I know, I know -- this is #firstworldproblems taken to the extreme; how can I complain about a lack of choice in, not even the foodstuffs but the different brands of the foodstuffs available to me, when I have never once in my life been hungry because of an actual shortage of food? And yet anyone who has ever weighed in on the Pepsi vs Coke argument knows that, when we have the luxury of food being more than a matter of survival, when food can be an interest, a pleasure, a hobby, an adventure, variety really is the spice of life. So, with a deep and sincere gratitude for the social and economic privilege that allows me to appreciate, care about and compare different types of a foodstuff that has almost no nutritional value, I present: the Hot Sauce Taste Test! (Mk1 because I am sure there is scope for tasting many more hot sauces in the future...)
My usual city supermarket doesn't stock hot sauce at all, so I took advantage of a recent trip to a Proper Big Supermarket out in the 'burbs to buy some. Here are the suspects, lined up for inspection:
I decided to focus on Tabasco-style hot sauces; while there is oodles of room in my chilli-loving heart for all sorts of chilli sauces (sweet chilli sauce foremost among them!), pastes, relishes and the like, it would simply have been too vast a job, not to mention comparing the metaphorical apples and oranges, to include all the varieties. I also decided to stick to the 'classic' or 'original' versions of each brand; while I was sorely tempted by the "Smoky Chipotle" and "Extra Hot Habanero" Tabasco varieties, it seemed like they would be better compared as part of a Tabasco-specific tasting, rather than in a brand comparison.
Two wild cards did slip in, however: Heinz "Tomato Ketchup with Indian Spices", purely because it was reduced in price from £1.58 to £1; and Blue Dragon "Wasabi Shot", because much as I have my doubts about Blue Dragon as a brand, I just couldn't resist the idea of a wasabi hot sauce.
My tasting methodology was to glop a bit of each sauce out onto a spoon for inspection, before inserting the spoon into my mouth with care (by which I mean, into my mouth rather than into my eye or the side of my face) and savouring the different flavour characteristics of each sauce.
As you can see from the picture below, there were marked differences in consistency and appearance between the four sauces. The Cholula was liquid enough to pour from the bottle smoothly, but held its shape on the spoon in a deep orangey-red blob. Frank's and Tabasco were both quite watery and, probably because of this, appear lighter on the spoon although a darker red in the bottle; in fact, the two looked almost identical when shaken out. The Encona was by far the thickest, a textured sauce with detectable fragments of chilli pulp and seeds.
As for the taste results, here's what I thought about each:
Cholula Hot Sauce: This had a decent, complex fruitiness in which I could taste the flavour of the hot peppers (arbol and piquin, according to the label) that went into it. It was only mildly tangy and salty with very little heat (I rate it 2/10), which probably accounts for why I've used up nearly the entire bottle in less than a week...
Frank's Red Hot: This was both sharper and quite a bit saltier than Cholula, but again didn't rate high on the heat scale (again, 2/10). The flavour was red-peppery rather than fruity; the bottle lists the ingredients as "Aged red cayenne peppers (35%), vinegar, water, salt and garlic powder". I couldn't detect much contribution from the garlic.
Tabasco: More vinegary and less salty than Frank's and with a fair bit more chilli kick (I'd say a 4-5/10). A somewhat one-dimensional -- well, all right, vinegar and peppery heat could be counted as two-dimensional -- taste, but that's the classic Tabasco flavour. Not surprising when you consider the ingredients, numbering just three: red peppers, salt and vinegar. To me it tastes of bright orangey-red, the flavour equivalent of a swift kick in the pants or a tequila slammer!
Encona West Indian Original Hot Pepper Sauce: A good balance of salty and sour, with an almost funky note of fruitiness and a heat level comparable to Tabasco, but that unfolds more gradually as the other flavours develop and fade.
Flavourwise, I actually like the Cholula best; the fruity notes made this sauce almost good enough to eat on its own, and I suspect some of the Bloody Mary's I've made with it this week have, due to careless mixing, been more Cholula than tomato for the last few sips and none the worse for it. Its only failing, though, is that it doesn't do the main job of a hot sauce, which is to make things hot! A mix of Cholula and Tabasco would probably be just the trick -- in fact, perhaps I'll go test that now...
... [some time later]
Oh yes, the two wild cards. Well, the "Tomato Ketchup with Indian Spices" tastes just about exactly like you'd expect: classic Heinz mixed with stereotypical curry flavours. I'm not sure I am a fan; I love Heinz red sauce and I love curry, but the combination tasted somewhat artificial and sickly.
The Blue Dragon Wasabi Hot Sauce got a moderate thumbs-up: wasabi always tastes -- and looks -- artificial (unless it's the real finely grated deal which you hardly ever get, even in good restaurants; did you know, the green modelling-clay-type paste is made out of starch, flavouring and colouring and contains no actual wasabi root at all?) so the fact that this sauce was a bright electrifying green and tasted of wasabi flavour flavour was less offputting than it might have been. There was a nice mix of sweetness and pungency with just a little tanginess and salt, and the consistency was somewhere between Cholula and Tabasco. The only reason I might not buy this sauce again is that it was relatively expensive and I think I'd get exactly the same result by using bottled or tube wasabi diluted down with some rice vinegar and sugar. Meanwhile, though, I have been enjoying it shaken liberally onto slow-cooked eggs with just a drop or two of soy sauce. Mmmmm!
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