*New* Sauce 10 by CaJohns Fiery Foods

It's MAMMOTH! It's huge! It's the next great hot sauce from the mad geniuses at CaJohns Fiery Foods.
Actually, Sauce 10 has been in existence for a short time already with a plain label. We've resisted the temptation to say something about it because we were waiting for the appearance of the new version with the Naga Jolokia pepper in it. Since the Jolokia (Naga, Bhut, whatever you choose to use as its first name) is the newest member of the elite super-hot peppers, it is only fitting that CaJohn be one of the first to incorporate it into a sauce. The part you should be asking is: why put it in a sauce that already had fataliis, red savina habs, and orange habs already? If you believe the SHU numbers being posted by the people testing the Jolokia, then this sauce ought to be one step shy of molten lava.
The bottle I received was label-less, so you can see the future print for it above. Through the glass bottle, the sauce looks no different from the outside than any other habanero sauce, but inside lay the path to tastebud burnout and ruin. Onward ho!
If you can't read the ingredients list from the bottle label, here they are in regular print format:
Ingredients: Fatalii chiles, Red Savina habaneros, Orange habaneros, Onions, Distilled Vinegar, Mustard (vinegar, water, #1 Grade mustard seed, salt, turmeric, paprika, spices), Garlic, Naga Jolokia Powder, Black Pepper, Chile Caribe, Cayenne, A select blend of dehydrated vegetable powders
What a murderer's row of peppers! The lineup of the 1929 New York Yankees could scarcely match the strength of this sauce….at least not in regards to its heat potential.
First impression: With eager anticipation, I poured out a generous dollop to finally get an up-close examination of this sauce. It looks like this:

Honestly, it's a really well-blended sauce, which you can tell by its smooth consistency. At first I thought the sauce needed a lot more vinegar because it was way too thick. After doling out a few samples to different dishes, I retracted that opinion a little. It may need just a little more vinegar to make the perfect fluidity, but it's pretty darn close to perfect as-is. The aroma is simply muy macho. There's definitely a distinct fatalii smell to it, but with an extra added something that just screams heat.
Taste: Besides doing my usual tasting thang, I took a suggestion from CaJohn himself about this sauce. His notion was that this sauce was noticeably hotter than his Talon sauce. Talon is on my to-do list for reviewing, but suffice to say it is a red savina/fatalii sauce with no shortage of heat. In this case, I set up a side-by-side tasting experiment to see how these compared straight from the bottle. Divvying my sauces up, I poured out my experimental dollops and went to work. You can see the testing field below:
On the left is the Sauce 10 and on the right is the Talon. I tasted each one straight from a small spoon, and then did the same thing with a tortilla chip. The results were quite enlightening. Quite simply, the Sauce 10 is a 10/10 for heat. I've not given a 10 to any non-extract sauce, but this one earns it in spades. Its heat profile is unusual in that it builds after only one bite and gets hotter without having to actually eat any more. It's just plain potent, but with a great peppery taste you can appreciate before the heat truly sets in. I didn't appreciate any of the individual taste elements of the sauce, such as the onions, mustard, or spices, but the chile taste makes up for that. If you are daring enough to keep eating the Sauce 10, then the cumulative heat is even more impressive. I was sucking wind after a surprisingly small amount. Trying the Talon afterwards just wasn't fair…to the Talon sauce. I'd tried it before and thought it was quite hot, but this one almost had a ketchup-like sweetness to me when tasted side-by-side. The Talon ain't ketchup, folks, but the Sauce 10's heat is just on another plane of existence compared to most other uber-hot sauces.
Despite my admonition about the extreme heat, I thought that the Sauce 10 was fairly user-friendly. When you didn't go overboard and pour it like ketchup, you can actually use just enough to add heat & flavor to any dish where you would use a habanero sauce. This combination of Jolokia and habanero is the only one I've had in recent memory that's been in a fatalii sauce that actually detracts from the pungency (in heat and taste) of the fatalii itself…and that's a good thing. Pouring it directly on food is not for the weak of heart (or palate), and I couldn't take too much over any dish that didn't cause me to pant a little after eating it. To me, it's a great addition to mix into food. Because the taste is so good, it is a great flavor addition to many dishes…and gives the capsaicin heat that so many of us crave. In my usual soups/stews and chili, this sauce was awesome. I even suckered…I mean suggested…one of my co-workers to try it in his chicken a la king today, with surprisingly good reviews afterwards. I liked it with a couple of different egg/breakfast combinations, and was a good mix with many different sauces (marinara, alfredo, BBQ, etc) to make them hot enough for me. Looking at the bottle now, I'm surprised at how much I've used in such a short period of time. If that's not a glowing endorsement, I don't know what is.
Overall recommendation: Heat-lovers, your time has come. Sauce 10 may be one of the hottest non-extract sauces ever made, but the heat is happily not at the expense of flavor. If you don't like (or won't eat) extract sauces, let this Jolokia-enhanced gem take your tastebuds for a capsaicin-laced thrashing. This sauce really let me explore a little of my culinary masochistic tendencies, and I still have much more of it left to eat! Amazingly versatile for its heat, this sauce lends itself to more uses than even I could come up with in my short evaluation time with it. The fun is seeing how much you can take/put on your food before you start to sweat profusely. I wasn't sure I would like this sauce this much, but it's nice to have a super-hot sauce whose taste rivals its heat. A sweat-laden thumbs up for Sauce 10!





















