Let’s continue on with the Nando’s reviews. Up today is the Garlic Pepper Sauce. Good things were expected from this bottle after all it does say it is an award winner. So far to date the Nando’s sauce have not let me down in the taste department but they have in the heat department. When I saw this was a mild sauce by Nando standards I basically took it out of the equation. I will tell you right now there really isn’t any.

After trying several of these Nando products a common theme has developed. Lemon. It seems to be the most dominating flavour. Sure you can feel some of the heat in the hotter sauces but lemon is always the most apparent and persistent. I have come to know Nando’s sauces more for their lemon flavour than their heat. It’s not a complaint per say, but maybe more of a cover up from Nando’s. I would like to see a bare bones stripped down version of one of their sauces. Perhaps maybe something even their line-up that dared the general public.

***Commentary Time***
Nando’s can do the general [tag]hot sauce[/tag] industry a huge benefit by taking a chance here. They know they have a good product and they have the backing to infiltrate the chains across the country. Instead of playing with taste buds I think they should challenge them further. Habanero’s instill fear in most. And that doesn’t matter who produces a habanero sauce. Habanero to the lay person = evil. Tabasco tried it I know. But that was kind of the same as Wendy’s Spicy Chicken Sandwich. They weren’t fooling anyone there. I mean a real Habanero sauce available off the shelf that gives real heat. This could pave the way for others. As it stands now I think some healthy competition will keep manufacturers honest. I know that Nando’s is strictly Peri-Peri, but that they could turn up the heat notch a bit and be a guiding light for the rest. Mainstream America may still not be ready for a full onslaught of heat yet, but there is nothing wrong with paving they way and getting them accustomed to it with great taste and heat.
***End Commentary***

Again, for the masses this is a good product. For those of us more attuned to smaller manufacturers sauces it wouldn’t hold up. It is almost like I should do two reviews for this. One for the chiliheads and one for the herd.

Anyways let’s get back to the sauce at hand. As I mentioned there is a lot of lemon flavour, but there is also quite a bit of garlic flavour as well. I tried this with some breaded pork cutlette and it was amazing. It would have been even better if there was some more heat to it. This is a sauce I would love to mix into a vegetable medley, a pig pile of rice or even mix into some potatoes.

The consistency and colour are nice and overall it would make a good addition to the kitchen staples. It won’t replace my favourite Garlic Chilie Sauce (made by Droolin Devil) but it will suffice if you can’t get your hands on that.

Ingredients: Water, Vinegar, Onion Pieces, Lemon Puree, Garlic Pieces, Sunflower Oil (3%), Salt, Serrano Peppers, African Birds Eye Peppers (Peri-Peri), Cayenne Pepper, Xanthan Gum.

Packaging 7/10 – Similar to their other products – could be bolder
Aroma 8/10 – Very Nice – lemon and garlic
Appearance 8/10 – Dark Orange colour – decent consistency
Taste 9.2/10 – Very lemony – good garlic kick
Heat 2/10 – minimal heat – but this never claimed to be hot

Overall 8.7/10

Nando’s USA
1041 18th W. Ste. A205
Costa Mesa, CA 92627
Tel: 1-888-625-2657
Fax: 949-722-0102