Review: Heat Hot Tar Factor

Initial thoughts: After the fiery foods show I had a meeting with Nick where I picked up a few new items to review. It so happens to be that this was the coldest night of the year. Nick had some great items for me and I was hoping this would be the case because I really wanted to get the heat going! One of them was Heat Hot Tar Factor. I was really excited to try this out because it is a chocolate habanero product. A few reviews back I had done the Hot Chocolate review. I was curious about how other chocolate habanero products would be. Overall, the Hot Chocolate was good but I had mixed feelings about how this habanero could and would be used in the industry given some time. For those of you who are new to the chocolate habanero these are the bad boys that use to give the Red Savina a run for the money in the heat department. (Before the discovery of the Bih Jolokia, A.K.A “Naga Morich”) The name “Chocolate” is a description of the color of the ripe fruit, not the flavor. The flavor is more complex than other Habaneros, a little “earthy”. Some describe it as a little “smokey”. Very hot, a little goes a long way.

I thought that this would be an interesting product based on the name and appearance of the product. I have never had anything from Hot Tar before. As always I love trying new things, especially from new companies. I was thinking that this would be something I would like but not exactly sure where it would stack up in the evergrowing hall of fame that I have created within my mind. Lately I have been so lucky to try alot of great new products.

A bunch of fresh chocolate habs!

Ingedients:Cooked Seasoned Chocolate Habanero Peppers & Distilled Vinegar.

Visual: The Hot Tar is stored inside an 8 oz Jar. I was curious as to why a hot sauce would ever be placed in Jar. I am still left wondering why? Does anyone have an answer? I am happy though that 8 oz. are being made available. The more the better and that is a key selling point to customers, well sometimes. The sauce seemed to be watery thin before opening. The color is of chocolate which made me certain that the ingredients were basically what they claimed to be in that of hot chocolate habaneros and vinegar. Seeds are visible inside the jar which is always a plus for me. When I have natural sauces I like them to be as natural as possible showing fleshy pulp and seeds. When it is time for extract I don’t mind seeing the black oil. The label of Hot Tar is pretty cool. The text “Heat Factor” comes in white font while “Hot Tar” comes in Orange and Red font. The way they did it kind of reminds me of the declining popular show “Fear Factor”. I was hoping that the sauce would have been somewhat thicker. The name “Hot Tar” kind of makes you think that you are going to possibly be in store for something as thick as molasses or a bbq sauce. When I opened up the lid however there are fleshy parts of chocolate habs floating around.

Aroma: The aroma was really quite good! There is a very deep rich smell to the chocolate habanero that is unique from other habaneros that I have had in the past. The aroma was similar to Hot Chocolate not that long about, but something was more appealing to it. I think that it may have been due to the fact that it didn’t have a sharp almond extract smell to it. While I did like the Hot Chocolate aroma the almond extract didn’t live up to its taste as the odor may have indicated. This Hot Tar sauce doesn’t have that sharp flavor but a more natural sweeter smell to it that says, “I don’t want you to really know how I taste before you eat me” I was able to smell somewhat of a sweet flavor. It is hard to describe it. Perhaps if you can think about how warm cocoa pebbles would smell like, then that is probably fits the description of how I sensed this product upon holding my nose to the lid of the jar.

Application: I decided to go along with something that calls for that rich smokey flavor and tacos was the obvious choice. Hot Chocolate I used on ribs so I thought lets go with something new this time. Upon tasting a good amount of this sauce on a chicken taco I didn’t feel the heat initially. I really liked that there wasn’t an overbearing vinegar taste at all. I thought that there would be since the ingredients were just Chocolate Habs and Vinegar, however I was wrong which turned out to be a good thing! The flavor is somewhat sweet but still of natural peppers. The heat did build after I had few tacos and it did last for some time. There was no fruity flavor with this sauce and is what I anticipated from my prior background of using Hot Chocolate. However, the taste wasn’t as bitter as Hot Chocolate which was a great thing!

Final Thoughts: Overall, this is a product that I did enjoy. I wouldn’t add it to my top 20, but it is really a great sauce and probably the best hot chocolate hot sauce that I have had in terms of an all around product. A few flaws in this product are that the name “Hot Tar” indicates that the product may be thick, which in all reality it is quite thin. My point is that when adding this sauce onto my tacos I just dumped it out on top of the taco. All the fleshy parts of the habanero went onto the taco while the watery part when all the way to the bottom of the taco only to spill out when I went to pick it up and eat it. I think that this product is to be used only for the fleshy parts to be used. Therefore, that would make the actual 8 oz. really turn into 4 oz. perhaps. I didn’t do all the math yet but I am sure it is half or less. However, maybe there are other recipes out there where the liquid portion of this product can be use. Another flaw was the application out of the jar. While it is only a trivial matter, pouring out of the jar can be a messy time, so a spoon is required. However the main thing is that the flavor and heat of this sauce was great. I used 4 oz. of it (half of the jar) on 4 tacos and I had a nice small burn going, but it didn’t linger for an extended period of time. Personally I would have made the sauce a little thicker, but I am not a manufacturer, not yet at least.

Packaging 7/10
Aroma 8.5/10
Taste 8.5/10
Appearance 7/10
Heat 8/10

Overall 8

Hot Tar, Inc.
P.O. Box 786
Cairo GA 39828