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A fine looking label
Now from the start I knew this was going to be a sauce I liked.
The label is bright and eye catching. An orange and yellow background with some flame symbols reminiscent of petroglyph’s. Inset is a black, leaf framed box. At the top of the box in plain red text is the company name, Desert Pepper Trading Company. Below that in a much larger text is three red xs with a white outline. Habanero pepper sauce is in bold yellow text at the bottom of the box. On the bottom edge of the leaf frame is a yellow rectangle with the words XXXTRA HOT.
The back of the label states “Created for those with a burning desire for flavor, XXX Habanero Pepper Sauce ignites passion with fresh habanero peppers for a smoldering heat nothing can extinguish. So prepare yourself for trial by fire and keep a bottle on hand. Because you never know when a hankering for a little excitement might flare up.” (Where can I find a writer like that?)
Alright! Sign me up!
The sauce looks thick and chunky like a salsa with small orange and reddish chunks of peppers and quite a few seeds suspended in all that peppery goodness.
Straight up on a spoon
Ingredients: habanero peppers, fresh carrots,onions, lime juice, vinegar, garlic, salt.
Upon opening the bottle I am greeted with a tangy aroma of lime juice vinegar and peppers.
“HOLY SALT LICKS, BATMAN!!!” I cautiously apply a dab to a piece of flour tortilla. This is the saltiest sauce I have ever tasted. I referred back top the label, salt is last on the ingredient list!?! The nutritional panel indicates 10 mg sodium per tsp. I have a feeling somebody mis read a recipe in the course of producing this sauce. Wasn’t this supposed to be hot too? Not so. I put a tablespoon of this sauce in my mouth and swished it around for 30 seconds (I timed it). It was kind of like gargling with salt water after oral surgery. Where is the heat? Wait a minute, am I on Candid Camera?
Salty residue on cap of bottle #2
A few other facts about this sauce: on the neck of the bottle it has a stamp that indicates best before may/07 and gives the lot #816. It is Mid Nov/07, however I can’t see that fact taking all the heat out of the bottle and filling it with salt. I purchased a second bottle to try and figure out what was going on. The second bottle had a best before date of April/08 and is lot #931. Exact same flavor, heat and saltiness, in fact I took a picture showing a little bit of white residue around the top edge of the shrink band on the cap. I tasted it, yep you guessed it! SALT! Now I have another bottle of Red Savina sauce that has the exact same ingredients, aside from habanero type, in the same order of predominance, and is less salty. The Red Savina sauce indicates 115 mg per serving and Desert Pepper indicates only 10mg.???? What is the deal???
Heat level 2.0-2.5, salt level off the charts!
I really had high hopes for this bottle and am determined to make it work. I tried it on several things. Straight up on a spoon, oh salty! On some breaded deep fried halibut, I seasoned the breading so it was again too salty. On seasoned fried potato wedges (jo jos), dang salt! Slathered on pan fried halibut with onions, mixed hot and sweet peppers and a little chardonnay to deglaze the pan, now we’re talkin’. I mixed it with some cream cheese, about a 1/4 cup cream cheese per tablespoon and spread it on Wheat Thins with a habanero ring topper, this really rocked. I made a pot of lentils with low sodium beef stock, a little bacon and pepper (no added salt) topped it with some cheddar and habanero rings and poured the rest of the bottle on, this definitely worked as well. The only way to make this sauce work for me is to mix it with something or use it on something in place of salt. The flavor of the peppers is allowed to come out once you solve the salt issue.
With lentils DO NOT ADD SALT
Fried halibut
Pan fried halibut with onions hot and sweet peppers DO Not Add SALT
1/4 cup cream cheese per tablespoon Desert Pepper
I can see how this product might be very appealing as a table sauce in Costa Rica in place of a salt and pepper shaker. I think I will make some tostones (fried smashed then fried plantains) with the rest of the second bottle.
I think (just my opinion, don’t want to fight) that this would be a great example of a sauce that would fair terribly in a standardized sauce review format, ’cause straight off a spoon would = straight in the trash. Now knowing it is very salty it can, like most sauces compliment a meal, just make sure to apply the sauce before other seasonings.
