Hey HSB’rs time for another sauce review from California. I just got back from a 10 day trip to Tennessee, Illinois, and Kentucky; so it’s good be home tasting sauces again. I have some catching up to do so you might see a few of my reviews coming up quick. Today I tried LEGENDS, “The Premium Habanero BBQ Sauce”.

Initial Impression: When I got the bottle of LEGENDS Habanero BBQ sauce in my hand I sort of had mixed feelings. I was excited about having a habanero BBQ sauce, but the label made me feel that it might not be that great. The grainy, old comic book look and feel of this vast label stretched across the 12.5oz flask bottle made me think of an old paper book cover and the smaller text is hard to read. I most likely would have not picked this up if I had seen it on a shelf.

Ingredients: Tomato puree, water, brown sugar, molasses, orange juice, horseradish, worchestershire sauce, habanero peppers and natural spices. No MSG.

Well I’m pretty sure they mean Worcestershire sauce, but just in case I left it spelled the way they had it on the label. I’m not sure if it is standard practice to ad MSG to BBQ sauces but I feel relieved to know there is none in this one, whew!

Appearance: I really liked the way this sauce looks. It has a reddish brown color with little black flecks; my guess is coarse black pepper, but it could also be the result of roasting the peppers. A few seeds are present. I like the consistency of this sauce; it flow nicely and is still plenty thick. Now I’m getting excited about tasting it!

Aroma: Unexpected is the word I would use to describe what I smell when the cap came off. The aroma is very tangy, almost vinegar like. The most dominant scent is definitely tomato. If had had smelled this blindfolded and was asked what it was my guess would have been tomato soup with Worcestershire sauce…. Hmm, where’s that grilled cheese sandwich?

Taste: I always like to have a taste before trying any sauce on food. Sometimes the incredible complex flavors surprise and amaze you. Not the case here, but sometimes it happens. OK, sweet, spicy, a little tangy. That’s about it. I tasted it a few time and tried to pick up on that something special; but it’s just not there. No particular flavor stood out, nothing surprised me or was distinctly pleasing to the palette. But it does taste fine.

The Food Test: It just so happened that on this particular day my smoker has been stocked full of pork shoulder and loin roasts. What better test for a BBQ sauce than this? I must say LEGENDS BBQ sauce is better applied to a well seasoned and smoked pork loin than it is out of the bottle. The habanero flavors come to the top and the tomatoey flavors seem to be absorbed by the meat. The heat level is pretty mild for a habanero BBQ sauce; I would say about a 3 out of 10. I would have expected more heat since it is being sold as a Habanero BBQ sauce.

Conclusion: LEGENDS, “The Premium Habanero BBQ sauce” is ok in my books. I enjoyed it on my pulled pork and I am at ease knowing that there is no MSG in it! If I were buying a habanero BBQ sauce I would want it to have more heat and really present the habanero as the feature not just a supporting act. If you want a sweet and tangy BBQ sauce with a little bit of heat and a hint of habanero you will definitely like LEGENDS Habanero BBQ sauce.

Packaging 4/10 – Grainy & Hard to Read
Aroma 7/10 – Tangy, Tomatoey
Appearance 10/10 – Thick, Black Flecks, Seeds
Taste 6/10 – A Bit Flat
Heat 4/10 – Not Habanero Hot.

Overall 6/10

Legends BBQ, LLC.
P.O. Box 7332
St. Petersburg, FL 33734

Wassup HSB’rs, time for another hot sauce review. Today we are tasting csigi chili sauce Big Boss jalapeno Tomatillo Sauce. Since my last review of a csigi sauce I have been informed that they are NOT screaming bulldogs in a pool of blood. Well, I guess it just goes to show, when you use a Rorschach test as label art people are gonna see what they see.

