Yes, it’s two Sauce Reviews back-to-back. Why? Because the Scorpion’s Kiss from Haico’s Hot Sauce was hotter than I knew I could handle on a whole tray of wings. While that sauce was tasty, I knew I wouldn’t be able to eat all 10 wings. And since eating just 1 or 2 won’t fill me up, I knew I was going to have to use another sauce. Good thing I’ve got plenty to choose from, including the other sauce sent down to me from the frozen north by a good friend of mine.
Long-time readers might remember my search for the perfect garlic hot sauce that culminated in me trying to make some for myself. None of the sauces I tried really “did it” for me. They weren’t garlic-y enough. Or they didn’t have the right level of spice. Or maybe they just tasted odd or strange. My quest continued on. But has it come to an end today as I try Garlic Ghost? I guess I’m about to find out.
Much like the Scorpion’s Kiss, smelling this sauce, you can smell the heat from it. There’s definitely some capsaicin in there. Here, it’s provided by a mixture of Naga Viper, Moruga Scorpion, Ghost, and Hungarian Wax peppers. I… don’t know most of those. Can’t say I’ve ever run into Viper. The only Scorpion I’ve had has been from Trinidad. And I can’t say that I’ve had Hungarian Wax peppers before. So, that just leaves Ghost. I’m guessing that’s where a lot of the heat is coming from. Their own heat-level indicator puts this sauce at a 4 out of 5. I guess we’ll find out if it’s too much for me (who knew Canadians could handle their heat so well?).
Well, giving it a taste, it’s not too hot for me, though it’s certainly up there. A couple wings in and I can’t really say I’m tasting so much of the sauce anymore. Just the cumulative effects of the heat. This is definitely a “a bit hotter than your average person” sauce. Those out there that think The Last Dab isn’t hot certainly won’t be fanning their tongue for this one, but it’s got a lot of heat behind it still.
But how about the flavor before it got to just being heat in my mouth? Like the Scorpion’s Kiss, there’s a lot of complex flavors going on. There’s mustard in this sauce, and I can definitely taste that mixed in. Mustard, itself, has a lot of flavors going on within it, including vinegar. I feel that the mustard from the vinegar mixes with the Apple Cider Vinegar to give more of a vinegar flavor to the sauce overall. It’s not the overpowering vinegar of Tabasco, but for someone who seems sensitive to it as I seemingly am, I can definitely taste it there.
This sauce also includes mango just after the peppers. However, I don’t know if I really taste it like I do in other mango-based sauces like. I think I like it when they use pineapple instead. But that’s me.
All in all it’s a mix of flavors… … well, a mix that I’m not 100% sure I enjoy. I’m certainly not spitting it out or anything dramatic like that. But it’s not my favorite flavor combination that I’ve had. I think it’s just a bit too much vinegar for me, and I’m not sure mango and mustard go that great together. I feel that maybe if they’d picked one or the other, that might’ve been alright. But both just kind of confuses my mouth a bit.
Suggested dishes: I feel this would go well on Caribbean dishes, what with the mix of peppers, the mustard, and the mango. Maybe an islands-inspired burger.
I realize I might not have done the best job selling the sauce, as the flavor wasn’t quite for me. But if you’re interested in giving it a try for yourself, you can find it online here: https://squareup.com/store/haicos-hot-sauce/item/garlic-ghost
Polar Bear's Kitchen 