This Sauce is a product of Costa Rica, distributed by Desert Pepper Trading Company, 909 Texas Ave, El Paso, TX 79901, 1-888-4-salsas
Chilehead Comments:
Posted by: Sam - Categories: Hot Sauce Reviews, Reviews
Permalink: Review: Desert Pepper Trading Co. XXX Habanero Pepper Sauce
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Two years ago: Scotty B's Gourmet Hot Sauces
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27 Comments »
Great review, Sam. Good investigative work too. Sounds like the next place you will use that sauce is to melt ice in the driveway.
I agree…. I tries this with high hopes as well. Ended up throwing it out
Should have said “TRIED…… long night, sorry.
Great review Sam. I love the way you threw everything you had at it to try and make it work. I don’t have that much patience!
SteveM on 1/23/2008 at 10:10 am said:
Great review, Sam. Good investigative work too. Sounds like the next place you will use that sauce is to melt ice in the driveway.
I will take any extra bottles you don’t want and use it on my driveway in Detroit.
Good review Sam…Sounds more like a good ole’ Texas Salt Lick for cattle.
Good review Sam, I laughed, I cringed.
Nice one Sam. Given the texture and color of the sauce, which looks like Melinda’s line, and after reading the ingredients, I didn’t think there would be anything spectacular going on here. That’s too bad because Desert Pepper’s Salsas are quite tasty for a supermarket-shelved product. Maybe if they smoked their habs or added a unique ingredient it could break through this category of beautifully-labeled yet mediocre Costa Rican table sauces marketed to us gringos. Surely CR has some great local sauces that don’t make it up north what with all those peppers they have down there. And a final note, chileheads, if you see XXX Hot on a mass-produced label, that should serve as a warning that you won’t need a box of Kleenex for tears and sniffles.
Come on Sam, you couldn’t find anymore uses for this product? I think you give up to easy. 
Nice review as always.
The review is dead on. The two most disappointing things to me were that it looked so good ( nice colour = nice flavour ), and the XXX just implies big heat. It had neither. I wound up tossing this one out as well.
Hot Canuck on 1/23/2008 at 11:19 pm said:
The review is dead on. The two most disappointing things to me were that it looked so good ( nice colour = nice flavour ), and the XXX just implies big heat. It had neither. I wound up tossing this one out as well.
…or lots of gratuitous nudity
XXX means many things to many people…
You reminded me that I had a bottle of this stuff in my collection. I went to look at it and I found that it has barfed our all the liquid and is nothing but a jar of brown goo now. It’s probably better that way!
Sorry, OUT not OUR… Darned fat fingers, small keyboard.
Uncle Big on 1/24/2008 at 1:10 pm said:
…or lots of gratuitous nudity
XXX means many things to many people…
lol…the XXX usually has to be in neon to imply the other…or is it different out there on the plains???
P.S. - last night the wife asked me when I’m getting more of that great wing sauce…thought you’d like to know…
Ken
Uncle Big on 1/24/2008 at 1:10 pm said:
…or lots of gratuitous nudity
XXX means many things to many people…
Hot sauce and a movie, Big knows how to party!
Hot Canuck on 1/24/2008 at 10:18 pm said:
lol…the XXX usually has to be in neon to imply the other…or is it different out there on the plains???
P.S. - last night the wife asked me when I’m getting more of that great wing sauce…thought you’d like to know…
Ken
The torpedo is in the water, as of yesterday. You’ll be getting the shipping notice today (if Isabella gives the wife a chance to do some book work today, Bella is teething)
Cross you fingers the parcel doesn’t freeze.
Lava doesn’t freeze….like I said in my e-mail - no rush this time around - just thought you’d like to know I’m not the only one in the house whose big on your sauce…pun intended…Though we’ll see what she says when I add your reserve to the next batch of wings…
Hey guys.. I picked up a bottle of this a couple years ago, when I first read a review on it on here.. It wasn’t that hot,t o me, but it definitely wasn’t bad. I put probably a half a bottle on a plate of frozen burritos, and I thought it was just fine. The fact that I had to use so much was a bit unsettling, tohugh, so I never got it again, although it’s pretty commonly available in stores around here, and not much else is.
My gf couldn’t touch the stuff without choking. Sigh. Why can’t I ever find a girl that can take it hot?
I read the review and I must say I was really disappointed in it. I absolutely LOVE this sauce. Maybe just cause I am an amature hot sauce lover. Yes it is salty. But to me it wasnt overly salty. The only problem I have is that I CANT FIND IT. I used to be able to find it at Ross clothing store. They stopped carrying it. Know if I want it I have to order it online for 4$.