Initial Impression: Big Boss Jalapeno Tomatillo [tag]Hot Sauce[/tag] looks really nice in the bottle regardless of what my demented mind sees on the label. The sauce looks nice and thick with little bits of goodies visible in the mixture. Once again the chemical formula for capsaicin in listed on the side panel. I don’t eat a lot of green sauce, most I’ve had were not that good. There are guys like Danny Cash that have shown me it can be done the right way! I’m hoping this will be one of those as well.

Ingredients: Vinegar, Jalapeno Chilies, Tomatillos, Extra Coarse Sea Salt, Hemp Protein (0.00%THC), Roasted Garlic, Arrowroot, Turbinado Sugar, Spices.

I see the unleaded hemp protein has made its way into yet another sauce. Too bad you can’t choose between regular and unleaded, it would make for an interesting meal. “Billy really seems to like that pot sauce on everything”; it’s not a typo.

Appearance: To me this sauce has a much nicer consistency than the Capsacin Carnivale. It is nice and thick but still fluid enough to flow out of the bottle and no pesky plug to smack out before dispensing. I like the tiny brown flecks of spice and bits of seed floating around, it gives the whole thing a homemade appearance. Hey, those seeds didn’t come with the hemp protein did they?

Aroma: Big Boss Jalapeno Tomatillo Sauce has an initial vinegary punch in the nose. I took a really nice snoot full of these fumes to see what I could pick out. It reminded me of a big jar of pepperoncini, sweet and tangy. I love pepperoncini so I found it quite pleasing.

Taste: ZING! If you like a vinegary sauce, eat this one right out of the bottle. I popped a tablespoonful of Big Boss Jalapeno Tomatillo Sauce in my mouth and it popped me right back. While the first taste was quite tangy, it was also quite flavorful. The tomatillos are definitely the star of this show. I find that the jalapeno flavor is somewhat lost in the excitement. I would say that this sauce is about a 2-3 on the heat scale and that pretty much stays in check with its mild status listed on the label. I found myself spitting out some little hard bits, probably seeds… or maybe hemp protein stems.

The Food Test: I felt that this would be a great breakfast sauce. I decided today’s hot sauce food test would be a corned beef with Habanero Jack cheese scramble. Since my initial taste proved this to be a pretty mild sauce I decided it would take a substantial amount to charge up these eggs. You can see from the picture, I let loose, using about ¼ of a bottle on my scramble. Pretty tasty stuff, the vinegary taste is subdued by the food and the flavors come out to enhance your meal. It could have used more heat in my opinion, but they can’t all be an 8-10. Can they?

Conclusion: Big Boss Jalapeno [tag]Tomatillo[/tag] Sauce is a pretty darned nice sauce. It made my meal easy to eat, it helped to start a conversation with my son about THC and how avoid drugs, and it got me to call my therapist up and ask him why I would see two screaming pit bulls in a pool of blood on a Rorschach test, I mean hot sauce label. I think this sauce has provided more than I could ever expect from a condiment.

Packaging 5/10 – Ok, I get it now?
Aroma 7/10 – Vinegary
Appearance 9/10 – Nice thick with tasty bits
Taste 8/10 – Great on Eggs
Heat 2/10 – Mostly tomatillo

Overall 7/10

Csigi Chili Sauce
569 Blue Mountain Lake
East Stroudsburg, PA 18301

Hey HSB’rs what’s shakin’? Well I’ll tell you what’s shakin’; this bottle of Crazy Ed’s Cave Creek Chili Beer Brand Hot Sauce. Got any idea why it’s shakin’? It’s shakin because Crazy Ed put this silly little flip top restrictor cap on a nice thick hot sauce and the only way to get enough of the darn stuff out is to shake the shit out of the jar.

Initial Impression: The fist thing I noticed about 100% Natural Crazy Ed’s Cave Creek Chili Beer Brand Hot Sauce is that it looks remarkably like Tabanero sauce. The big difference being that Tabanero is 10 words less than 100% Natural Crazy Ed’s Cave Creek Chili Beer Brand Hot Sauce. Beside the extremely verbose title I think this packaging looks cool. I like the clear label; it really shows of the amazing orange color of the sauce. The visual appeal of this sauce made me feel joyful, as if something good was about to happen. Now if you could only figure out what you actually want to call it.

