Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 20 fresh jalapeno peppers, sliced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup minced onion
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups water
• 1 cup distilled white vinegar

Directions:

1. In a medium glass or enamel lined sauce pan over high heat, combine oil, peppers, garlic, onion and salt; saute for 4 minutes. Add the water and cook for 20 minutes, stirring often. Remove from heat and allow mixture to cool to room temperature.
2. Transfer the mixture to a food processor and puree until smooth. With the processor running, slowly add the vinegar.
3. Pour into a sterilized jar with a tight lid. This sauce will keep for 6 months when stored … Continue Reading
   

From the Victoria’s Secret collection comes Feel The Heat, a sauce whose label features a man and a woman in skimpy bathing attire standing in front of a setting sun on a beach. He’s very muscular with a Speedo-style bathing suit that hangs suspiciously halfway down his thighs. She is clad in a lilac-colored bikini the top of which barely is able to contain her huge breasts. It is for moments and products such as this that I am thankful to be an avid label reader.

You may start to feel a certain burning sensation when you hold a bottle of Feel The Heat, but it won’t be due to the sauce itself. Continue Reading

The Acid Rain Hot Sauce bottle stands out among other hot sauce bottles because of its shape. It is shorter than most and has a square shape with rounded edges. Its bright yellow label says “Acid Rain” in big black letters. Beneath that, we have sketches of two trees. One is covered in full, lush foliage, while the other is withered and dead without a leaf in sight — presumably because of the big black cloud looming above, pouring acid rain onto the unfortunate tree.

A description of the sauce on the side entices with the claim that, “Unlike some hot sauces, Acid Rain Hot Sauce is loaded with flavor. Continue Reading

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 large jalapeno peppers, seeded and diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 teaspoons adobo sauce
• 2 (6 ounce) containers fresh raspberries
• 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar

Directions:

1. Heat olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Stir in jalapenos; cook until tender, about 5 minutes.
2. Mix in garlic, and adobo sauce; bring to a simmer.
3. Stir the raspberries into the sauce; cook until soft, about 3 minutes.
4. Stir in the vinegar, salt, brown sugar, and white sugar. Mix well.
5. Simmer until thickened and reduced by half, about 15 minutes.
6. Transfer sauce to a heatproof bowl; allow to cool to room … Continue Reading
   

Here’s a tasty little number that foregoes the typical odd or frightening name in favor of promoting its key ingredients – what my old high school English teacher used to call “putting the meat in the window.” In other words, whatever you have to say, say it clearly so people can understand it. I’ll try to hew to those words of wisdom in this review.

Georgia Peach & Vidalia Onion Hot Sauce is a sweet and sassy sauce that marries two of Georgia’s most prized agricultural exports: peaches and Vidalia onions. The wedding party also includes red chili puree, jalapeno peppers, cayenne pepper, and tomatoes. Continue Reading

Mad Dog Inferno Hot Sauce is not so much a sauce as it is a paste. You’ll build some great upper arm stretch trying to pound a few drops of this sauce out of the bottle. The good news? You’ll only need one. This stuff is monstrously hot. A solo taste produced more than an hour’s worth of full-mouth burn, quelled very little by water or milk. It has a thick, grainy consistency and a dark, chocolate brown color. Uncapped, the imposing scent wafts out of the bottle like some sort of evil genie ready to grant your wish for oral masochism.

The heat is rapid and sustaining. For a second run, I slathered a drop in the middle of my roast beef sandwich with provolone (on wheat). Roast beef is one of my favorite lunch meats, but sometimes it just seems unexciting. Continue Reading

Uncle Brutha’s Hot Sauce No. 10 has three pepper ingredients, all of them superstars in their own right; Habaneros, red and green jalapenos, and Serrano chilies. Add to that a few unusual ingredients, such as beets, cress, and spinach, and you have a hot sauce blend that can definitely be called unique.

First of all, if heat is what you want, Uncle Brutha’s will make your forehead damp. The cool thing about this heat is that it doesn’t overwhelm the smoky taste of the sauce. The heat factor is about a six on a ten scale, but it’s a slow heat one that teases the tongue and gradually warms your belly.

