Posted July 13, 2007 by Anthony in Reviews

Review: Critter Dipping Hot Sauce

Ingredients (Ready for this): Reconstituted lemon juice (water, lemon juice concentrate), water, lime juice (water, lime juice concentrate, sodium benzoate as a preservative, sodium bisulfite as a preservative, lime oil), carrots, onions, mushrooms (mushrooms, water, salt, ascorbic acid), sugar, red cayenne pepper, pineapple (pineapple, clarified pineapple juice), pineapple juice from concentrate (water, pineapple juice concentrate, ascorbic acid [vitamin C]), red peter peppers, black pepper, red jalapeno peppers, lime-pulp, salt, xanthan gum, propylene glycol alginate, erythorbic acid to promote colour retention.

Whew!

First off I have never seen such settling occur. One third of the bottle is black pepper and other articles packed down at the bottom. It took some good shaking to distribute all this, but once done you get a sauce that may not be the most attractive in colour, but there is no denying the amount of actual pieces of spice in here.

We can skip by the label. It is pretty unassuming but it does list all the particulars (pun intended).

First impression before tasting this was that the sauce maker really knew what they were doing in assembling this, as the ingredients are very specific and seem to be put together by experience rather than chance. At least that is what I am hoping for.

Wow is this sauce sour. I haven’t tried one quite like this. All the juice is extremely pronounced right off the bat and gives you a real zing. It almost reminded me of eating warhead candies. This extreme tartness is followed up with a heavy black pepper wave that carries a good touch of cayenne with it. The sauce itself is not very hot but in no way is it subtle about anything. Although my taste test was Goldfish crackers, this would be a great sauce for chicken and fish.

I have to say I enjoyed it for what it was. It is unique in its own right and could be one of those gems that you are looking for when you want something different. Remember to give it a really vigorous shake each time you use it though.