Review: Original Pit Bull Hot Sauce
Ingredients: Chili Peppers, water, sugar, garlic, salt distilled vinegar, sugar, garlic, honey, red tabasco peppers, xanthan gum, potassium sorbate and sodium bisulfate (as preservatives.)
Packaging: Original Pit Bull comes in the standard 5 oz bottle with a black and white label with red accents.
Back Label: “Get bitten by the Pit Bull Hot Sauce!!! It’s all about Flavor…and not just Burn! It starts out sweet…and then…Bites back Hot. Add a delicious Bite to ALL your favorite Recipes. One taste and you will agree… Original Pit Bull Hot Sauce… the Sweet Sauce that BITES YOU BACK!”
Color: Red, with a few visible pepper seeds.
Smell: Taking my first whiff of Pit Bull (…that doesn’t sound right…) gave me the impression of a rich, garlicky Buffalo-Wing sauce. Nice vinegar bite – very appealing.
Consistency/Texture: This is a finely pureed sauce, very smooth but not at all runny.
Taste: My first thought as I tasted a spoonful of this sauce was… “I recognize this flavor… I’ve tasted this somewhere before.” It took me a while to place, but eventually I remembered the name… “Sriracha“. It’s a little sweeter than the popular Thai delicacy, and I actually found myself enjoying the texture much more. To me, Sriracha seems a bit grainy, whereas Pit Bull is pureed so smoothly that it goes down more like ketchup.
Heat: Taken alone, Pit Bull delivers a decent bite. The heat doesn’t linger for long though, and when eaten with food the spiciness tends to fade into the background a bit. I rate Pit Bull at 4 on a heat scale of 1 to 10.
Overall Impressions: I’m going to come right out and say it… I loved this sauce. My wife also really liked it, and she can be a bit picky when it comes to spicy food. We found that it went well with hamburgers, chicken, and Bratwurst…adding a pleasant garlicky-hot punch without overpowering the food. It was so good and versatile, I mopped up every last bit with my french fries. This one gets an instant promotion to my stable of regular sauces.
Pit Bull Hot Sauces
Available at: Pepper Heads Hot Sauces
Bay Shore, LI, N.Y.
Established in 2002.
Owned and operated by Manny Ortiz, Lisa Anziano, Harlee and Syd the Pit Bull
Telephone 631-666-7462 – FAX 631-666-7462
Good review. These guys are located about 10 minutes from – i’ve been using it for a while. Not as hot as I like, but nice and flavorful.
Yeah, it’s not a super spicy sauce… just nicely warming. They evidently make hotter versions of Pit Bull. I wonder if the flavor is the same…
I also think it tops out Sriachi rooster sauce.
Your review is spot on. Sriachi rooster kicked with a bit of sweetness and some floating seeds. I agree that it tops Sriachi sauce by just a tiny bit, but could easily pass for it.
My wife and I both love this sauce to. We add it to a very generic BBQ sauce like Sue Bee and use it on grilled items. Kari can’t take to much heat so this is something we can both enjoy. I think he has a hotter version as well.
You should try the hotter flavors “revenge” and “renegade” Same great flavor with some more burn…
And for the flavored sauces they now have a Jalapeño Peach sauce and the outrageous Jalapeño Pineapple sauce…
I have tried them all ( the local deli sells it) and all I can say is I am hooked !!!!!
I haven’t tried the original but the Renegade is awesome. Great flavor as well as heat, that’s what they focused on. I got a bottle of this at a fair (local brand).
A good sauce but the true king of hot sauce HAS to be Manny’s piri-piri sauce found in Johannesburg, South Africa. I think it must be the grape vinigar which gives it that distinct flavour. However, Pit Bull is easier to obtain and I am sold on it.
This is great sauce…your review is right on the money. I actually got my first bottle directly from Manny….I’ve met him a few times through work and he randomly produces a bottle of this hot sauce for me to try. I was sold from the first taste. I love this stuff.
LOL! Yeah boys, I am a proud South African and manny’s is kind of a benchmark here but only in Seafood circles. We as South Africans are rather fussy when it comes to our pepper/chilli sauces and dishes. A great one is the Banditos habanero range. it friggin’ smokes! Manny’s is good with prawns, try it out. Comes in a big ol’ J & B bottle.
So glad Manny’s Pit Bull Hot Sauce is back!!! My Bloody Mary’s haven’t been the same without my “secret ingredient”. Yaaay!