Good things can come in the most innocent-looking packages. To support this assertion, I give you the Gourmet Jalapeno Hot Sauce from Denzel’s Gourmet Foods.

This sauce didn’t strike me as anything amazing when I first took the bottle out of the shipping. It didn’t have the cool-looking volcano from the Molten Mango nor the alluring peach from the not-yet-reviewed-by-us Peaches & Scream hot sauce. No, it simply had some cartoon-ish jalapenos on the label with the words “Gourmet Jalapeno Hot Sauce.” Simple enough, right? Even the ingredients list didn’t grab my attention either. It read:

Ingredients: vinegar, onions, jalapeno peppers, garlic, salt, basil

Aside from the basil, the list is pretty straightforward standard hot sauce sorta stuff. Well, it’s a good thing that I don’t judge books by their covers or I would have been sorely upset about missing out on this unique jalapeno sauce. Here’s what the description from Denzel’s website had to say about this sauce:

This is really tasty stuff. It’s not really very hot, but the flavor of the jalapeno’s really comes through. I smoke them little rascals with cherry wood for about a day, and that adds a real uniqueness to the taste. I tend to use this one like a relish. It’s really great on grilled things like sausages, hot dogs or hamburgers. One guy I know puts it in his tomato juice every morning for breakfast.

Well, I wasn’t going to try it in any tomato juice, but I had some other ideas in mind. I spend much more time using habanero sauces, so I decided to take my time and really give this jalapeno sauce some serious usage before writing my thoughts down about my tasting experience with it. So, for the better part of the last two weeks, this has been one of the mainstay sauces I’ve carried back and forth to work with me.

First impression: For one thing, this sauce is fairly thick. I tend to like that in my sauces, since I usually want my sauce to stick to my food rather than end up as a puddle in the middle of my plate or drizzling down my fingers as I eat. It pours from the bottle in thick globs glistening with peppery pulp and spices, and has a wider-mouth bottle to allow you to pour out as much or as little as you desire. The next thing that’s noticeable is the aroma. It’s smoky, much like you’d expect from a chipotle sauce. Not that pseudo-smokiness that you get from a bottle of Liquid Smoke, but some real roasted smoky goodness. Obviously well-blended, it suffers little from any amount of separation after sitting around for any length of time.

Taste: Delightfully tasty, very smoky, and about as hot as you would expect from a jalapeno sauce…perhaps 5/10 on the heat scale. Denzel got it right about the smokiness, as it does add a unique flavor to the sauce. Different than chipotle to be sure, it has a depth of flavor that defies the simplicity of the ingredients. Rich and flavorful in its own right, I loved how the garlic and onions add to the flavor which is not too overpowered by the vinegar in the sauce.

Relish, condiment, dipping sauce, steak sauce, chili addition, you name it…this sauce does it all with aplomb. Not a single food I tried it with suffered in any way, and this sauce even won rave compliments from the non-chileheads who were fortunate enough to try it when I had the bottle open.

Overall recommendation: I couldn’t even offer constructive criticism about this sauce. It’s really damn good, and that’s coming from someone who struggles to really enjoy jalapeno sauces as much as the hotter sauces like the habanero versions. Thick, smoky, and flavorful, this sauce has enough utility to find uses in nearly anything, so I suggest using it early and often. Thank goodness I still have an extra bottle all to myself, as I won’t be sharing that with anyone else at work. Get a bottle of your own and see what you think. Sharing is optional. Enjoy!