I’ve been buying this hot sauce for a good 10 years! While it’s easy to find on ther shelves in Michigan. Now that I live in Florida I have to order it on the net buy the 12 pack to keep supplied!
Any one wanting to get rid of thiers can send it to me. One of the BEST I have been able to findfor flavor and color!!
Hey everyone. I am on a salt restricted diet and I have been buying this stuff for a while now thinking I was getting 10mg per serving. It is usually fairly thick when it comes out of the bottle. The other day I got a new bottle since I had ran out and I just opened it today and it is more loose. I tasted it and it seemed super salty!!!!!!!!! I looked on the label and it now says 205 mg per teaspoon!!!!! DAMN!!!!!! I got on the internet trying to find out info on this and ended up calling the company that distributes this in the USA. El Paso Company. The sauce is actually imported from Costa Rica and the lady on the phone advised me she didn’t have any details about the sauce because they have just discontinued carrying it since the company out of Costa Rica fails to give them inspection reports on their factory. El Paso is currently out of stock so when your store sells out then this sauce will be a goner!!!!! I still don’t know what happened with the salt content. Salt used to be listed as the last ingredient on the label that had 10 mg but now salt is listed as 4th ingredient out of 8.
The best before date on this bottle is May 2009 and the lot number is 1031. The person I talked with at El Paso said she would try to find some info out for me and send me an email.
THIS SAUCE HAS SEEN IT’S LAST DAYS IN THE USA PROBABLY. Unless another company decides to market it.
It’s possible, though not entirely excusable, that they did the recipe listing based on what *they* added to the mash, not understanding that most (okay- nearly ALL) mash is already up to 22% salt! Adding salt to most any commercial mash is extreme overkill… unless you’re trying to de-ice a sidewalk 
I know a few smaller sauce makers who’ve been caught by this.
I humbly suggest that if you’re looking for a hab sauce with NO SALT, try mine. Oh- and *substantial* heat
Jim - Thanks for info. I have another question which you might be able to answer. How is the sodium and ingredients in hot sauce regulated. What happens if they list it only having a low sodium content but then it really has 10-20 times the listed amount. How would a person ever know for sure. Can you really count on the labels being totally accurate and who makes sure they are????
Also, what is the name of your sauce? Where can it be ordered or purchased?
Thanks in advance!!
Roy Nabors on 5/1/2008 at 3:01 pm said:
Jim - Thanks for info. I have another question which you might be able to answer. How is the sodium and ingredients in hot sauce regulated. What happens if they list it only having a low sodium content but then it really has 10-20 times the listed amount. How would a person ever know for sure. Can you really count on the labels being totally accurate and who makes sure they are????
Also, what is the name of your sauce? Where can it be ordered or purchased?
Thanks in advance!!
Well Roy, the short answer to your question would be “no”- you can’t *absolutely* depend on the labels being accurate. Having said that though, by and large there is fairly good compliance as few folks would want to run afoul of the FDA no matter what they think of them. Your recourse would be to send a complaint to the FDA. Most larger cities have an FDA office in them. It might take a bit of phone work (start in the Fed Gov ‘blue pages’), but if you felt strongly enough about something, you could eventually get connected to the right folks. Misleading folks on the sodium level, especially if I were on a sodium restricted diet, might get me to feeling strongly enough
My site is wildpepper.com and my “Pure Arson” has NO added salt. My Ralph’s Righteous Habanero sauce only has 4 cups in 40 gallons (1/160th). It was reviewed and approved here on the Hot Sauce Blog & you can check the archives for comments.
Additionally, the website listed with my name, has links to several other hotsauce manufacturers who make some great stuff also.
Always happy to help 
How can I order this stuff? My local Jewel stopped carrying it and this is the best Habanero sauce I have found.
How disappointing to learn that this sauce has been discontinued. I’ve been a fan of this sauce for nearly 5 years, and I didn’t find it too salty at all. It had the perfect balance of heat and flavor and a great texture, in my opinion. I’ve tried Melinda’s and other like it and I was just not pleased. I guess I’ll have to keep trying other sauces until I find a new favorite.
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you nailed this one….it’s very,very,very salty.
This is on my will not eat again list.