Review: Desert Pepper Trading Co. XXX Habanero Pepper Sauce

A fine looking label

Now from the start I knew this was going to be a sauce I liked.

The label is bright and eye catching. An orange and yellow background with some flame symbols reminiscent of petroglyph’s. Inset is a black, leaf framed box. At the top of the box in plain red text is the company name, Desert Pepper Trading Company. Below that in a much larger text is three red xs with a white outline. Habanero pepper sauce is in bold yellow text at the bottom of the box. On the bottom edge of the leaf frame is a yellow rectangle with the words XXXTRA HOT.

The back of the label states “Created for those with a burning desire for flavor, XXX Habanero Pepper Sauce ignites passion with fresh habanero peppers for a smoldering heat nothing can extinguish. So prepare yourself for trial by fire and keep a bottle on hand. Because you never know when a hankering for a little excitement might flare up.” (Where can I find a writer like that?)

Alright! Sign me up!

The sauce looks thick and chunky like a salsa with small orange and reddish chunks of peppers and quite a few seeds suspended in all that peppery goodness.

Straight up on a spoon

Ingredients: habanero peppers, fresh carrots,onions, lime juice, vinegar, garlic, salt.

Upon opening the bottle I am greeted with a tangy aroma of lime juice vinegar and peppers.

“HOLY SALT LICKS, BATMAN!!!” I cautiously apply a dab to a piece of flour tortilla. This is the saltiest sauce I have ever tasted. I referred back top the label, salt is last on the ingredient list!?! The nutritional panel indicates 10 mg sodium per tsp. I have a feeling somebody mis read a recipe in the course of producing this sauce. Wasn’t this supposed to be hot too? Not so. I put a tablespoon of this sauce in my mouth and swished it around for 30 seconds (I timed it). It was kind of like gargling with salt water after oral surgery. Where is the heat? Wait a minute, am I on Candid Camera?

Salty residue on cap of bottle #2

A few other facts about this sauce: on the neck of the bottle it has a stamp that indicates best before may/07 and gives the lot #816. It is Mid Nov/07, however I can’t see that fact taking all the heat out of the bottle and filling it with salt. I purchased a second bottle to try and figure out what was going on. The second bottle had a best before date of April/08 and is lot #931. Exact same flavor, heat and saltiness, in fact I took a picture showing a little bit of white residue around the top edge of the shrink band on the cap. I tasted it, yep you guessed it! SALT! Now I have another bottle of Red Savina sauce that has the exact same ingredients, aside from habanero type, in the same order of predominance, and is less salty. The Red Savina sauce indicates 115 mg per serving and Desert Pepper indicates only 10mg.???? What is the deal???

Heat level 2.0-2.5, salt level off the charts!
I really had high hopes for this bottle and am determined to make it work. I tried it on several things. Straight up on a spoon, oh salty! On some breaded deep fried halibut, I seasoned the breading so it was again too salty. On seasoned fried potato wedges (jo jos), dang salt! Slathered on pan fried halibut with onions, mixed hot and sweet peppers and a little chardonnay to deglaze the pan, now we’re talkin’. I mixed it with some cream cheese, about a 1/4 cup cream cheese per tablespoon and spread it on Wheat Thins with a habanero ring topper, this really rocked. I made a pot of lentils with low sodium beef stock, a little bacon and pepper (no added salt) topped it with some cheddar and habanero rings and poured the rest of the bottle on, this definitely worked as well. The only way to make this sauce work for me is to mix it with something or use it on something in place of salt. The flavor of the peppers is allowed to come out once you solve the salt issue.

With lentils DO NOT ADD SALT

Fried halibut

Pan fried halibut with onions hot and sweet peppers DO Not Add SALT

1/4 cup cream cheese per tablespoon Desert Pepper

I can see how this product might be very appealing as a table sauce in Costa Rica in place of a salt and pepper shaker. I think I will make some tostones (fried smashed then fried plantains) with the rest of the second bottle.

I think (just my opinion, don’t want to fight) that this would be a great example of a sauce that would fair terribly in a standardized sauce review format, ’cause straight off a spoon would = straight in the trash. Now knowing it is very salty it can, like most sauces compliment a meal, just make sure to apply the sauce before other seasonings.

This Sauce is a product of Costa Rica, distributed by Desert Pepper Trading Company, 909 Texas Ave, El Paso, TX 79901, 1-888-4-salsas