Captain Spongefoot Trilogy
Wing Sauces

And yet again it’s time for some hot wings! I don’t make wings very often, but lately I have been finding myself experimenting with wing sauces. There might be something on the horizon coming from me regarding wing sauces, but I’ll have to keep anything else under my cap for now. But in my cabinet just begging to be sampled I had a trio of Captain Spongefoot Wing Sauces just waiting for some chicken wings! You can go to their website for more info on all of their sauces.

http://www.captainspongefoot.com/

I have a sampling of the Original Wing Sauce, the Chipotle Wing Sauce, and the Sriracha (Z) Wing Sauce. It seems they have a new Cranberry Chipotle Wing sauce, but hey beggars can’t be choosers. So I line up these 3 sauces and give them the once over.

First impression: ‘Legendary Flavor is on the Horizon.’ The Captain Spongefoot line has a very professional looking brand as part of the label. Going along with the whole ‘sea and sailor’ image, there is a lovely little drawing of a boat sailing the high seas just looking for some chicken wings to smother in wing sauce. They use some nice muted colors for the background of the labels, which gives them a nice overall appeal. There is even a little Chinese type Junk ship on the Z Wing Sauce! Just to make sure that you know that this sauce has some of the flavor of the Far East. Now let’s take a closer look at all of these sauces and see how they hold up on some wings!

Ingredients: Original Wing Sauce – cayenne pepper, sriracha pepper, water, vinegar, clarified butter, salt, sugar, garlic, natural flavors, and corn starch. (contains allergens: wheat, soy, and fish)

Chipotle Table Sauce – cayenne pepper, chipotle pepper, water, vinegar, clarified butter, salt, sugar, garlic, natural flavorings, and spices. (contains allergens: wheat, soy, and fish)

Sriracha (Z) Table Sauce – sriracha pepper, chipotle pepper, water, vinegar, clarified butter, salt, sugar, garlic, natural flavors, and spices.

It seems that these sauces based on the ingredients are very similar in design. There seems to be just a few slight variations to give us some different subtle flavors.

Appearance/Smell/Taste: I give each sauce a nice little smell and they all pretty much smell identical with some slight variances to each sauce. They actually don’t smell all that great, scent wise they are very generic and basic. Dare I say kind of like Frank’s wing sauce?!? I have to admit they have some nice smoky overtones to them. But overall, the smell is just very basic wing sauce with a touch of smokiness. Straight up, they are very pungent and vinegary to the palette. All three sauces have pretty much overpowered my tongue and taste buds with a wave of vinegary vinegar. But I can see that these are pretty much specific application sauces, ie meant for wings! So I got the fryer all set to go and fried up some yummy chicken wings.

Prepared meal: Deep Fried Chicken Wings.

I’m pretty sure that making wings to most folks on here is pretty self explanatory. So I really won’t go into details about making wings. Just fry those suckers up in oil heated to about 145 degrees for about 7-8 minutes. Drain, then toss in your favorite sauce. Here comes my synopsis of the Captain Spongefoot Trilogy.

Complement to meal: Starting with the Original Wing Sauce, I grabbed about 4 wings and thoroughly coated them. Taking the first bite, the sauce has it’s harsh vinegary bite. Just like a typical wing sauce. But, the addition of the chicken definitely cuts down on the harshness a bit from taking the sauce straight up. So it really does remind me of a ‘typical’ wing sauce. Note cayenne peppers as the main pepper here. There is also a slight hint of the Sriracha, but the cayenne definitely takes center stage here. BUT, and I say but because there are some differences here to take note of. The Original Wing Sauce has a nice garlic hint to it with a nice subtle heat. I’d say it’s roughly a 2-3 on the HSB heat scale. The garlic really adds to the overall flavor, so it’s really not just a ‘typical’ wing sauce. It does have that ‘disguise’ from it’s appearance and smell. But once this sauce hits a wing, it’s another ball game for sure. And I don’t even like baseball. So perhaps it’s more like another soccer game then!

I must say that I really kind of like Chipotle peppers. Although sometimes, and it’s only ‘sometimes’ when it’s a cheap ass sauce that uses artificial Chipotle flavorings and such. Not here, since Captain Spongefoot uses a mixture of chipotle and cayenne chilies for the Chipotle Table Sauce. Now, I kind of have an aversion to the name ‘Table Sauce’, especially for this product. It’s not really a table sauce with the addition of clarified butter, it’s a wing sauce. So if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, common sense tells us.. Well you get the idea. I will give kudos for Captain Spongefoot for trying a different type of name for a wing sauce in a gourmet food line. So I guess the plus and the minus just cancel each other out! Getting back to how this sauce tastes on wings. I like the taste initially of the Chipotle Table Sauce a little better than the Original Wing Sauce. It has a slight smokier and creamier flavor to it. Which I prefer over the Original Wing Sauce. The heat was about the same on the HSB heat scale, perhaps a notch higher maybe 3-4 on the scale. Definitely a little bit more clarified butter in this one, there is also no corn starch as a thickener, which migh back up my assessment that there is slightly more butter in this one. Very good wing sauce.

Last but not least is the Sriracha (Z) Table Sauce. Once this sauce hits the wings, the smell of the Sriracha pepper is more dominant than smelling it straight up. This sauce still has that vinegary flavor to it, but yet again the chicken has slighted this and muted it to the point that it tastes good on a wing! The Sriracha Table Sauce has less of a vinegar flavor than the other two. That and there is a touch more smokiness and a touch of sweetness to this sauce. And the heat level of this sauce is definitely the highest of the 3 sauces. I’d have to say that it’s at least a 4-5 on the HSB heat scale. It’s definitely not a barn burner, yet it has a nice mild-medium heat that lingers a bit on the tongue as I eat more chicken wings! Damn, I love hot wings! I just wish it were like eating a salad! Again, I’d have to say that the Z Sauce is definitely my favorite of the Captain Spongefoot trilogy! And like I was saying earlier. They seem to have the ‘disguise’ of a typical wing sauce. But they all have some really nice nuances to them, that separate them from the pack of a traditional wing sauce. Still a touch vinegary, but if you like wing sauces, then you’d really like the Captain Spongefoot line. Now, all I need is a bottle of the Cranberry Chipotle Table Sauce! I bet that one is just tits on some wings! Take care all and till next time! -Lars-

Initial impression: 8/10

Ingredient quality/content: 8/10

Flavor/textue/smell: 6/10

Heat: 5/10

Overall: 6.75/10