Tabasco Habanero Sauce

Full disclosure - Tabasco is the reason I love hot sauce.  The ubiquitous Tabasco brand hot sauce.  Available at every diner, mexican restaurant, etc.  And for good reason.  It's a simple good hot sauce.  Tabasco has become synonymous with hot sauce.  Like Kleenex, Velcro, Band-Aid or (if you're from Kansas like I am) Coke, when you ask for Tabasco, people will know what you're asking for.

So here I'm "reviewing" Tabasco's (to be proper McIlhenny Co.) product line diversification on the more extreme heat side of things... the wild, out of order cousin of Tabasco.  The weird adopted cousin that gets drunk and hits on your sister, the Tabasco Habanero Sauce

When you sell millions of bottles of a product,
one must ask oneself,
"How can we change this perfect, money-making formula?"

I threw this on some over-easy eggs.  It was pretty good.  No, I'm not going to take pictures of that shit, because taking pictures of your food puts you in a certain class of people that I'm not comfortable with.  

HEAT - Habanero, allegedly one of the spiciest peppers in the world.  I say allegedly, because I can't be bothered to look that shit up. This sauce is marketed as Tabasco's hottest sauce.  This was well and hot though.  Quite a bit more so than the standard Tabasco.  One thing I hate in reviews is when they compare the thing they're reviewing to another well-known thing or predecessor.  This is a variation, so I'm breaking my own rule here.  6/7.

FLAVOR - It was kind of fruity actually.  I think they were going for some sort of a Jamaican jerk-chicken vibe with this hot sauce.  The ingredients list included papaya, banana and ginger.  Ok...  Well rudeboys, if you're into sweet with your heat, this is your special day.  I didn't find the flavors to be obnoxious actually, which sort of surprised me.  It was a good balance of heat and flavor.  5/7.

EXPERIENCE - This was noticeably thicker than standard Tabasco, so I was pretty cautious when applying it, but I found myself adding more.  It was good.  A total change of pace for me.  I was into the sweetness of the fruit, but just when you realize you're tasting the fruit, you're smacked with the heat of the habanero.  That was fun.  It's not an everyday sauce, but it's nice for a change.  6/7.

This hot sauce has a BFB rating of 17/21.   A worthy sauce to carry the Tabasco name, but not really essential.  

If this sauce sounds like it's right up your alley, you can buy it here.  

D.L. Jardine's Texas Champagne

D.L. Jardine's Texas Champagne.  Because no when you think of hot sauce, I often think of fizzy alcohol from France.  I've gotten ill from drinking too much cheap champagne, and I've gotten ill eating some illicit roadside hot sauce I bought on a whim, so I suppose the parallels are deeper than I thought.

Texas Champagne?  I thought that was Dr. Pepper.
No, that's "Texas water." My bad.

I got my bottle of D.L. Jardine's Texas Champagne from my Dad a while ago.  He just saw it and liked the name, and knew I loved hot sauce, so he bought it for me.  Cool story, dude.

HEAT - Not too spicy, you could definitely tell it was a cayenne sauce.  It was a sauce where the more you use, it didn't seem to make things get any spicier.  4/7.

FLAVOR -  It was pretty smokey tasting as well, so I see where the whole Texas (BBQ) thing comes into play.  Not as vinegar-y as I expected, which for me, is not cool.  I like vinegar-flavored stuff.  4/7.

EXPERIENCE - It was a nice compliment to eggs.  I liked the dark brownish red color.  It was pretty fluid.  Not too viscous, like Tabasco brand sauce.  It kind of reminded me off a shitty version of Tabasco, actually.  4/7.

D.L. Jardine's Texas Champagne has a BFB rating of 12/21.  A middle of the road score, for a middle of the road sauce.  Man, I hope things go up from here...

Sound good?  You can buy some here. 

  

Welcome.

I really like hot sauce, but not in a weird, dorky way.  I suppose staring a blog about it would say otherwise, but you'll find I'm not a "foodie" or "beer nerd" or "wine enthusiast" or any stupid exclusionary thing.

This blog started because I've had so many hot sauces, I'm forgetting what I've had, and what I thought about them.

I hate to use the word "review" because that seems so professional, and I'm not a professional anything.  I'm just a dude who likes hot sauce.  I suppose I have more experience and passion about hot sauce more than anyone I know, but I'm sure there's someone out there who could put me to shame.  I'm not really into the science of how capsaicin works or the Scoville scale, because I'm just a dude who likes his food spicy.  You'll get an honest, straightforward opinion from a guy who loves hot sauce.