This sauce was gifted to us by none other than Cap’n Bones himself, Tracy Campbell, of the Cape Fear Pepper Company for our devious culinary uses.

Now we’ve tried a lot of habanero sauces to be sure, but that has never dissuaded us from trying a few more. The bottle has some pretty swanky looking label graphics, which stylistically looked a little familiar to us. Of course, it did. Ryan Davis, from Angry Pepper Graphix, cranked out a logo truly worthy of a habanero sauce of this caliber. From the ‘CF’ on the skulls’ headband to the overall feel of the design, you will almost be sorry to have to open this fine-looking bottle.

As we always do, we perused the ingredient list to see what was inside the bottle. We found this:

Ingredients: Red Savina ® Habanero Chiles, Vinegar, Onion, Tomatoes, Lemon Juice, Salt, Garlic.

Short, simple, and fully natural, you can’t go wrong with this list. Of course, the proof lay within the bottle…so a-tastin’ we went!

First impression: The aroma that escapes the bottle is pure unadulterated habanero goodness, and made my nose hairs stand at attention. If you want to catch a whiff of what habanero really should be, check this out…its aroma is as close to wafting scent of fresh-cut habaneros as I’ve tried recently. For consistency, I poured out a dollop of it on a plate and gave it the ol’ tilt-test:

As you can see, it has some viscosity to it. Not thick like catsup or anything, it still clung enough to food to make it serviceable poured right over. It’s liquid-y enough to mix well into liquids such as soups & stews as well.

Taste: Purely dominant Red Savina taste, and lots of it. Heat-wise, it’s at the upper limits on the heat scale…about a 9.5/10 or so. Either my tastebuds were more well-adjusted to the heat during my bouts of tasting, or I felt like the hints of onion and lemon juice (at least for tartness) like I haven’t some other similar sauces. Mostly, it’s a hunka-hunka lot of habanero. I liked it much in a couple of different Cajun dishes, namely gumbo and jambalaya. Good in any dish where you can use a super-hot habanero sauce.

Overall recommendation: I thought this sauce tasted more familiar than usual, and I was right. The ingredients match exactly to CaJohn’s Ignite Hot Sauce, which I reviewed about 2 months ago. I liked this sauce then…and I still like it now. With whatever label you want on it, this sauce should be a staple of your list of habanero sauces you keep around the house at all times. Great flavor and big-time heat make for a concoction to delight the chilehead looking for a lot of both in their hot sauce. Buy a bottle. Maybe two. Heck, buy a case just so you have some in reserve. Chances are it won’t go to waste!

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