Unique ingredients in any hot sauce build much more excitement before tasting. I’ve tasted hot sauces with carrots, cucumbers, pineapple, agave nectar and even wine! Sometimes adding flavors that seem a little strange work out well, and others end in epic failure. Well lucky me, I get to add another hot sauce to the list that used unique ingredients that pulled off something successful.
My thoughts
Moe Mountain hot sauce has a thick, creamy texture. It’s very dark in color and smells like a semi sweet citrus blend. The world famous ghost pepper is used here, but shockingly I can’t call this an extreme heat sauce. It is far more mild than expected. This sauce reminds me of something like an all-natural ketchup, a very hot and spicy all natural ketchup. But thankfully, this sauce contains no added sugar to make the tomatoes too overpowering, like most traditional ketchups. Vinegar and lemon pulp add a tart and bitter taste that brings you back to the traditional hot sauces we are most familiar with. This sauce is salted nicely, much less than Louisiana or Caribbean style sauces.
Without a doubt the most complex side of this sauce is the addition of cocoa powder. Now for those who don’t know, cocoa powder tastes nothing like a Hershey’s chocolate bar. It is actually quite bitter and holds a very dark chocolate taste (Imagine dark chocolate with no sweetener added). So the sauce itself is full of deep chocolatey notes. The ingredient adds to the bitterness of apple cider vinegar, while the natural sugar of the tomatoes bring out light undertones of the delightful and whimsical taste of chocolate.
I do want to place an emphasis on how impressed I am at the level of flavor balance. Tomatoes are bullies in the sauce world, simply meaning most tomato based sauces, taste like nothing but tomatoes. However, here, the sweet tomato flavor is clearly tasted, but not too strong. Perfect balance has been achieved.
Using the sauce
This sauce is an outstanding substitute for traditional steak sauces. It also plays well with nachos and burritos. The only downside of the sauce is that its complexity hinders in food pairing.
Overall
A ghost is fitting for the logo of this sauce. Not just because Ghost Peppers are in the sauce, but because this is a thrilling and unique sauce, full of flavor surprises.
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