Review – Uncle Brutha’s Fire Sauce No. 9

First thing I noticed when I opened up my latest hot sauce shipment was a nice 5oz. bottle with the signature gold sticker “Winner 2005 Fiery Food Challenge” on the bottle’s neck. Oh yum yum this is going to be good! But I decided to do some research, and I could only find that Uncle Brutha’s No.10 sauce was the actual 2nd place winner, not this No.9 sauce. Maybe they had some extra stickers and decided to put them on their other products. Or maybe if you win one award you’re allowed to put the stickers on all your products. Regardless, I don’t know how this sauce could have lost any competition; it’s that tasty.

Remembering The Smoking Tongue’s comments (see days 25, 52, 69 and 73) concerning chef faces on hot sauce labels means the sauce is going to be ridiculously terrible; Uncle Brutha’s breaks that mold wide open. You’ve got Brennan G. Proctor’s mug on each and every bottle, smiling like he knows something you don’t. Around the back of the label are some Nutrition Facts (30 servings, com’on’), a few warnings to the heat of the sauce (not quite a XX heat level, maybe just a quarter of a X), and a quaint family folklore about the origins of the sauce. Now, I’m not going to bore you with specifics; but the folklore about the great great uncle “Brutha” finding a wild patch of strange fruit while working on the Underground Railroad is a bit tacky; especially since the props should be going to Chef Proctor.

Upon opening the bottle; I knew from the odor exactly what I was getting into. This puppy is my version of hot sauce heaven. Pourable, finely chucks of green chilies with a scant about of chili seeds and not even a hint of vinegar smell. And the flavor….oh the flavor.

I’ve finished half the bottle just tasting it over and over again. It’s that good. It actually surprises me that Four Gem Enterprises, Inc can manufacture a sauce like this that can stay consistent between production batches. Chef Proctor is a master at blending the flavor with the heat. Heat only creeps up through the flavor, lingers and never over powers the next taste. Heavenly.

I can’t wait to try Uncle Brutha’s No. 10, the actual 2nd place winner.

Packaging 6/10 (would be a 9 without the sticker)
Coloring / Temperament 9/10
Consistency 15/15
Heat 22/25
Taste 38/40

Final Score: 90/100