Quick answer: Brendan wasn’t a big fan of the sauce, though he loved the experience: Mayanik is thin, very vinegary and raw-tasting, with an intense, sour heat that lingers. He thinks it would work better as part of a marinade or cooking sauce, or as a spicy relish on an Italian hoagie.
Mayanik Chile Habanero Naranja Salsa
(Orange Habanero Pepper Hot Sauce)
First Impressions:
Triaminic, the Medicine of Motherhood, has finally crafted a fiery cough syrup for children! Oh, wait, this is Mayanik, my bad, okay”¦ The label was very straightforward, classy. Bilingual. Hecho en Mexico. Initially I was pretty intrigued by an orange habanero sauce. Then, a quick glance at the ingredients revealed we were talking about a color of pepper and not the name of a particular citrus fruit. Oh, would that there were only a hyphen or a slash! My speedy glance was also due to the markedly few ingredients that go into this guy:
Ingredients: orange habaneros, water, vinegar, spices, salt, garlic, xanthan gum, and sodium benzoate as a preservative.
p.s. I have since learned that “anaranjado” is the color orange, and “naranja” is the fruit, so now I’m confused.
Appearance:
The sauce itself is very viscous, watery, you might say. It is not the color orange, but rather a dark yellowish-green color, with little green flecks interspersed throughout. They make a point on the bottle that no artificial colors are used. Plus, having once grown habaneros that were supposed to turn from green to orange and never did, I decided to allow that the same phenomena had at least partially overtaken this crop.
Smell:
Upon opening the bottle and snouting it, I was overtaken by a very pungent vinegar aroma. Integrated into the vinegar was a distinct habanero smell; the best way I can think to describe it is raw or unprocessed, which I suppose isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Mayanik smelled of nothing else.
Taste:
The taste is pretty simple. One is first struck by the strong acidity of the vinegar, which quickly serves to magnify the earthy flavor and heat of the habs. The heat is intense but weird, in that it lingers at the sides of your mouth and has a pronounced sourness to it. Between the first taste of vinegar and the sour heat that followed, I feel like this sauce could have benefited from a lot more flavor, some kind of gimmick to tie it all together. Garlic is mentioned in the ingredients, but absent from the palate. The sauce is a little too eager to burn, and in this quest, it fails to inspire taste buds along the way. Mayanik also needs some sweetness, sugar or molasses or something.
Heat:
To fully describe the heat, let me explain what I did with the sauce after tasting it straight. Knowing the sourness of vinegar contrasts the sweetness of some fish species quite well, I decided to apply Mayanik to a tuna-macaroni salad. Or perhaps it was because macaroni, a few cans of tuna, and mayonnaise were the only available foodstuffs in my apartment”¦you be the judge. I ended up vastly underestimating the heat potential of the sauce, and dumped about a third of the bottle on the salad. After a few bites, I knew I had made a mistake, but there was no turning back. Like I said, it was a strange heat that I can’t say I am entirely accustomed to, and with this volume of sauce, it caught me off guard. At first, I found that my throat and chest were burning a lot more than my mouth, but the mouth soon followed suit, and after half a plate of tuna salad I was a heavy-panting, tearing mess. In a frantic search for something to put out the fire, I found some parmesan cheese to shake on top, which helped a little bit. Lacking milk, I downed a few cups of orange juice (hey, oranges after all!), which did nothing, so I just had to ride it out. This was about an hour ago, and my chest is still burning, but I am otherwise fine, thanks for asking.
Overall:
You know, not a big fan of the sauce, but loved the experience. Mayanik seems a little too raw and unfinished. And I will readily admit that a more moderate amount of Mayanik would surely spice up a drab tuna-macaroni salad to agreeable levels. The sauce is not without its strengths. The heat is definitely there. And I know I’ve beaten the vinegar element here like I would a dead horse, but to put a positive spin on it, this acidic blend may work well as part of a larger marinade or cooking sauce recipe. Likewise, I think this would go well as a spicy alternative to vinegar in a classic Italian hoagie, mixing well with sweet meats and olive oil as a spicy relish of sorts.
Distributed by:
Mayan Foods, Inc.
3401 South Plaza Drive
Santa Ana, CA, USA 92704
www.mayanik.com
Frequently asked questions
What is in Mayanik orange habanero sauce?
Orange habaneros, water, vinegar, spices, salt, garlic, xanthan gum and sodium benzoate. ‘Orange’ refers to the pepper color, not the fruit.
How hot is Mayanik?
Hot enough that a third of a bottle on a tuna-macaroni salad left Brendan panting and teary, with his chest still burning an hour later. Use a moderate amount.
