There is a great void in the hot sauce world. Somewhere between the heat of the jalapeno/chipotle and that of the habanero, there seems to be a dearth of sauces that can offer the flavor and medium heat that will appeal to a majority of people. (That is, unless your company is McIlhenny.) Another thing happening is a resurgence of fruity hot sauces, and many of them just aren’t all that good. Fruit in hot sauce can be really good, but you have to do it just right so that you don’t end up with glorified fruit juice with a pinch of Frank’s Red Hot in it or something.

So, from out of the Pacific northwest comes Tropical Mischief Habanero Hot Sauce, courtesy of the nice people at Mischief Makers Sauce Company. As far as we know, the Mischief Makers are Ryan and & Sonia Davis. This sauce is Sonia’s creation, and we were able to pick up a pair of bottles while we were at ZestFest to bring home with us. Now, these were signed bottles meant to be collectible…but we just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to try this sauce out, so we made the decision to crack open one of the bottles and start pouring it on, and in, every bit of food and drink we thought it might enhance. The results? Keep reading and find out! The ingredients list looks like this:

Ingredients: papaya, guava, pineapple, banana, passion fruit, white vinegar, habanero peppers, passion and guava fruit juice, lemon juice, salt, citric acid, ascorbic acid (Vitamin C), and beet powder (for color)

First impression: It looks like Ryan did the label graphic himself, and he did his usual fine job with that. The colors are quite appealing and bright, and it almost seems a shame to take a bottle away from being able to display it so that you can keep a bottle in the fridge for your own personal use. It has a unique aroma (or should I say, bouquet) to it with a gentle whiff from the bottle, and I think it’s either the guava or pineapple that you can smell aside from the habanero. Consistency-wise, it’s pretty liquid-y but blended fairly well without any signs of separation or incongruent chunks floating within the sauce. Not sure how to best describe the color, but I would have been curious to see what it looked like before the beet powder was added. It kinda looks like how I might imagine papaya juice might look, but this isn’t fruit juice to have with breakfast…or is it? On to the taste-testing!

Taste: It’s a fruit-dominated flavor with a nice habanero tingle to it. The nice thing about the fruit blend is that it’s pretty even, so you seem to really be able to test them all at any given time. Succinctly, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, so to speak. As for heat, it’s mild enough for the meeker palates. I would say 3 or 4/10, and the heat really seems to be a back-of-the-throat sorta tingle once you swallow your food rather than the all-over heat that habanero sauces tend to be. For pure appeal, it has a very strong taste…so I was somewhat skeptical about how wide its utility would be. One thing that was noticed was that it seemed lacking in the spices added. Only salt was used, and it seemed like there should be something else added to give the sauce more depth.

How I used it: My first use wasn’t even on food at all, but in a drink. Since we occasionally make margaritas, we used a tablespoon of this mixed into a plain margarita with good results. Great fruity flavor (even with the lime juice used in the margarita mix itself) and a little lingering heat accentuated by the alcohol burn of the tequila. I would imagine this to be beneficial in a daiquiri (or other fruity drink) as well.

There was a definite divergence in its usefulness. It seemed to be better on food rather than mixed in foods. For example, it was delightful poured over already-baked fish, but not a great addition to most soups or chilis. It did seem to favor the lighter meats, such as chicken and fish, compared to steaks and other “red” meats…but this is not always the case. When used on some asian-style strip steak, it was a nice addition to make my Asian rice, beef, & veggie dish something special. Speaking of veggies, I liked it with a few different kinds & combinations, but there was as many that I didn’t think it complimented as well. My last attempt was using it mixed in a vinaigrette to spice up a salad dressing. With the right salad (like a mandarin orange salad or similar) it would work great, but just not poured over any tossed salad.

Overall Recommendation: The one remark I would say about this sauce is that it’s a pretty good sauce, but your mileage with it may vary. It was a little hit-or-miss with the variety of food we used, but the “hits” will make you want to keep searching for more ways to use it. Ever put hot sauce in a cocktail? This is one purpose that this sauce fulfills well. I’d love to see the next generation of this line of sauces add a little more depth with some spices, but this sauce is no slouch as-is. There’s a lot of palates out there who are craving a medium-heat hot sauce that they can handle, and this one definitely fits that description. If you like your sauces a little fruity, then even better. Give this a try for yourself, and hopefully we’ll see more sauce to come in the future from Ryan & Sonia. Enjoy!