I got a package from Tahiti Joe’s Hot Sauces a little bit ago of his whole line and one of those bottles is Maui Pepper Co. Mangonesian Chipotle. After much testing to find the right kind of food for this unique sauce, the results are in.

Ingredients: Vinegar, aged red peppers, mangos, Worcestershire, tomato juice, ocean clam juice, sugar, honey, diced tomatoes, sea salt, apple juice, chipotle, habanero, jalapeno peppers, onions, parmesan cheese, garlic in water, carrots, cilantro, spices, tic gum.

Like the side of the bottle reads, “Mangonesian is a beautiful array of exotic flavors never done before” and after reading the ingredients list, it’s right. In my two years of hot sauce consumption I can officially say that I’ve never seen a list of ingredients like this before. It is almost as if he threw everything he had laying around the kitchen into this sauce. Clam Juice? Parmesan Cheese?!?!?! Tic gum???? How many tics does it take to get gum? They are so small. (Disclaimer, tic gum is not made out of tics).

After much tasting I am confident to say that this really does have a wide array of flavors. At first, the sweet flavor of the honey, mango, and sugar hits your tongue mixed in with the flavor of vinegar. It’s an interesting clash, but it works. Of that combo I would have to say the mango really shines which is good because that is supposed to be the main feature of this sauce.

The next combo of flavors that hit are the clam juice, tomatoes, and Worcestershire. This is where I have a problem with the sauce. The clam juice is way overpowering, distracting you from the rest of the flavors in the sauce. I really felt that if it came in more towards the bottom of the ingredients list that you would only have a hint of that flavor, thus adding to the subtle complexities instead of bashing them. I feel the same way with the Worcestershire. The tomatoes are decent but I do detect a hint of “V8″ type flavor, not something I am particularly fond of. Too many bad memories of drinking that stuff when I was sick.

Rounding off the tastes are the apple juice followed by the peppers. The smoky taste of the chipotles is there but they are more of a background flavor to the Habanero and Jalapenos. The fruity taste of the Habanero is a definite complement to the Mangos. One of the things that I’ve noticed about this sauce is that the tastes come in waves and groups. A lot of sauces have one flavor after the next but this has three or four tastes that hit at once which are then followed by another group of three or four.

Unfortunately, most of the ingredients drown out the subtle flavors of the onions, cheese (which I’m still baffled about), garlic and carrots, which is sad because they really would have been a compliment to the rest of the ingredients. Speaking of being baffled about the parmesan cheese… I’m really confused. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a neat little addition to the sauce and is something I would have never thought I would have seen in a hot sauce, but it’s so odd that I really can’t get my head around it. It takes a lot to do that, bonus points for creativity! Besides boggling my mind, it does add a nice texture to the sauce, soft and smooth.

The heat on this hovers around medium. It has a really slow build that ramps up to a nice nibbling feeling on the tongue. Not too hot, but hot enough to satisfy most chili-heads. Since some of the ingredients really overpower the overall taste of the sauce it limits the use on food. My suggestions would be for spicing up clam chowder (go figure), as a fish marinade for grilling (let soak in the fridge for about an hour or three before grilling), as a substitute for dressings on salads, and let’s not forget to dash some of your stir fried foods.

Taste: 6.3, Heat: 3.7

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