On my last birthday I received a set of hot sauces from the Dat'l Do-It company. I don't eat hot sauces as much as I used to, not because I can't stand to eat them, but because of the...er...shall we say--aftershocks. So far I have opened only one, Habañero Heat Wave.
This is what I would consider a medium-heat sauce, that is, suitable for consumption on food straight out of the bottle. There are other sauces that I would consider suitable only for the novelty or for spiking other sauces that are too mild, such as Vicious Viper or Butt Twister. I use Vicious Viper to spike a relatively mild habañero sauce called El Yucateco that I get at H.E.B., and which I use to make my habañero jerky. A couple of drops of the Viper mixed into a bowl of chili is also a good way to give the chili an extra kick. I have eaten it straight, smeared on a corn chip, but I wouldn't make a habit of it.
So anyway, this post was to comment on Habañero Heat Wave. It has plenty of heat, but when it comes to hot sauces, I am more impressed by flavor than heat. Some people eat hot sauces because they enjoy the heat and seem not to care too much about the flavor, but if a sauce doesn't have good flavor I don't give a toss for the heat.
I must say that the flavor of Habañero Heat Wave does not impress me at all. It's only okay by my standards, but not nearly up to the level of my favorite all-purpose habañero sauce, Sontava XXX.
So if you're a hot sauce lover and you're looking around at new sauces to try, I'd say skip the Habañero Heat Wave. The flavor is simply nothing to recommend.
I'm with you. I don't mind a little heat as long as the sauce has a good flavor. Nothing disappoints me more than sitting down at a Mexican restaurant, getting chips and salsa, and finding out the sauce is nothing more than wet heat that makes your eyes water. Flavor, please!
ReplyDeleteOK, something else disappoints me more. Bland refried beans. That alone will make me not want to visit a restaurant again.
I've had some of their products and found them quite good. My one of my all-time favorite habanero sauces however, is Melinda's Habanero Sauce.
ReplyDeleteThere's a place up in Dallas called Cafe Brazil that makes outstanding breakfast sandwiches. They're even better after applying a good dose of the nuclear-green El Yucateco!
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