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Commented at February 27, 2007- 7:34 am
Man – looks great. I cant wait to get a hold of a bottle of this and make a “sauce 10″ pizza. I promised John I would make a pizza like I did with the Talon.
Commented at February 27, 2007- 8:15 am
Be careful Huv, don’t hurt yourself! The heat of this sauce is just incredible, the timline of the burn is what’s most impressive. Thanks for the great review Joe & Linda! We’ll have plenty of Sauce 10 for everyone in Albuquerque!
Commented at February 27, 2007- 10:10 am
Great consistency and color! I can’t wait to try it. I also can’t wait to see which is hotter, 10 or our Naga Sabi Bomb, being the only 2 Naga hot sauces at FFS that I know of. It will be a fun and painful comparison!
Commented at February 27, 2007- 12:58 pm
I’m going to buy this and drink the whole bottle in front of CaJohn! Wait…while that would be a good photo op, I think it would blow my tongue out (along with a few other body parts) for the rest of the show. Scratch that idea…
Commented at February 27, 2007- 1:18 pm
Just tried it. WOW this stuff is hot. Sorry Talon, just found my new favorite.
Commented at February 27, 2007- 1:50 pm
4th teaspoon now… not as hot any more – but man is it good. Definitely hotter than Talon.
Commented at February 27, 2007- 2:42 pm
Huvason,
It’s not as hot because you’ve stunned your tastebuds so much from the first couple of teaspoons…and now they’re numb.
Commented at February 27, 2007- 4:05 pm
I want that!!!!
Commented at February 27, 2007- 4:23 pm
“It’s not as hot because you’ve stunned your tastebuds so much from the first couple of teaspoons…and now they’re numb.”
Yeah – I realize that. But i’m also weird cuz I build up a tolerance pretty easily. Just had another teaspoon, and its hot, but not as hot as the first, and its been hours. Dont get me wrong, I still feel heat, this stuff is not for the rookies.
Commented at February 27, 2007- 8:18 pm
The label is actually much cooler than it looks from what CaJohn told me. It’s metallic – should be a real winner!!!!
Commented at February 27, 2007- 9:53 pm
Great review! Now I’m drooling.
Commented at February 27, 2007- 10:53 pm
I think you’re in trouble Lee…
Commented at February 27, 2007- 11:31 pm
Impressed, Huv said Hot!
Commented at February 28, 2007- 12:17 am
Something you would understand Dawg Your mouth is “fully envolved” afterwards…
Commented at February 28, 2007- 10:44 am
I don’t know, John, Fataliis and red savinas are definitely hotter than the red habs we used, but the question is: How much Naga did you put in your sauce???
Commented at February 28, 2007- 12:36 pm
Lee, I need to get some of this! Make sure you save some for us that aren’t going to NM
Commented at March 5, 2007- 5:09 pm
Where can I buy this sauce? I’ve looked everywhere on the net.
Commented at March 5, 2007- 8:13 pm
The website doesn’t reflect it yet, but you can buy it from CaJohns Fiery Foods. Their toll-free number is 888-703-FIRE .
Be sure to tell ‘em we sent ya when you call!
Commented at April 10, 2007- 11:06 pm
I just got bottle 72/600 (signed and dated) in the mail yesterday!
Before this the two hottest sauces in my fridge were both Dave’s insanity lines. I’m not a fan of extract-based sauces because of the lack of flavor.
This sauce is HOT! I’d rank it up there with anything I’ve ever had. I took a bit on my finger from the underside of the cap and my mouth had a fire burning for a good 20 minutes–I can’t wait to see what it’ll be like mixed into my can of stagg chilli, or on a burrito!
Up here in Alaska we need somthing spicy to lift our winter blues…
Mad props for combining all these wodnerfull peppers in the perfect ratios!
Commented at April 11, 2007- 7:43 pm
Wow….. I’m in shock and crying #72 opened and gone for ever….. This is a sad day for me….lol
Dave it is a awesome sauce, I can’t believe you opened the bottle though…
Commented at April 20, 2007- 2:51 pm
I was wondering if anyone has measured the scoville units on Sauce 10 yet? I just ordered some and I’m wondering what I’m in for. I love my hot sauces (as of now, Pain %100 is my favorite) and am totally stoked to try a sauce with the Naga flavor in it.
Commented at April 20, 2007- 2:53 pm
Oh by the way, thanks for the number Joe and Linda!
Commented at April 26, 2007- 2:03 pm
just got sauce 10 and the talon sauce in the mail today. Man, that is some tasty stuff!!! Well done. And a warning to all of you amateurs, this stuff is just as hot as it is delicious, so beware. I am a bigger fan of sauce 10 for sure. Its a little smokier sweeter from Cpt. Naga thats in it. FANTASTIC!!
Commented at August 30, 2007- 10:40 pm
Well…
I broke down and bought another TWO bottles of this stuff! Another signed/numbered bottle (not to be used–ever) and a smaller bottle for my desk at work (for lunches and whatnot).
So bottles 36 and 72 are off the market boys! This is by far one of my fav. sauces. The “Naga Sabe Bomb” is some “weak sauce” in comparison. (ive doen side-by sides)…Hell, even Blairs “Possible Side Effects” is hotter than “The Naga-Bomb”
Commented at February 27, 2009- 1:12 pm
Been eating it on chips. Wonderful but after a day or two all other foods have started to taste bland.
Commented at June 23, 2009- 12:38 pm
This has become my favorite “straight pour” sauce! It will definately become one of my few repeat buys… and for some time to come!
Commented at August 15, 2009- 1:46 pm
This sauce is amazing. Not for the weak.