Bottle Description: Texas Shoot-Out Winner (Austin, Texas)

Ingredients: Habaneros, Tomatoes, Tomato Paste, Onions, Bell Peppers, Carrots, Garlic, Vinegar, Lime Juice, Honey, Brown Sugar, Salt and Herbs

Container: Standard bottle. Anthony recently had Chef D Rocks-Sweet Chili sauce up and on the bottle there is a comely lass sucking sauce off her finger. Sure that image doesn’t make you think “Oh my mouth and ass are in trouble” (ok maybe but not for any hot sauce related reasons), as a Blair’s SKULL!

The sauce I have has no comely gal instead there is a heavily tattooed cowboy with earrings grinning at me. Not appetizing. I would have preferred nothing but black and white text or hey NOTHING AT ALL is better than some dude trying to beckon you to eat.

Appearance: Lighter in color than a lot of sauces. Its brown…hmmmm there must be a reason that it doesn’t look too much like a hot sauce. You can also find small chucks on tomato skins, parts of onion and black pepper.

Consistency: Doesn’t run everywhere and just saunters out the bottle.

Taste: If you’ve read the appearance and smell you might know where I’m going. This Habanero sauce is a wolf in sheep’s skin. It tastes like BBQ sauce! There’s enough honey and brown sugar in here for it to be manufactured as a BBQ sauce too. But how does it taste. FANTASTIC! It’s not what you’d expect from a Habanero sauce (aka vinegar, bitterness). It’s sweet but peppery and tomatoey. It’s also smokey and mesquitey. Hell I’m just gonna say it. It’s a hot BBQ sauce.

Heat: 7.3/10 (ok sure it’s got habanero but it’s really not that hot)

Field Test: Grabbed some meat. Lot’s of it. Poured it on, enjoyed. I was sitting in my kitchen kicking it Texan style. Hidey ho.

Final Word: 8.3/10 I graded based on taste because had I included packaging it would have dropped the score to 6.9-7.1 or so. I just don’t like looking at some dude’s less than attractive mug as I’m trying to enjoy a meal. I turn my bottle around after I pour. I can understand why it technically is a habanero sauce but hey Chef D let’s call it a BBQ sauce ok? I also understand why it’s a Texas Shoot-Out Winner. In Texas they love their BBQ and as I eat this sauce, so do I.

Chef D Rocks
Phone (904) 249-6279
Fax (904) 249-6278

I’m not at all impressed with the label changes the Marie Sharp’s team has cooked up. The old labels were clean, crisp and classic. The new ones look like they’ve undergone a reality TV show makeover. Luckily no recipe changes have occurred.