First Impression: Certainly not impressed by the 1 oz. sample size, but free hot sauce is free hot sauce, can’t dock any points there. Kind of a generic name, Blazin-Hot, but sometimes these unassuming characters can surprise you. The label too is pretty humdrum; the “Blazin-Hot Sauce” text jumps out of what appears to be a flaming sunset backdrop, and that’s about it.

Appearance: A dark, charred almost, red. Very dark, reminds me of a steak sauce in both color and consistency: it’s markedly thick, hardly goes anywhere when I make the plate vertical. The texture is mostly smooth, interrupted every once in a while by some black pepper flakes and very small granulates of other matter.

Smell: Blazin-Hot smells a heck of a lot like a standard barbecue sauce, sweet and smoky, something that I could easily imagine slathered on ribs or briskets. The sweetness may be provided by molasses. I always sound like a broken record at this point, swearing by the presence of garlic and onions, but these are both pungent, easily detectable ingredients that just about everyone has a nose for, so I think it’s safe to say (without a list of ingredients) that they are in there. Towards the end of the sniff, you do get that hint of heat, indicating this might not be your grandma’s BBQ sauce.

Taste: Yum, this is a very good sauce! Wow, wow, wow. It’s not quite as sweet as say, K.C. Masterpiece, and it’s way tangier too. The most prominent initial flavor, which actually lingers along with the heat, is the black pepper. But there is enough soothing power from the tomato paste-garlic combo that even those who aren’t the biggest black pepper fans can appreciate it.

Heat: If you are just going for barbecue taste, and not heat, stay away! Consider yourself warned, wussy barbecue man or woman! This one packs a surprisingly heavy heat-punch! In fact, that is my favorite quality of this very solid sauce. Blazin-Hot provides an almost immediate full mouth (and throat) blanket. It isn’t on the level of what we might call a super extra hot, but there is enough scorch to induce a slow pant and a moderately runny nose. My tongue is decently numb, but not numb enough to mask the strong BBQ theatrics. I give this one a deserving “Hot.” It could be too intense for the more casual consumer.

Overall: I am enamored with this sauce. My roommates love it too. When we first tried it, we shared a moment of “Oh, hell yes!” This is a real winner for the heat-seekers’ BBQ palate. No complaints, as they clearly carried out a vision skillfully. I dribbled it all over a cheap London broil, and broiled it. A very simple dish, but I figured that’s all it needed to be: Blazin-Hot would provide any necessary flavor. On the meat, which I cooked rare and was surprisingly smooth to the cut, Blazin-Hot was divine. A ringing endorsement, go out and get this one!

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