Posted September 16, 2007 by Nick Lindauer in Reviews

Review: Maui Pepper Co. Mango Meltdown X-Treme Heat Hot Sauce

Ingredients: Vinegar, Mango, Sugar, Apple juice, Honey, Habanero, Sea Salt, Natural Spices.

After nearly ruining my taste buds with Batten Island Gourmet Sauce (see my review) it was a welcome return to a quality sauce. I had already reviewed Tahiti Joe’s original Maui Pepper Co. Mango Meltdown, and loved it. This is the amped-up version, X-Treme Heat, and I gotta say this guy knows what he’s doing.

The ingredients are the same as the original, but there is an obvious doubling of the habanero. As I said in my first review, I am not a fruit-based hot sauce lover, but this stuff just rocks. The sweet aroma, the waves of flavor, and now more heat. And all natural, too.

The first thing I could smell was mango and apple juice. The first time I reviewed the original I compared it to walking through a florists shop. This time I felt like I was walking through an orchard. After whiffing it some more, you can smell the habanero and the honey. Man, this stuff just rocks.

Then onto my trusty tasting spoon. This pours well, and looks great, with pieces of habanero throughout. And the flavor is there. Mango first, then habanero, then honey, and then the sea salt, with the apple sauce as the finish. Beautiful, absolutely beautiful.

Knowing what I already loved about this sauce, I decided to try it on my wife’s chili. Chili? A fruit based sauce on chili? Well, here’s my logic: Mango is a fruit, habanero is a fruit; habanero goes into my wife’s chili, ergo this should all work together, right? Heather (the before said wife) makes her chili in true Texas style-no beans or tomatoes, just meat, garlic, and plenty of chili powder and chiles. So with a ring of chips, we doused X-Treme Heat on (you can see it by the little black dots). It worked. The sharp, earthiness of the chili was a perfect contrast to the mango and honey. And the habanero stood out, I mean you could really tell the increase in heat. And it lingered like a sweet memory of sauces gone by. Man, I’m telling you, this stuff just ROCKS.

So without further adieu, my Five Points Scale:

Appearance: 5. This is a habanero-specked deep orange love juice. Gorgeous.

Smell: 5. Like a fruit orchard in the morning when the dew is just starting to evaporate.

Flavor: 5. So crisp, so clean, so well balanced with mango and honey with the heavy hit of habanero and hints of apple and salt.

Heat: 4. There’s the obvious increase in habanero, but the heat doesn’t over-shadow the flavor of it. The heat tingle lasted awhile, which is what I’d expect. Awesome.

Overall: 4.75. This is up there with Danny Cash’s Naga Sabi Bomb as to being the nearly perfect sauce. Its everything the original is, only with real heat, and if it had more heat this would be the perfect sauce. I’ve used it from chili, to pretzels to chicken now, and it works with it all. I can’t wait to try it on fish, if it this bottle lasts that long. I really can’t think of what this would not work with.

Until next time, treat every meal like it was your last, and if it was my last, I’d have this bottle with me.

Oh yeah, one more thing. There have been a couple of questions as to why I’m using a “Five Point Scale”, instead of the HSB 1 through 10. First, I’ll confess that I was inspired to use a five point scale when I thought about the “Pain Signs” you see in emergency rooms and dentist offices. It’s very basic, really: at the bottom of the sign you see a Zero with a smiling face, indicating no pain. At the top of the sign there’s a Five with a face that looks like it’s getting a root canal through the nose, indicating extreme pain. Zero through Five, each levels a different measure of pain. Get it? Also, I’ve noticed that most restaurant reviews are done on a five point scale, and I figure that’s the easiest, most basic way for non-chile heads to understand what they’re getting into. And last, I’m an old skool pyrate, and everyone knows pirates have a hard time following directions given by authority (Nick). Thanks, and see ya!