After reviewing the Extra Hot Salsa from the folks at the Red Lion Spicy Foods Co., we were totally pumped about reviewing the hot sauce they sent as well. While we were forewarned that the hot sauce wouldn’t be in the same league for heat as their salsa, we just had a sneaking suspicion that that wouldn’t matter at all. We found out some cool information about the 20 Pepper blend that the makers at Red Lion use for their recipes. Courtesy of Chip Welsh at Red Lion, he says:

There are indeed twenty different chiles in the blend. We are unique in that we have our chiles grown for us here in PA by an Old Order Mennonite farmer and his family. The chile are picked, cleaned, and frozen for use in most of our product line. We have Wild Brazilian chiles in our blend which are the most pungent, flavorful chiles we have grown. They are tiny little yellow bombs that really pack a wallop.

Knowing that this hot sauce, although habanero in nature, didn’t have the “wallop” of the salsa, we consulted the Red Lion website to see how they describe this sauce. There they say:

A “not-so-hot sauce”, big on taste with a little zing. Made with honey, mango and our blend of 20 exotic chiles. Try it mixed with butter as a wing sauce, or with Dijon mustard for a dipping sauce.

Honey and mango? Well, no wonder it’s not got the billing as a really hot sauce. Checking the all-important list of ingredients, we find:

Ingredients: white vinegar, mango puree, roasted red peppers, garlic, mixed pepper blend, habaneros, kosher salt, honey, natural gum

As with their salsa, the ingredients are all-natural and without any preservatives. Thumbs up so far.

First impression: For one thing, the bottle is a little different than some. It has a wider mouth which lets the sauce flow quickly and easily from the bottle without impediment from a flow-restrictor sphincter. When it does pour, it has a fantastic consistency which allow it to cling to food very nicely. The aroma is alluring, but it doesn’t have a dominant element that we can detect. We expected the mango to make it very sweet-smelling or the peppers to give it a more recognizable capsicum smell, but it just smells good. A little dab of the sauce poured out onto a plate for show looks like this:

Obviously lots of mango bits and chiles, all blended together into a fairly homogenous mix.

Taste: The straight taste of this sauce was quite a pleasant surprise. The heat was mild for a habanero-based sauce (say about a 6-7/10 or so without much accumulation), but the flavor was the main attraction. We always expect hot sauces made with fruit (mango in this case) to be a little too heavy with the fruit, but this one is a delicate yet perfect balance where you can taste the fruit but won’t be bothered by its heaviness in taste. The peppers & fruit leave a nice taste without the the heavy acidity of vinegar as well, despite that being the first ingredient on the list. Almost as much of a pepper sauce as a hot sauce…and that’s not such a bad thing.

This sauce was a star in all sorts of food combination. We can say, though, that we preferred the taste of this sauce poured over our food rather than in a mix or melange of tastes. For example, the taste is somewhat lost in chili but it was a real winner when poured over roast chicken breasts. Whether as a dipping sauce, condiment, or as a glaze/marinade, this sauce adds a whole lot of flavor without overbearing heat to most foods. We didn’t try it as a wing sauce, but we have no doubt that it would make a fine one in that capacity. Joe loved it mixed into his chicken salad, where it added a little peppery zing to a normally mayo-laden bland concoction. Linda really liked it poured over meat, and it added great taste to a recent beef roast we made that desperately needed a little extra flavor. There are certainly foods out there that this sauce could be mixed in with, though we didn’t find any in our somewhat limited kitchen experimentation. With that, your mileage may vary.

Overall recommendation: This hot sauce won’t sound any alarm claxons for heat, but it is worthy of all sorts of praise for flavor and utility. It wasn’t hard to find foods to match it up with, although our chili & soup combos needed some work. We felt the value of this sauce was versatility and widespread appeal. This is a sauce that many chileheads would like, and you can always add a little extra heat if you need it. Not too heavy on fruit taste, you’ll appreciate both the quality of ingredients and the skill in which they’re blended. A solid hot sauce from Red Lion Spicy Foods, and we hope you’ll try some for yourself to see if you agree. Enjoy!

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