I got a surprise care package in from our body Lars at Csigi. Contained within was two of his newest product. Today, I’ll be reviewing his Honey Habanero Barbecue Sauce.

Ingredients: tomato puree, tomato paste, unsulphered black strap molasses, vinegar, honey, onions, extra virgin olive oil, light brown sugar, spices, extra coarse sea salt, Habanero chilies, coarse black pepper.

Reading directly off his ingredients list makes my heart flutter with anticipation. Not only does he not use sulphers (which I have an allergy to), but also there’s no artificial colors or corn syrup. Just all natural ingredients, something so rare now a days.

Opening up the bottle I find that this one’s thick. I mean super thick. I wasn’t really surprised after all, with the top three ingredients being tomato puree, tomato paste, AND molasses. Throw the honey on top of all those and you get yourself a sauce that’s guaranteed to stick to whatever you slather it on.

The taste directly out of the bottle is very tomatoey mixed with a big burst of sweet ad topping off with a nice bite of black pepper. There is a slight hint of the fruity Habanero taste but that’s played down a bit by the sweetness of the various sugars involved. A nice bonus is that the olive oil doesn’t leave you with that slick, film coating on your tongue that I so passionately complain about in most other sauces.

Since this is a barbecue sauce, I went out and bought some Buffalo tri-tip for the official taste test. On a side note for the grillers out there, always cook your Buffalo rare to medium. Any more and you loose the beautiful, elegant taste that Buffalo gives you.

After banging the bottle on the cutting board for a few minutes, I finally got some of the sauce to splooch out of the bottle. Did I mention this sauce is thick? I thoroughly coated the meat and threw it on the grill (searing both sides before leaving it to the fire). A little bit later it was done and boy was it good! All the flavors blend so well and the sweet factor jumped up by a factor of 2. The whole sauce basically caramelized and seeped into the meat a bit making the tri-tip even more supple that it was before.

I’m a little disappointed by the heat though. I understand it’s a gourmet sauce and isn’t supposed to blow the top of your head off but I barely got a tingle from the Habaneros. Other than that small little nit pick, this is just phenomenal. So good, the whole family will want to know your secret. You get a gold star, Lars!

Taste: 9, Heat: 1.4

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