johnb

From the bottle: “Red’s authentic BBQ flavour. Taste and be saved. To worship: Dip anything that needs heat, use it in your cooking, add to chilli, or fish tacos. Even top your popcorn, if you dare. Amen.”

First off I have a bone to pick with this one. I really like the idea of the squeezy bottle with the twist-up lid – in theory is reduces the potential for sticky, messy, gunked-on sauce around the neck of the bottle. However this sauce is relatively thick and the small nozzle which is exposed doesn’t make it eazy to squeeze out. The problem gets worse as you go down the bottle as the thinner part of the sauce (which can escape) is reduced and the remaining liquid gets thicker. Anyway, problem solved by simply removing the top and pouring..

So, having ranted about the bottle, what about the sauce? Well, it’s boring to be honest. For my taste it’s not at all hot and tastes mainly of pineapple, which isn’t really a surprise considering the the 3rd and 4th listed ingredients are pineapple in syrup and concentrated pineapple juice (relegating habanero chilli puree to number 5).

3/10 – Nah.

From the bottle, “Extreme Karma is the perfect hot sauce for fire-tongued daredevils that want to enjoy their food. The world’s hottest peppers are rounded out with butternut squash for everyday enjoyment”

Quite a feisty sauce as you’d expect from something comprised of bhut jolokia and scorpion peppers. The starting flavours are mainly from the butternut squash and cider vinegar with a following touch of sweetness from the honey & then giving way to the pepper burn and tingling tongue.

It’s not something I’d use too liberally, given the heat level, but neither is it something that is too scary.

6/10 – I like it, but it doesn’t speak to my soul.

OK, so I wasn’t a huge fan of the Hot Headz piri piri, but this I like!

Not particularly hot, but really well balanced smokiness, heat and acidity. Quite mellow, in fact. To be used liberally on many things!

8/10 – Colour me impressed

“Lovingly Made in the Fens of England”

Quite a lively sauce, not overpoweringly hot but heat increases over time and there’s a pleasant tingling after burn. Add a dollop of acidity to balance, lace with a little spice and we’re off. It’s not complicated, but it is good.

8/10 – One that sits between the “pour liberally” and “treat with caution”.

“Boldly Crafted for Meals that Matter”

Nicely flavoured (butternut squash and apple underpins the beli and habanero), a little sweeter than most (hello honey). Not particularly hot; the habanero is most noticeable in the middle of the flavour development, but fades quite quickly with only a tiny residual after burn.

6/10 – All in all, nice but unremarkable.

Get yer BBQ fired up and get pouring!

In my opinion the rich, sweet flavouring of this sauce makes it the perfect accompaniment to typical BBQ cuisine.

You can certainly taste the bourbon and this sticky sauce has quite a restrained heat payload. The smoke from the chipotle peppers fuses well and the habanero makes an appearance, rising out of the other flavours to deliver some subtle burn.

8/10 – It’s good, but in my mind it’s not an everyday sauce. Best reserved for complimentary food pairings.

I picked some of this up in Japan on the recommendation of a colleague.

This stuff’s just amazing. It’s an oil rather than a sauce, but it’s packed full of crunch garlic bits (that the garlic remains crunchy after being in the oil so long is truly a wonder).

Quite a few ingredients, including soy & sesame, which can certainly be tasted. It’s not particularly hot, but it’s a real flavour explosion. Awesome on a fried egg.

10/10 – At the moment, buying it imported means that it’s not particularly cheap, but it’s utterly worth it.

Undeniably, this is a smokey sauce. You can smell the smoke when you unscrew the lid. Your tongue is assaulted by smoke when you consume it.

Smoke smoke smoke smoke smoke.

I’m a bit torn by this one. On one hand, I do like strong smokey flavours, however I think that in this sauce it dominates anything that you might use the sauce on (unless you’re being very sparing.. And what’s all that about?).

It takes a while for the smoke flavour to give way to a very pleasant but not overwhelming heat with a bit of acidity in the tail.

7/10 – Good, but needs careful food pairing to avoid smothering other flavours.