Ingredients: Fresh carrots, selected red peppers, fresh onions, key lime juice, garlic & salt.

Where is the beer?Hmmm? Carrots are listed before peppers; and where is the beer? The name says Chili Beer in big letters remember; 100% Natural Crazy Ed’s Cave Creek Chili Beer Brand Hot Sauce. I guess in all fairness it does say “Brand” after “Chili Beer”. I gotta say though, I was actually expecting to see beer in the ingredients list. I suppose I have to let this one go since I don’t have baboon listed as ingredient in my stuff.

Appearance: Boy this 100% Natural Crazy Ed’s Cave Creek Chili Beer Brand Hot Sauce is bright orange and nice and thick. It sticks to the sides of the bottle and it also sticks to whatever you put it on. Now I am really getting anxious to taste this practically glowing orange sauce.

Aroma: When you smell 100% Natural Crazy Ed’s Cave Creek Chili Beer Brand Hot Sauce you might find yourself smiling. I know I did. The crisp fragrance of habanero peppers is dominant here. Upon taking another generous snoot full of this pleasing perfume I noticed the onion is gently lingering in the background. I found the bouquet of 100% Natural Crazy Ed’s Cave Creek Chili Beer Brand Hot Sauce to be simple yet well balanced.

Taste: I always like to have a taste before trying any sauce on food. How else will you know with what foods a particular sauce might combine well? When I tasted 100% Natural Crazy Ed’s Cave Creek Chili Beer Brand Hot Sauce I noticed that the peppers were not the star of the show here. The acidity of the lime juice seems to jump out at you first. The next thing to happen is a little onion flavor comes forward and finally the peppers show up in the form of both flavor and heat. I would rate the heat of 100% Natural Crazy Ed’s Cave Creek Chili Beer Brand Hot Sauce at about a 3-4 out of 10. This sauce, however, is so nicely balanced you might not mind the absence of blistering heat here. Of course this is the Hot Sauce Blog!

The Food Test: When I first saw 100% Natural Crazy Ed’s Cave Creek Chili Beer Brand [tag]Hot Sauce[/tag] I thought Beer. And what goes great with beer, pizza of course. But I was in the mood for some more than just pizza tonight, so I decided to test 100% Natural Crazy Ed’s Cave Creek Chili Beer Brand Hot Sauce on a Mediterranean Falafel pizza complete with tahini sauce. Well, I managed to kill about 4 pieces of pizza and I consumed about ¼ of the bottle of 100% Natural Crazy Ed’s Cave Creek Chili [tag]Beer[/tag] Brand Hot Sauce. I could not think of a better sauce for the job. It’s like they were made for each other. This tangy, oniony, pepper sauce has won over my palette with or without the beer.

Conclusion: 100% Natural Crazy Ed’s Cave Creek Chili Beer Brand Hot Sauce is obviously suffering from some sort of multiple personality issue or perhaps even an identity crisis. Regardless of the name I like this sauce! Even though on the back it says “use chili beer hot sauce…” and there is no beer in it, I like this sauce. If you want a great flavored sauce that won’t burn your face off, you’ll like this sauce too!

Packaging 7/10 – 100% Natural Crazy Ed’s Cave Creek Chili Beer Brand Hot Sauce?
Aroma 9/10 – Fresh, Habanero & Onion
Appearance 9/10 – Bright Orange
Taste 9/10 – Well Balanced
Heat 4/10 – Not Habanero Hot.

Overall 8/10

OK well let’s just jump right in with my second review for Hot Sauce Blog. I am a little perplexed by this sauce. Everything about it screams HUH? If you have set out to confuse the masses I think you have a winner here. I did a little research, very little, and noticed that this [tag]hot sauce[/tag] has recently won a second place Scovie in the habanero hot sauce division. I have high expectations when there is an award attached to a product.

