It’s always a pleasure getting test sauces from industry hopefuls. Often they are way crafty and sometimes so inventive I’ll have to bust out the thesaurus just to find the words to describe them. Such a sauce always comes from Lynn “Devil Duck” Duck (no, I didn’t type Duck twice, his last name really is Duck). Last I was in his area of New Mexico I received his two newest sauces, Barracuda Breath Test Batch #1 and Barracuda Breath Test Batch #2.

Barracuda Breath Test Batch #1 Ingredients: Habanero, Serrano, Jalapeño peppers, Apple Cider Vinegar, sweet onion, garlic, Red Hook ESB (dark beer), fresh lime juice, basil.

Barracuda Breath Test Batch #2 Ingredients: Habanero, Serrano, Tabasco, Jalapeño peppers, Distilled White Vinegar, Apple Cider Vinegar, sweet onion, Samuel Adams Boston Lager, Fresh Limes, garlic, basil.

Like all his other sauces, these two have a uniquely strange color to them. Batch #1 is “baby poo brown” (that’s Devil Duck’s words not mine…well, their mine now at least) and Batch #2 is a beautiful shade of radioactive orange.

We’ll start off with Batch #1. It has a little hint of seeds and small flecks of pepper skin floating about in the bottle with a medium constancy. The first taste that hits is the apple cider vinegar (which is one of the few types of vinegar I love and find it can be extremely versatile if used correctly). I both like the taste because it pairs well with ALL of his ingredients but also find that there has been slightly too much added to this batch. The flavor overwhelms a lot of the subtleties that I know are lurking here making them a bit difficult to locate.

The next flavors up are the peppers. The Habanero and Jalapeno bring a nice sweetness and the Serrano finishes it off with a little smokiness. Riding the background is the sweet onion and the garlic which lingers a bit then finishes off to the taste of the lime juice. His use of lime juice here is spot on because by the time it hits you the heat really starts to hit you as well making it a tag team of sensation across your tongue.

The two flavors I do not detect are the Red Hook ESB and the basil. I guess it’s good that I can’t taste the beer because I am not a fan of Extra Special Bitters at all. The heat on this is powerful and a spoonful will leave you sucking wind and sniffing snot back into your nostrils for about a good 2 minutes. I absolutely love this sauce and find the ensuring endorphin rush quite lovely.

Taste: 8, Heat: 9.2

Now onto Batch #2! This one has a bunch of pepper seeds and little flakes of pepper skin floating about, much more that Batch #1 but with the same consistency. While the only thing that has changed was the addition of Tabasco peppers, distilled white vinegar, and a different beer, this sauce is remarkably different.

While the apple cider vinegar is the first flavor again, it’s not overwhelming like Batch #1. There is also a little bite from the distilled white vinegar but is not at all a problem. The Habanero comes in next along with the Jalapeno and then is followed by the Tabasco pepper. Both the Jalapeno and Tabasco do a do-se-do around you palate all the way through the other flavors and into the after taste. This is not to say that they distract you from the other flavors it just they share the space so to speak which is really a fantastic part of this sauces’ charm.

The sweet onion is slightly detectable as is the garlic which once again lingers a bit along with the lime juice. As like the sauce above, I can’t taste the beer nor the basil even though there is a large amount of basil floating around here that I can see.

Here comes the heat! This little sauce is a mean kicker. It has a slow build for the heat and is spread all over your tongue. It hurts everywhere, the sides and back of the tongue in particular. After a while of eating a few spoonfuls I think my tongue went numb from pain (yes, I eat sauce in spoonfuls, I’m weird, OK?).

Taste: 8.9, Heat: 9.4

Well, Devil Duck has consistently given me amazing tasting sauces and these two are no exceptions to that rule. I seriously can not decide which of these sauces is my favorite. Top notch, Lynn, top notch.

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