Continue Reading

There are just certain phrases a man never expects to hear himself utter. For me, “I’d like a little Baboon Ass, please,” certainly falls into that category of things I never wanted to hear myself say. These days, I say it often, and I say it with pride. The original Baboon Ass Habanero Hot sauce (as if there have been a lot of Baboon Asses to follow) is on my list of hot sauces to keep in stock.

From the instant you open this bottle, you’re drawn into the world of a masterfully crafted hot sauce. The enticing aroma of Habaneros hits you immediately. Continue Reading

A deep reddish brown sauce in a bottle with an angry looking iguana smoking a cigar and wearing a military uniform must yield an interesting product, right? The tagline reads “Smoky, Savory, & Sort’a Hot”. Is it smoky? Yes. Is it savory? A little. Is it hot? No. Well, my grandma might think it is hot, but she also thinks that bell peppers offer a ‘kick’, so I’m not taking her advice on this one.

The first smell of the Iguana Smoky Chipotle Pepper Sauce makes you smell it again. What is that smell? A few more sniffs reveal hints of a Worcestershire-sauce type smell (methinks it could be the ‘artificial smoke flavoring’ listed in the ingredients). Overtones of oregano are also discernable. Continue Reading

The label on the fire ant juice hot sauce bottle transports you into a scene from a 1950’s sci-fi  flick, portraying a hapless victim & an eight foot fire ant. It might not be a bad idea to keep your local national guard unit and/or haz-mat crew on speed dial, just in case. . .

Ever sat your posterior down on what looked like a nice soft mound of earth in say, south carolina or thereabouts?  You may have soon received a less than hospitable welcome from the local inhabitants ! ! !  An example of the above  mentioned inhabitant is glued to the neck of each bottle of fire ant juice, presumably  to make for easier identification by any first responders or your next of kin, if necessary. Continue Reading

For almost 20 years, the Ashley Food Company has been creating all natural, mouth watering, and award-winning hot sauces, extreme hot sauces, pepper extracts, and BBQ sauces.  Combining hot peppers with rich flavor, each sauce.  Creator Dave Ashley kicked off his own venture in his tiny Brighton, Massachusetts kitchen, and soon was supplying so many friends with his creations that he expanded his project to a commercial level.

A quick glance at the bottle for Boston’s Best “Mad Dog Liquid Fire” reveals an initially average label: a black background slowly being consumed by flames, complimented by text set in red and black font.  Continue Reading

Unlike other hot sauces, Mad Dog Green Amigo is not one that relies on its level of heat to sell bottles, but rather on its flavor and value as an ingredient.

If the “amigo” in “Green Amigo” was not a clear enough tip-off, the stereotypical “Mexican” theme of the yellow dog’s attire should clue you in to the fact that this sauce works best as a component to any Mexicana-styled food dish. 

If you can bring yourself to look past the yellow dog in a sombrero shaking a pair of maracas, you’ll notice that the bottle’s label promotes itself as a mild sauce, with just one notch on a ten-point heat scale. Continue Reading

When the results of the 2010 Scovie Awards, the world’s leading recognition for hot and spicy products, were announced, Chef Wayne Howey of Tropical Island Gourmet was excited to get the call from the competition organizers. Palm Beach Gardens-based Tropical Island Gourmet Co., which distributes a wide assortment of bottled sauces and Spice Blends, has received a First Place 2010 Scovie Award.  In the industry’s most rigorous blind tastings, a panel of the country’s top culinary experts sampled hundreds of the world’s most lauded gourmet foods, and the top scoring products each won a coveted Scovie banner.

First Place in the Medium Hot Sauce category was awarded to Tropical Island Gourmet’s top selling “Fire Ant Juice” which is manufactured by Sauce Crafters  in Riviera Beach Fl.  Over 600 products from around the world competed for top honors.  Continue Reading

From the get go, You Can’t Handle This Hot Sauce exists to trick you into experiencing pain. It all starts with the name. Sure it says “You can’t Handle This,” but it might well read “What are you, a pussy? I mean seriously, how can you expect to survive this hot sauce, especially while you’re still wearing that tutu?” It doesn’t help that the cartoon character on the bottle looks to be one part Asian stereotype, one part wimpy demon. Either way, he looks like someone who might wet himself before you could even get the chance to punch them out.

The thick, dark brown sauce has the look of what was once a robust barbecue, but has dulled in colored in the last couple of years since it was forgotten in the back corner of the storage space under your kitchen sink. Continue Reading