The American Heritage Science Dictionary lists the definition of talon as:

- One of the sharp, curved claws on a limb of a bird or other animal such as a lizard, used for seizing and tearing prey. Most talons are situated at the ends of digits.

We’ll define it as a hot sauce, created and manufactured by CaJohns Fiery Foods, that’s likely to light up your tastebuds with heat like few other non-extract sauces on the market. Why might this be? Just take a gander at what’s in it:

Ingredients: fatalii chiles, red savina habanero chiles, distilled vinegar

Red savina and fatalii chiles are a pretty lethal combo, at least in terms of heat potential per serving of hot sauce. Having done the Sauce 10 review first, we knew that the 10 was a serious step up for heat…but that did not keep me from having a healthy respect for this sauce as I set about the task of reviewing this formidable capsaicin-laden foe.

FKS sauce guru Huvason did a really cool review of this sauce, and it was this review that gave me a certain amount of inspiration to pour this sauce on as many things as possible (save for breakfast cereal) to see what a little Talon could do for me.

First impression: As with just about every hot sauce bottle we’ve had from CaJohn, the look is absolutely top-notch. High quality artwork & graphics on a clean, glossy label makes for a bottle that looks good just sitting on the shelf before you even want to open it. The sauce color is a deep red, likely most from the Red Savina component of the sauce. (Red is also the color of a warning sign and stop sign as well, but that didn’t deter me either.) The aroma is mostly fatalii to me, especially as it is such a dominant pepper, but whether you can detect any Red Savina or not…it’s all Capsicum chinense, baby! It’s a fairly well-blended sauce and pours easily from the nipple-free bottle and right onto its intended target. The sauce settles a little bit if the bottle sits for any length of time, but easily re-mixes into a homogenous mixture.

Taste: How versatile can a super-hot sauce be? Yours truly was gonna find out, probably the hard way. The straight taste was somewhat notable in that it was blissfully free of much of that tart vinegary taste which plagues a number of hot sauces of this ilk. Since this sauce is essentially just the chiles themselves plus vinegar, it was a nice surprise in the tasting. In spooning some right onto my palate, I made a couple of not-so-subtle observations. Firstly, the fatalii hits your tongue like it was being stabbed by an icepick. Next, the Red Savina provides that all-encompassing heat that coats everything else. Lastly, while the heat is fairly extreme (I’ll call it 9.5/10), it actually tastes pretty darn good before, and after, the heat really sets in.

With my tongue still smarting from a few too many spoonfuls of this sauce, I began compiling a mental list of foods to try with this hot sauce…some with each meal of the day. Eggs for breakfast, on a sandwich or in chili for lunch, and a couple of dinner options which included a meatloaf, veggie marinade, steak sauce, and enchilada topping. Apparently, pouring hot sauce over pizza is all the rage…so I decided to forego that option.

Eggs are some of the blandest foods to try and spice up, yet the Talon does so with ease. I worked this into an omelet and it was pure pepper heaven…and the spiciest omelet I’ve had in recent memory! A thin coating on just about any sandwich made for a chilehead condiment to die for (or just to die, if you use too much…LOL!) and it made my chili far more enjoyable by its usage. Chili is such a great food to use with hot sauce, and it really allowed the flavor of the peppers to come out as well. Dinner was more hit-and-miss, but that may be due to my options. As a veggie marinade, it fell flat. A little too spicy for most at the table, I needed something else to cut the heat of the sauce. The enchilada topping was great, though, as it added some much needed heat & flavor to some plain ol’ cheesy coating. A little bit tart & strong as a steak sauce, it worked for me but may not do so for everyone else. Your mileage may vary. In a meatloaf, though, it was the star. Mixed in and cooked up, it was spicy & tasty and not nearly resembling the bland concoction that most of our parents cooked for us growing up. Overall, an excellent sauce in & on food…if only moderation.

Overall recommendation: Killer in heat AND in taste, this sauce is worth giving a try for those of us who just have to have it as spicy as possible. While it’s no Sauce 10 in regard to the duration and intensity of the heat, it’s no slouch either. The fatalii gives this such a distinct taste, and not everyone may like the pungency it brings. However, this sauce can be as versatile as you like it, and you could even use it like a pepper mash if so desired. However you use it, just use it. Beware the heat level before you go hog-wild with it! I consider it to be a darn good sauce, and recommend this as one of the CaJohns ultra-hot sauces you need to try (the others being the Ace and Sauce 10).If this keeps up, the online dictionary listing for Talon will certainly have to include a reference to this sauce. Before long, CaJohn may even have his face on the front of Webster’s dictionary. Woot!

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