Gindo’s Spice of Life Fresh and Spicy Pepper Sauce – Mild

Today I’m reviewing the Mild version of the Gindo’s Spice of Life line of pepper sauces. The first view of the bottle gives it a look like you might expect of a higher-end olive oil or balsamic vinegar, straight down to the tear-away foil-embossed top that gives you that feeling like there is a chance that this bottle would likely hold something special and in place only with the culinary elite. The one thing thisdoesn’t do is separate itself from the other Gindo’s sauces as far as heat level, and so I really had no clue that this was the Mild sauce in the line, because they were all labeled the same. It took a little internet reading and a peak at the ingredients to come to this conclusion.

Ingredients:

There are a lot of exotic-sounding ingredients here, specifically in the salt category, but getting down to basics, this is a 3-pepper blend preserved with vinegar and salt, with some sugar likely in there to balance out the acidic bite. Here’s the full list: Jalapeno Pepper, Distilled Vinegar, Water, Pablano Pepper, Red Bell Pepper, Black Lava Salt, Pink Himilaya Salt, Sea Salt, Aussie Flake Salt, Cane Sugar, Ground Peppercorn, Xanthan Gum.

Aroma/Color/Texture:

If I didn’t know any better, I would have, based on the color, just thought this was nothing more than a jalapeno puree thinned out with some vinegar, but now that I’ve read what’s in the mix, I can appreciate that this has a little more darkness to it, which can be attributed to the poblano chiles. The aroma of this is primarily the brightness of jalapenos, but you can pick a bit of the more warm and earthy-like aroma that would come from the poblanos. The red bell peppers appear to lend nearly nothing to the color or aroma at this point. The sauce pours easily, but is too viscous to call thin, and once poured out actually has a bit of a tendency to stand up on itself, instead of wandering aimlessly, which would be desirable for the chef type, specifically for using the sauce to accent plating of a dish or to keep it centered upon the top of an entrée.

Taste:

FIRE	FLAVOR

As you might expect from the ingredient list, there is a fair amount of jalapeno flavor and vinegar flavor to this. The mixture of salts, while indistinguishable against the bite of the vinegar, offers up enough salinity to the sauce to make it flavorful, but not salty. There is a bit of sweetness and black pepper to the flavor that tastes good as well. The sauce is easily a Mild sauce, as advertised. The acidity level of this is right on the edge of too far, but not over the edge. Something about it has me wanting to add lemon juice to the mix and then using it in any scenario I would put lemon on a protein, such as a chicken breast or fish. The sauce gets a Nice rating, based on its appeal for universal use and balance of components. I will say that dropping a touch of the vinegar and adding a citrus component would add a desirable brightness to the sauce and might bring down the vinegar bite just enough to make it right on the money.