More from Hot Sauce Blog
- Orange habanero salsa recipe
- Habanero pepper information
- Why the word Scoville is important
- Best hot sauce gift sets
Written by Brendan
18 responses to “Review: Mayanik Orange Habanero Pepper Hot Sauce”
My brother brought this home for me when he was honeymooning in Mexico and you summed up my thoughts perfectly. Sort of bland, hot but in an unusual way and unfinished. I agree 100%. Now I have a bottle of CaJohn’s Magma sitting next to me that was a gift from my brother. Time to think of something to put it on, that’s why I came here, a little research.
Chris
good review, very complete. i love this blog. you guys find and review sauces i have never seen or heard of!
but one bone of contention: this quote “…very viscous, watery, you might say…” is incorrect. a viscous fluid is one that is thick, the opposite of watery or thin. motor oil is viscous, as is molasses. water and diet coke are not viscous.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/viscous
thanks for letting me beef!
jon
Seeing the ingredients it’s mostly habanero without much else to do about taste. That’s why you are getting that ‘weird’ hot feeling I’m assuming. Take a bite out of a fresh hab, don’t forget to dab a bit of vinegar into it, and you’ll probably get almost the same experience.. lol
A bit of tart and sweet would probably do this sauce justice, like some tomato, carrot, and/or onions. But hey, the maker had another vision in mind so we’ll leave it at that.
Great review Brendan!
Welcome to the HSB!
Brendan, excellent review. Loved reading the “Jesus Wept” story in your intro post. Keep up the good work! SM
[Comment ID #115254 Quote]
ouch, yeah, you’re right. viscous. it’s one of those mental association things. i think “high viscosity” and i think thin and watery, and i don’t know why. it’s a mistake i’ve made before. OKAY, EVERYBODY…THIS SAUCE IS FAR FROM VISCOUS! LOW VISCOSITY! don’t go out there thinking you are getting a motor oil-esque sauce. if we are sticking with the car-liquid analogy, it’s more like washer fluid.
Alternatively, I take it all back…I should have been more clear, but I was actually saying that this product, as it is about the consistency of water, is very viscous compared to the dynamic viscosities of several notable Newtonian fluids, namely liquid nitrogen, acetone, methanol, benzene, and ethanol. Wikipedia, you have saved my integrity once again.
Fine job Brendan, we all make mistakes. That is why we use our wisdom to correct such mistakes in the future. I will say that pic doesn’t look too appetizing. It reminds me of the fake vomit I bought as a kid and put on the floor next to my dog to have my Mom think he just threw up. 😛
oh yeah, total vomit, i couldn’t agree more! i’m surprised you are the first one to mention it. but dog vomit? rex would have to eat alot of tall grass to hack that one up!
[Comment ID #115301 Quote]
Just add wet the plastic vomit and my Mom wouldn’t know the difference.
I mean add water, boy am I losing it today.
brendan,
i wasn’t slamming you. comment #7 cracked me up!!!!
jon
I came across this sauce for the first time a couple of months ago. I’ve no real complaint with it and mine is rather orange looking rather than the color your batch is. No biggie, things vary from batch to batch as we all know.
I actually like it for the price, do wish it was a bit thicker as it is a bit runny. To me it’s another good find for the price, much like a bottle of El Yucateca is. It’s not super hot or anything, but has a surprising bite considering mostly anything from most stores isn’t hot whatsoever.
Thanks for putting our sauces to the test and giving a good description of what it does to your senses. I really enjoyed the comments because we make that sauce thinking of the produce of nature itself and not the mixing and industrializing. What made me very happy from your commens is that you felt the unfinished term of the sauce which is the reason of their existance. Cheers to you.
I´m sorry, I gave you another email account on my previos comments.
Just swap them. The comments are the same.
We are the Mayanik makers.
I wonder if there is a lot of variation from batch to batch because the first time I tasted Orange Mayanik my first impression was that it wasn’t as vinegary as many hot sauces I’ve tasted. I too was fooled by the naranja name, and even detected a pleasing orange essence in the very orange colored sauce even after I read the lable and saw that there was no orange fruit added. Maybe orange habaneros have natural orange flavor? I liked the low viscosity of the sauce because it allows it to spread throughout the food I put it on (like rice or on a taco). It makes it difficult to use as a chip dip, but then again a thicker sauce would put too much onto one chip. I found the burn to be up front and long lasting. It quickly caused a good sweat. Beer seemed to tame it well enough until the endorphins kicked in. I’m buying it for the whole family for Chirstmas.
CAN I ORDER IT FROM U .WERE CAN I GET IT IN LAS VEGAS NV ..MARK..702-497-1645-I WILL BUY A CASE..
Now You can Order Mayanik Habanero Pepper Sauces
Green – Orange – Red – Mayan Recipe XXXtra Hot
@ http://www.mexgrocer.com/brand-mayanik.html