Initial Impression: Like I said my first impression was confusion. I don’t really get the label and I don’t understand what the two headed screaming bulldog in the pool of blood is all about. I tried to find some clues on the web but had no luck. I did think that putting the chemical formula of [tag]capsaicin[/tag] on the side panel was cool. Only an Uber-Chile-head would get that.

Ingredients: Vinegar, Orange Habanero Chilies, Roasted Yellow Peppers, Roma Tomatoes, Garlic, Extra Course Sea Salt, Turbinado Sugar, Hemp Protein (0.00% THC), Spices, Arrowroot.

Typically sauces that have vinegar as their first ingredient tend to twang the taste buds more than I like. I guess we’ll see. Hemp protein is a strange ingredient to add to a hot sauce the only other hot sauce I’ve ever seen with a hemp by product is Blair’s Smokin’ Hot Pot sauce. It had some hemp seed oil in it. You want a real carnivale leave the THC in it next time!

Appearance: THICK! This sauce is so thick that it is almost not a sauce. When I took off the cap to have a sniff I noticed that there was a plug of sauce blocking the opening. Even putting the lid back on and shaking would not remove it. It was as if the sauce had created some sort of a mucus plug like self preservation system so as not to be consumed by whatever being had enough dexterity to remove the cap. With a few good slams on the table I was able to dislodge its protective device and gain access to the sauce beneath it. I recapped and shook a few more time to ensure that the sauce was properly blended. This sauce pours out very slowly and practically piles up on the plate or whatever you are putting it on. If you like it thick, again, a winner!

Aroma: A big sniff of this sauce will have you twitching a bit at first. The initial aroma is defiantly vinegary. If you give it another chance once you get used to the vinegar twang you will notice that there is a very distinctive fresh habanero aroma. This sauce is sweet to smell, like a sweet pickle relish or ripe melon perhaps. I enjoyed the fragrant complexity, it made my mouth water.

Taste: When I first put this sauce in my mouth it has an almost cooling effect. There is a sharp bitterness initially but it quickly dissipates and the sweetness flows in. it’s not for about 10 seconds until the heat starts to build. The heat builds slowly and peaks at about a 6/10. On second taste I find there is not a lot of flavor. After the initial twang of vinegar which was followed by some sweetness and finally the build up of a little heat I was kind of feeling like it had not peaked. It reminded of a good movie with a weak ending.

The Food Test: Braised Calypso Pork was tonight’s repast. This was some pork shoulder country style ribs with cabbage and carrots. It was seasoned with Creole spice and seared in a pan. The whole deal goes in a covered pan to be braised with some Caribbean Calypso Marinade. This meal was screaming for some heat. I doused my plate with a healthy slathering of this brownish viscous condiment. While it did add some heat it did not seem to go well with the dish. I thought the Caribbean nature of this dish would happily marry with this habanero sauce. Perhaps it would be better suited to eggs; I’ll try again in the morning.

Conclusion: Capsaicin Carnivale is definitely like no sauce I have ever tasted before. The flavor is unique but once the vinegar tang runs out it, unfortunately, falls a little flat. If you like super thick sauces that have a nice aroma and medium heat, this might be the one for you. Overall I found the whole package to be somewhat confusing. But maybe I am overanalyzing?

Packaging 3/10 – I don’t get it?
Aroma 7/10 – Fresh, Tangy & Sweet
Appearance 5/10 – Very Thick & Brownish in Color
Taste 4/10 – Somewhat Flat
Heat 6/10 – Habanero.

