Gimmie That Burn

We’re back with a second round of hot sauce reviews. As you may recall, I hit up a hot sauce expo (under the guise it was a hot wings expo, which it really wasn’t), and ended up buying a huge ton (metric ton, not standard ton, because this was in Canada) of hot sauce. I walked away with far too many bottles, and now I’m steadily going through and sampling them again for these articles. I have them, so I may as well talk about them.

Because of that, though, I do feel like I should remind readers that these reviews will likely be far more glowing than my standard reviews, primarily because these are the sauces I actually thought were worth buying. If I didn’t buy them, then they were mid at best (and awful at worst). There’s a lot of good stuff here, none of which I’m getting paid to review (I’m out of pocket on all of these, in fact), but I still feel like I have to mention that just for the sake of editorial candidness.

With all that out of the way, let’s get into the second round of sauces, with most of these being far more traditional hot sauce varieties.

Burn Out Mix Tape

The Burn Out Hot Sauce Co. booth had a huge selection of sauces to sample, many of which were quite good. Their online store lists eight different sauces, some standard and some more varied, along with candied peppers as well. I went with two of the more traditional sauces as these were the ones that stood out to me the most. They were interesting, somewhat different, and pretty darn spicy, all of which were bonuses in my book.

The Mix Tape sauce (all of their sauces amusing, 1980s-inspired names, like Turtle Power, BMX, and VHS) is a sweet, spicy, and flavorful sauce. It’s got a pineapple citrus base, giving it that sweet brightness. It’s paired, though, with the bite of garlic along with habanero heat. It’s a medium on the heat scale for me, which probably means for others it would be much spicier, giving it a solid kick that doesn’t burn too hard on the tongue. I think it would go well as part of a barbeque, or served on wings, although I’m sure as an accent is sweet Asian dishes it would work well, too.

I do appreciate that this wasn’t just another mango habanero sauce. The pineapple gave it a stronger citrus bite and the garlic complimented that flavor well. It’s familiar enough that those looking for a sweet, hot sauce will appreciate it, but it doesn’t taste like all the other sauces out there. After sampling the same things over and over again, something different was very much appreciated.

Burn Out S-VHS

And then we come to their much hotter sauce. As noted above, Burn Out Hot Sauce Co. has what I’d consider a “traditional” hot sauce, VHS, that is flavored with roasted red and adobo peppers. It’s like a buffalo sauce, but with a smokier flavor, and it’s very tasty. However, instead of the standard VHS I was drawn to their S-VHS variety, which is the VHS but much, much hotter. For those that cannot handle true heat, you need not apply.

S-VHS takes the adobe formula and kicks it up a lot. Instead of just chipotle peppers, this version also has Carolina reapers and ghost peppers as well. Combined and slow cooked into their smoky sauce, these extra peppers take what could be considered a medium-low sauce and pulls it up to all the super-very-hot levels. This is the kind of sauce that not only lingers on the tongue, it takes up residence and lives there for a while. It was one of two sauces I sampled at the event that made my tongue hurt and my forehead break out in a sweat.

Needless to say, I loved it. This was an instant buy for me, and I’ve been using it regularly on sausages, in chilis, and to flavor just about anything else I can. A few drops go a long way with this sauce, but the flavor is absolutely worth it. This was the hottest sauce I ended up buying, and I have no regrets.

Ot Mama Chili Garlic Sauce (Chunky)

As I was walking around the convention space one of my Canadian friends came up, clearly pained, with sweat pouring off their face. They pointed to a booth and said, “this lady hurt me.” The booth was Ot Mama, and I instantly wandered over to see what was up. If their sauces nearly killed one of my Canadian friends I absolutely had to know what was in it and how it tasted. It sounded good to me.

Ot Mama had two sauces (and yes, I got both of them) similarly seasoned and served in either a chunky or smooth variety. The chunky is much more like a chutney or a salsa, with big, chewable pieces of garlic, pepper, and flavor. It’s got a sweet taste to it which doesn’t, in any way, mask the heat. If anything it only adds to it. This is powerful stuff, flavorful and tasty, with a nice bite to its texture. It works well in Asian dishes especially curries, although I could also see dipping into it with pretzels or a similar snack food.

I would suggest having some dill-seasoned yogurt on the side, though, if you do that because this stuff is hot. Not the hottest in the convention hall, but it did linger on my tongue for a few seconds.

Ot Mama Chili Garlic Sauce (Smooth)

I followed this up, naturally, with a taste of their smooth sauce. The ingredients are similar (I compared the labels) with the key difference being that this is a smooth sauce, like a standard hot sauce, without any off the chunks. If I had to guess, this a strained version of the sauce, not a puree, which is why the flavor is different. That doesn’t make it bad, just different in flavor from their chunky variety, which is actually pretty nice.

The smooth sauce is sweeter and tangier, tasting more like a spicy red pepper sauce than the more garlic-forward chunky variety. Both are seasoned with scotch bonnets and habaneros, which is where they get their (Canadian-killing) heat, but it doesn’t feel quite as bad in this sauce. That makes it good for drizzling, accenting a lot of sweet and savory dishes. Pouring this onto a roast, for example, to let it glaze in with other sauces and seasonings could be really good. It would also go great on wings, of course.

I liked both, but if I had to think which sauce has greater applications, I’d bet on the smooth. The chunky is solid, but I think you can do more with the smooth sauce in normal cooking.

Purple Tongue Hot Sauce Hallowed Satay

And finally we have something just a little different: a peanut satay sauce with a serious kick. Purple Tongue Hot Sauce Hallowed Satay pulled me in because I didn’t see a lot of peanut sauces at the event. I love using peanut sauces in Asian cooking (even though I don’t, traditionally, like mixing nuts or peanut flavors into other foods), so having something that’s clearly meant for Asian cuisine, but with a kick, interested me a lot.

As a warning, the texture is not entirely smooth. It’s clearly got ground up peanuts in it, not a true peanut butter of some kind, so the texture is almost coarse in comparison to a more standard peanut sauce. But that doesn’t detract from it for me. It doesn’t feel toothsome at all, it just has a bit of a thicker texture to it. Sauce with a bit of bite, if you will, and not just for the intense heat it has.

Seasoned with Hallow's Eve and Thai chili peppers, I’d say this is a medium-high heat for most people, or maybe a medium that lingers if you’re like me. It’s very tasty, and would go well as a dip or drizzle. Good, naturally, for satay chicken or beef, served on a stick, if you like that kind of thing. I do, and it’s great.

Final Thoughts

That’s it for the second round, but don’t worry as I will be back again before too long. I have a cabinet full of sauces I haven’t even opened yet, so as soon as I work my way through these I’ll get a few more going for another review. In the meantime, if any of these sauces from this review (or the previous) sound good, I do suggest checking them out. If they can ship out of Canada (not all of them can) there are plenty of great flavors that I think are worth getting. I’m not paid to say that, I just think they're awesome.