Welcome to the second part of my 2 part review of the sauces I received from Arturo’s Hot Flavor’s of Hawaii. This time around I will be reviewing their two hotter sauces, Hawaiian Passion Ginger Fire and Great Red Shark.

Hawaiian Passion Ginger Fire Ingredients: Water, cider vinegar, salt, modified food starch, Thai chili peppers, ginger.

Great Red Shark Ingredients: Habanero chiles, Thai chiles, vinegar, salt and chile extract.

I’ve got to say I love the Hawaiian Passion label. It’s simple, easy to read, wonderfully designed and very Hawaiian looking. The Great Red sauce is nice but kind of has that “biker sauce” look to it. That sauce, however, has a really nice description of the actual Great Red Shark myth printed on the side of the label. Nice touch.

First off on the tongue will be Hawaiian Passion. Whooo wee, salty! The first taste is overwhelming. It’s so salty it almost tastes like the sea water off the coast of Hawaii. I’m really having a real hard time tasting the other ingredients but I’m giving it the old college try (which I’ll have to fake because I never really “attended” college. I just hung out at John Carrol University).

Next up is the vinegar but it tastes like regular vinegar instead of cider vinegar. After that comes the ginger and a hint of the bite from the Thai chilies. There really isn’t much heat here and I would say most of the bit comes from the vinegar and salt and not the peppers. I would definitely lessen the salt and vinegar and increase the peppers and ginger.

Taste: 1.8, Heat: 3

Now we’ll see if the Great Red Shark’s extract will take a bite out of my tongue. I am hoping this one has more heat and taste than the last one because it seems to have more pepper seeds and flakes floating in it but I have a bad feeling about it.

Darn, just as salty and vinegary as the Hawaiian Passion. Those two hit first but there is a slight salvation here when it comes to the peppers and heat. I do detect more Thai pepper bite and a fair little hint of fruity Habanero but only on an after taste.

There is no metallic extract taste (always a bonus) but then again it doesn’t seem like there is a lot of extract in it. You will get that familiar, spread out, pore burning feeling on your tongue but it’s not very intense at all. Just enough to kick this sauce up to the level where you’ll notice the heat. Once again I would say kick down the vinegar and salt but kick up the peppers.

Taste: 1.9, Heat: 5

These are the type of reviews I sometime regret having to do. The ones where someone gives me a product and half of them are good, but the other half really don’t float my boat. Unfortunately I can’t be a nice guy and lie. I’m a hot sauce reviewer and have to treat each sauce I receive with an honest review.

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