Baron's International Kitchen - Caribbean Hot Sauce

The Product

We recently had the opportunity to review a new product from Baron’s International Kitchen – Caribbean Hot Sauce. According to the label, with it you can “Make An Authentic International Meal Tonight.”

About This Sauce: “This tropical sensation was inspired by Vernon “Sonny” Henry, a close family friend from Antigua and accomplished chef. Its peppery taste hits HOT then soothes with a delayed mustard flavor that awakens every meal. Goes great with steak, chicken, pork, burgers and seafood or mix with mayonnaise, mustard or BBQ sauce. Enjoy!”

My First impression

The sauce has a very simple label, nothing fancy or elaborate. The bottle is 8.5 ounces. What you’ll notice first, if you’re a typical hot sauce fan, is that this is not a typical hot sauce bottle. It’s short and squat, more like a typical salsa bottle instead of the long neck you might be used to. It doesn’t look like a traditional hot sauce inside the bottle either, this one being a lighter brown color with some noticeable ingredient chunks. Oil is floating at the top very clearly, so be sure to shake this up before you use it. I’m intrigued and like the thickness of the sauce.

Here is the list of ingredients: “fresh onions, cucumber, white vinegar, habanero peppers, olive oil, fresh garlic, mustard, wine vinegar, salt, chili powder.”

Appearance/Smell/Taste

We popped open the lid after a good solid shake and noticed there was still quite a bit of oil floating at the top, so we recapped it and gave it another shake. You really need to shake this up as there is a lot of oil in this sauce. Perhaps too much. Aside from the oily consistency, appearance is good. It is quite chunky and appears to be more of a cross between a sauce and a salsa in terms of its uniformity.

The smell didn’t really grab us. It is not an unpleasant smell, but it doesn’t inspire the desire to dig right in or give your taste buds a little pre-taste giggle. The dominant smells seem to be oil, cucumber, and perhaps the hints of garlic.

We tasted a quarter teaspoon of the sauce by itself and noted the heat level instantly. By itself, it will quickly sting your tongue though the heat doesn’t linger very long. The heat trickles down as you swallow, but then dissipates into a soft and steady burn. Kudos on the heat.

The flavor, however, could use a bit more. Like the smells, the dominant flavors are oil and cucumbers. We waited for the delayed mustard flavor indicated by the label but really only tasted oil and hints of cucumber.

Undaunted, we incorporated the sauce into a lunch dish.

The Meal

We grilled salmon for lunch and served it with some roasted peppers and sliced avocado on the side. In order to focus on the sauce, we only seasoned the salmon lightly with salt and pepper and grilled the fillets. To serve, we added about 2 tablespoons of the sauce over each salmon fillet and served.

The result? Just OK. The flavor of the salsa felt a bit lost over the salmon, which admittedly has a strong flavor. I added a bit more of the sauce but the results were the same. Again, the oil and cucumber flavors dominated and lingered the most, though much of the stinging heat was noticeably diminished over the meal.

In the end, we felt the sauce might possible benefit from a bit of sweetness, or perhaps some additional Caribbean spices like coriander or allspice. We do want to try this, however, with mayonnaise, mustard, or BBQ sauce and see how the flavors combine. Still, a fairly good overall sauce.

Ratings

• First Impression: 8 (4 stars)
• Ingredients: 7 (3.5 stars) – Habaneros!
• Flavor/Texture/Smell: 6 (3 stars)
• Heat: 8 (4 stars)
• Overall: 6.5 (3.25 stars)

Contact Information

Therese F. Baron, Head Chef and President
Baron’s International Kitchen
BaronsInternationalKitchen.com
PH: 845-642-7424

Thanks! Mike from ChiliPepperMadness.com