peppers and other substances, recorded in Scoville heat units. It is based on the concentration of capsaicinoids, among which capsaicin is the predominant component.
