Welcome back, everyone. Yup, another day, another hot sauce review. I’m really making inroads into my To Review pile and I want to keep it up. I’m continuing my way to my goal of getting down to only 10 sauces waiting for me to try. This time around, it’s another sauce from my Fuego Box subscription. And, in contrast to some of my recent reviews from there, this one I actually know just came rather recently. Might’ve even been this month. It’s Karma Sauce’s Cherry Bomb. Now, this is my third sauce from Karma. I’ve… not had a good track record with them. The two I’ve had so far have been a ton hotter than I generally enjoy. So, we’ll see if Karma can turn that around. This is also a cherry-based sauce. Longtime readers will know I’ve had issues with cherry-based sauces not tasting like cherry (in my opinion). Will this one manage to break two downward trends in one go? Let’s find out.
So, the sauce starts off strong with the ingredients. It consists of: tart cherries, habanero peppers, onion, apple, apple cider vinegar, evaporated cane juice, lime juice, salt, ground coffee, lemon zest, cinnamon, and clove.
The list means that there’s more cherries than anything else in there. That’s followed by habaneros, my favorite type of pepper. Onions to round things off. We then get into some sweet stuff in the form of apples, apple cider vinegar, and sugar (essentially). The ground coffee should add bitter flavor (in a good way). Lemon zest will brighten things up since apple cider vinegar doesn’t pack the acidic punch that regular vinegar does. And we end with some spices in the form of the cinnamon and clove (I might’ve gone for a pass or two of nutmeg on the grater as well, but that’s me).
Taking the top off the bottle, I smell two things: cherries and warm spices. It actually kinda smells like a fresh cherry pie, honestly. This is actually getting me excited that yes, this will be a cherry sauce where I can taste the cherries. But first, it has to come out of the bottle.
This sauce is rather thick. It sort of sliiiiiides its way out of the bottle, ending up in dollops on the chicken. It does flatten out some and soak into the breading, though. But, for the most part, it stays put where it lands.
Taking a bite… I taste cherries.
Finally. After all this time, I taste cherries in a sauce that says it’s made with cherries. Hallelujah! And, of course, it tastes like actual cherry-cherries and not artificial cherry like Code Red or something. There’s an earthiness to them. A much more roundness of flavor. And it’s not super-duper sweet. And, in fact, this sauce isn’t super-duper sweet, either. Using tart cherries adds a much deeper, darker tone to the overall flavor. Along with the cherries, I definitely also get that cinnamon and clove, they specially come out as the sauce lingers in my mouth. It’s the notes that the flavor finishes on. So, let’s go from the beginning: starts off with earthiness of cherries (I’m guessing the apple is mixed in there as well, though it’s not quite the power player the cherries are). Then, it gets rather bright with the bit of acid and the savory flavors of the habaneros and the onions come in. That’s mixed with the rising flavor of cinnamon and clove that continue to rise as the habaneros and onions fade out. In the end, it’s the cinnamon and clove with the lingering heat tingle. That’s what I get from this sauce.
Now, about that heat tingle. It’s a sauce that’s got a kick to it. I’ve had sauces recent that are a tad too much and a tad too little. This one’s hitting just about right for me. I’d say that, especially with the cumulative effect of multiple chicken strips, it’s a step up from an off-the-shelf sauce. But it’s not crazy-hot, either. And, as usual, I wasn’t holding back with the amount I put on my lunch. If you’re a little more conservative with your pour, you should be alright. If a “regular” hot sauce is ok to you, this will probably be as well.
So, I’m positively chuffed. In one lunch, Karma has turned around the “I don’t really like their sauces all that much” feelings that I had, along with the, “maybe just nobody can make a cherry sauce that actually tastes like cherries” thoughts as well. If you’re looking for a sauce that actually tastes like what it says on the label, this is definitely one. I know I’m usually a stickler for that, but if I have a sauce that says, “Hey! There’s cherries in here!” and it doesn’t taste like cherries, I get miffed. This sauce, however, says, “Hey! This tastes like cherries!” and it damn-sure does taste like cherries.
Suggested dishes: Now… here’s a place I’m actually having problems. Why? Because, despite actually liking the sauce and being excited about it… I have no idea what I might do with it… Fuego Box does send little bookmarks with their sauces to give you an idea about the sauce and they have suggested dishes as well. They say to glaze it on beef, pork, fish, or chicken. I might only really recommend the pork and chicken there, though I could see it working. They also say to mix it with peanut butter and dip apples into it. Iiii’m not entirely sure I’d go for that. This sauce isn’t quite sweet enough to really replace a jelly. But if you mix it with jelly and then mix in the peanut butter, that might work better. I’ll have to think on it all.
Anyway, if you’re wanting to get a bottle for yourself, you can find it on the Fuego Box website here: https://www.fuegobox.com/products/karma-sauce-cherry-bomb-hot-sauce?_pos=2&_sid=c1da3b38f&_ss=r
Polar Bear's Kitchen 