Overall 5/10

Csigi Chili Sauce
569 Blue Mountain Lake
East Stroudsburg, PA 18301

Below is a review from a potential reviewer here on the HSB. This reviewer is also a manufacturer (not of this sauce of course) so he has additional insights to bring to the reviewing table. I would like the readers of the HSB to provide feedback on the review since you are the folks reading here everyday. ~ Nick

Being an avid hot sauce eater, every now and then I find myself temporarily departing the blazing realm of the Habanero in search of something that teases me with slightly less heat and more complex flavors. Since this sauce took a second place Scovie in the Specialty Chile category I figured it might be worth the time and taste buds. IT WAS!

Initial Impression: When I first approached the bottle I was intrigued by the spiffy little lizard on the label. Upon closer investigation I came to learn, from the side panel, that the art was created by no other that the famous Dave Kellett. For those of you whom might not know Mr. Kellett, he is the creator of the well known Sheldon Comic strip. I really liked the art; this little lizard with his flaming chili in hand, and his devilish grin taunting you as if he is daring you to try his sauce.

Ingredients: Jalapeno Peppers, Tomatillo, Onions, Vinegar, Garlic, Cilantro, Spices, Salt, Xanthan Gum. This ingredient list checks out A-OK with me. All natural, no preservatives, and peppers are the first ingredient in this list.

Appearance: This sauce has an impressive appearance. It has a nice natural looking green color, no freaky kryptonite, day glo. Upon closer inspection you can see little bits of garlic and spice, and tiny little bits of cilantro. It has a thick yet smooth texture and a slightly glossy appearance. This is without a doubt one of the sexiest jalapeno sauces I have ever seen. I’m getting excited about tasting it!

Aroma: WOW! That’s how I feel about the way this sauce smells. When I uncap this bottle and take a healthy whiff at the neck my mouth instantly starts to water. You can actually smell this sauce in layers. I have the bottle uncapped and in front of me as I type this review. So here is what I smell; Jalapeno is definitely the first thing to hit your nose, followed by garlic and onion and then the tangy tomatillo comes through. A couple of more whiffs and you can clearly pick out some spices, to me it seems like chili powder and maybe cumin. Let’s Eat!

Taste: Jalapenos and tomatillo are a classic combination; this sauce gets the balance perfectly. The tangy tomatillo zaps the tip and sides of your tongue while the jalapeno heat kind of lingers on the center of your tongue and the roof of your mouth. There are garlicky flavors and cilantro and spices bounce around your mouth. You will actually taste every ingredient as it pops out and makes a guest appearance. On the heat scale of 1-10 I would give this sauce about a 5. While it might be little light in the heat department for the Chile-head that is always looking for liquid napalm, it is a very well balanced sauce and does not get lost in food.

The Food Test: Pizza was the weapon of choice for this sauce. Bad pizza at that, I won’t name names, but this is a $5 pizza from a warming oven. You can see from the picture I really wanted the sauce to fix the pizza, and guess what, it did! It was actually so good I ended up eating about 4 slices and consumed half the bottle of sauce. What a great fusion. The flavors in this sauce blended perfectly with the cardboard pizza and made it pleasurable. I figured if Green Scream can make this meal enjoyable, it is worth every penny I spent on it!

Conclusion: Tangy and spicy, green and fresh. This is one of the finest jalapeno sauces I have ever tasted. Alone, it was alive in my mouth showing off its complexity. On Food, it has the ability to revive any dish and bring happy hot sauce joo joo to your mouth. Whether it’s a cardboard pizza, your favorite omelet, a taco, burrito, or an awesome meal cooked by your Mom, Monty’s Gourmet Foods Green Scream Jalapeno Sauce will add flavor and excitement to anything it touches.

Packaging 9/10 – Dave Kellet from Sheldon Comics
Aroma 10/10 – Fresh, Green Alive & Tangy
Appearance 10/10 – Smooth & Sexy
Taste 10/10 – Complex
Heat 5/10 –Jalapeno & Tomatillo with Herbs & Spices.

Overall 9/10

Monty’s Gourmet Foods L.L.C
516 N Main Ottawa, KS 66067-1923 USA
TOLL FREE 877-274-7428