Review: Borderline Gourmet Chipotle Sauce and Marinade

Overview

Maker: Borderline Gourmet

Ingredients: Water, tomato concentrate (water, tomato paste), corn syrup, vinegar, onions, red wine vinegar, white vinegar, honey, liquid smoke, Worcestershire sauce, chipotle peppers, sugar, brown sugar, mustard, lemon juice, salt, garlic, cumin, soy sauce, jalapeno peppers, chile arbol, black pepper, onion powder, and spices

Type: Marinade

Label

Taste

Heat

Appearance

Aroma

Total Score

2.5/ 5

User Rating

no ratings yet

Bottom Line

Overall: It’s pretty good, I’m feeling it. Not as ridiculously unique or elite as they would have you believe, but still an impressive showing of flavor. I can’t wait to get my rooftop grill up and running so I can use it appropriately. I marinated some chicken legs in it, baked them, and garnished the whole thing with some homemade salsa that I made the night before and was equally proud of. Twas a satisfying meal of BBQ goodness, indeed. I really want to try this stuff on ribs, beef or pork, it don’t matter.

Posted May 8, 2008 by Brendan

Full Review

First Impression: Ooo, the black label! Is this like Scotch, is there a blue, a red, a green? Whatever the case, with the fancy cursive font and the no-nonsense design, Borderline Gourmet is targeting a more refined BBQ set with this Chipotle sauce/marinade. But if we are to take the name “Borderline” to mean “almost,” then there is also a refreshing self-awareness and humor present, as if to say, “it’s only sauce, let’s not get carried away here.”

Oh man, then they have to go and defeat that argument by getting carried away on the back blurb: “Created with the most selective of palates in mind and the most dedicated grillers to heart, we have taken the taste of an outdoor feast to new heights”¦When they ask where you found such a unique flavor simply say ‘From the Borderline!”

Ingredients: Water, tomato concentrate (water, tomato paste), corn syrup, vinegar, onions, red wine vinegar, white vinegar, honey, liquid smoke, Worcestershire sauce, chipotle peppers, sugar, brown sugar, mustard, lemon juice, salt, garlic, cumin, soy sauce, jalapeno peppers, chile arbol, black pepper, onion powder, and spices

Smell: It smells warm and sweet, with a tanginess that tickles the nose a little, but I can’t imagine something like this being very hot, and I don’t think it will be. It’s a complex smell, but a very recognizable BBQ smell at the same time. I can look at that list of ingredients and visualize about half of them as I sniff the contents of the bottle. The tomato, the garlic, the mustard, the smoke, and the brown sugar stand out especially well.

Appearance: The sauce appears pretty glazy. Nothing really separates as you move it around, but it’s quite runny. There are sparse seeds, as well as some black pepper flecks and red strands of vegetable. The overarching color is a classic BBQ red-orange.

Taste: This sauce is powerfully sweet at first, with sweetening agents like molasses and brown sugar highlighting the generous garlic. After a few seconds, the tangy notes come out of the woodwork, the chiles, the lemon juice, the mustard, the vinegar. The smoke flavor also comes in at this point, and lingers with the tang and some light heat for quite a while. Although I was a bit alarmed and disheartened by the initial sweetness, I was happy with where the flavor ended up. I’m not sure what would make this different from many other traditional BBQ sauce/marinades, except that I do think a little more care was taken in the blending and proportion of ingredients than your typical grocery store brand.

Heat: Just a bit, middle of the tongue. I think it could be even better with a lot more intensity, but it also doesn’t need it. This is more of a flavor sauce, and I can accept that.