Posted February 16, 2006 by John in Reviews

Review: Refiner’s Fire Hot Sauce

Intense heat, without compromising flavor. This [tag]hot sauce[/tag] is made from all natural ingredients. Since the main ingredients are fresh tomatoes and peppers, you get a full, rich flavor, not a vinegar taste like other sauces.

The wording on the label sure is good. Refiner’s fire seems to be marketing to the crowd who’s looking to move beyond the tabascos of the world.

Ingredients: tomatoes, peppers, water, onions, vinegar, lemon juice, garlic, black pepper, salt, olive oil

I first tried refiner’s fire on a cracker, and it was an interesting experience. The sauce has a similar heat level and texture to Scorned Woman, and a bit of the same black pepper flavor. But that’s where the comparison ends. The color is not what I’d expect from a tomato based sauce, a dull brown. The flavor of Refiner’s Fire is very, very mild. A simple cracker overwhelms the flavor of this sauce. There’s a hint of garlic and citrus, but the flavor is akin to sprinkling a bit of pepper and garlic salt on a cracker and eating it.

On Food
I added refiner’s fire to a favorite, easy to make snack – hot sauce chicken salad. Just mix a bunch of your favorite sauce in with canned chicken (tuna works as well), garnish with some parsley and drops of sauce on the top, and eat. Simple and tasty.

Again, Refiner’s Fire added very little in the way of flavor to the dish. It’s almost as if I hadn’t put anything on it at all except a little bit of seasoning. It did add a good amount of heat.

Refiner’s Fire would probably work well on anything you want to add a kick to without changing the flavor. You could put it on Mexican food, or maybe mix it in with spaghetti sauce, and hardly change the flavor of the dish at all.

Overall Rating: 5.8 out of 10