Please welcome Lars to the HSB with his first review! Lars is the man behind the Csigi Chili Sauce that have graced the pages of the HSB more then a few times. Welcome to the HSB Lars!

The screaming mug on Original Juan Specialty Foods, Inc. products is a silly reminder to me. How much I enjoy the burning impression capsaicin leaves on the tongue and the spirit! This is the first time I’ve tried any of their products. In fact, I have the Jamaican Style hot sauce and the Garlic Style hot sauce on deck for some future meals.

First impression: The Original Juan Specialty Foods line has a great gimmick label. It’s basic, simple, yet those screaming faces I’d bet is what draws many new customers to try these products. Plus, it’s bottled in a nifty little 3.75 fl. oz. whiskey flask. A little thermometer tucked into the corner to let the consumer aware that there could be some heat in this product! Somewhere just below medium in heat, 100% natural, hmmm. Let’s see…

Ingredients: malt vinegar, habanero and cayenne peppers, water, tomato paste, corn syrup, fructose, distilled vinegar, worcestershire sauce, spices, garlic, lime concentrate, brown sugar, seasoned salt, onion powder, liquid smoke and salt.

Looks like an interesting mix of yummy stuff! Well, I’d say except for the corn syrup, Worcestershire, seasoned salt, and liquid smoke. Corn syrups are just nasty, Worcestershire which can contain soy sauce a gateway to the possibility of MSG being in there. That and the seasoned salt is another MSG doorway. I suffer from headaches when I eat foods with MSG. Although this is just going to be used as a dipping sauce, so I’m sure that I’ll live.

Appearance/Smell/Taste: After giving the bottle a hearty shake, I cracked the seal opened the top and took a hearty snoot. A definite strong malt vinegar smell, not extremely distracting, as I’m a fan of vinegar based sauces. Although I’ve never had a hot sauce with malt vinegar, but here goes! As I pour out a small glob onto my plate I can see the sauce itself has a decent medium consistency. There is a very good slurry of ingredients in this sauce. It’s almost a deep brick red color with little bits of spices, pepper flesh, and seeds. Taking a scoop onto a tasting spoon, I shoveled it into my waiting lips. The first flavor was the tangyness and almost harsh flavor of the malt vinegar. Then a nice sweetness from the corn syrup, fructose, and brown sugar. Then after a second or two, I got a nice flash of heat from the habanero and cayenne. Although I’m not getting any distinct flavor of the chilies in the mix, there a small amount of heat there. Let’s move onto the entre and give this sauce the red meat test!

Prepared meal: Free range beef coated with clarified butter, olive oil, and coarse black pepper/sea salt mixture. To clarify the butter, add 4 tbls of butter to a saute pan. On low heat, melt butter and skim off top. The remaining butter will look clear, like above example. Clarified butter has a higher temp. tolerance and is great for coating a steak about to be grilled to perfection. Combine the clarified butter with ¼ cup of extra virgin olive oil.

Pour onto a large plate and dip the steaks into the mixture making sure both sides get thoroughly coated. Then on another plate covered with coarse black pepper and coarse sea salt, coat each side of the steak to desired amount of cover. I’ve read many ways to prepare steak, but I’ve decided that I like this method. Three minutes flip, another three minutes flip, then another 3 minutes and the steak is ready. This works well with a 1” thick steak.

Complement to meal: As a steak sauce I really enjoyed the Louisiana Style – Batch #218. The tangyness of the malt vinegar I felt went really well with red meat. The cracked black pepper and sea salt coating on the steak was a perfect match with this sauce. The more of the sauce I ate with my steak, the heat has a tendency to build up a bit from the first bite. It’s not overly hot in any way, being a medium sauce. But there was definitely a little nose sniffle going on with me.

Overall a good hot sauce. The malt vinegar was a variance from the norm, which was what I would say sort of kills the flavor of the sauce. But then again, since malt vinegar is the first ingredient, it’s probably what the manufacturer wanted as a dominant flavor. I would bet that this sauce would also go well on baked potato and french fries! You might even want to consider giving your favorite chili a little blast of malty heat!

Initial impression: 8/10
Ingredient quality/content: 6/10
Flavor/textue/smell: 8/10
Heat: 4/10
Overall: 6.5/10

Original Juan Specialty Foods
111 Southwest Blvd
Kansas City, Kansas 66103