Regrettably, I managed to overlook this bottle of hot sauce when I did the Feature Product review for Sizzlin Sauces a couple of months ago. I say “regrettably” because I’m trying to figure out how I missed the spiciest hot sauce that I received in that batch…since I usually hone right in on the hottest sauce right away then taste the milder ones later. The Spittin Fire XXX Private Reserve is an award-winning sauce that bears a great resemblance to the regular Spittin Fire, but with some added habanero oomph. The website description says this:

Same great flavor as our regular Spittin Fire™ except with explosive heat! We triple the quantity of Habeneros to make this Limited edition sauce. This is a great additive to wings or chili. 5 oz bottle.

Now I’m not sure how much that “triple the quantity” of habaneros is for this sauce, but all I knew is that the more there were…the more likely it would be that I would like it. Actually, the list of ingredients is pretty much exactly the same as the regular Spittin Fire, but with manipulated amount of habaneros to make it hotter:

Ingredients: habanero peppers, ketchup (tomato concentrate [tomatoes, distilled vinegar, high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, salt, spice, onion powder, natural flavors]),water, onion, carrot juice, rice wine vinegar (water, rice, sugar, salt), white wine, hot sauce (aged cayenne red peppers, vinegar, water, salt, garlic powder), honey, lime juice, Dijon mustard (water, mustard seeds, vinegar, salt, sulfites [preservatives], extra virgin olive oil, garlic, black pepper, kosher salt

Admittedly, this sauce does indeed smell more potent than its milder sibling. The aroma is very strong in habanero, but also with some ketchup and onion as well. The consistency is that which I like…thick enough to stick to food, but liquid enough to pour out easily from bottle without getting stuck in the bottle’s neck even when cold. One of the things that I didn’t like was that the label was exactly the same as the regular Spittin Fire, save for a small red-lettered “XXX” on the top. Could explain why I missed it in the first place.

Taste: Since I had tasted the regular Spittin Fire quite a while ago and didn’t have any by which to do a direct side-by-side comparison, I had to go purely based on memory. The initial taste is that same ketchup-dominated mix, but wow do the extra habaneros make a difference. The characteristic capsaicin heat follows quickly on your palate when you taste this. I’ll call the heat an 8/10, but it did seem to have varying amounts of heat depending on when I tried this sauce. Such is the subtleties of taste! Overall, a nice flavor profile which seemed to lend itself to a variety of foods.

Speaking of variety, I gave this sauce quite a diverse selection of food choices by which to taste it with…and it worked well with nearly all of them. I loved this sauce on meat…everything from link sausage to hamburger condiment to steak sauce and beyond. Since it has such a “ketchup” aspect to it, I used it how I would use ketchup (if I ate ketchup): sandwich condiment, on french fries, dipping sauce, meatloaf additive, etc. In addition, this hot sauce was absolutely fantabulous in chili and soups. My penchant for a good bowl o’ gumbo was made so much better with this sauce.

Overall recommendation: I may have overlooked this sauce initially, but you shouldn’t miss this hot sauce from Sizzlin Sauces. With all the flavor of the Spittin Fire but with extra heat, it will bring a smile to the chileheads (like me) who want a lot more habanero heat and flavor in their hot sauces. Enjoy!

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