Still, a couple of weeks after starting this blog, I was excited to spot some surprising additions to the depressingly restricted "hot sauces" shelf at my local Tesco - not one, but two of Dave's Gourmet sauces (later flagged up by the ChileFoundry here). Supermarkets stocking super-hot sauces is not surprising in itself - my first experiences were with a bottle of Who Dares Burns picked up from my local Sainsbury's - but Hot Headz are a UK company and only got sporadic support; Dave's Gourmet is probably the leading American brand for this kind of sauce, and the original Insanity Sauce is frequently a top ten seller from the big UK specialists. It's interesting to speculate on what the story is behind what must be a massive export deal, how long it'll last (not long is our guess), and what effect it will have on specialist sellers. The last is particularily poignant since Tesco's are undercutting them by about 30% before postage, and may also be chomping into their supply - Scorchio are listing the Ghost Pepper sauce as "out of stock". Connection? Who knows.
Still, since I was grumping about the idea of spending a packet on mail-order sauces I was anticipating not liking at all, I thought I'd take advantage of Tesco's probably limited offer and grab both of them to review. I promise, I'll get round to reviewing something a little more exotic than the "bought from Tesco's" fare I've been on so far.
Dave's Gourmet is seen by most people to be the "original" super-hot chilli sauce, since he was apparently the first person to come up with putting capsaicin (listed as "hot pepper extract") straight into his sauce rather than cooking pepper mash, allowing it to be much hotter than it's peers. At the original Insanity Sauce's debut at the National Fiery Foods show in 1992, the "enhanced" sauce took many people by surprise, causing at least one case of fainting. Because of valid safety concerns, the organisers banned the sauce from tastings at the next years event, handing Dave's Gourmet the notorious reputation of being the only sauce ever banned from the event, which the brand has traded on ever since. Insanity Sauce effectively invented the "super-hot" category, which was rapidly filled up by similar sauces from companies like Blair's Death Sauce and UK based Hot Headz. A discussion of the super-hot category, the oleoresin capsaicin "arms race" and the debate over whether they should even be considered sauces at all is a post in itself.
It's an interesting pair I've picked up. Of course the Insanity Sauce is the original super-hot sauce, but the Ghost Pepper sauce - reinforced with the Naga Jolokia, the worlds hottest chilli as of 2007 - is one of the newest sauces from Dave's Gourmet. I'm reviewing them together because I genuinely can't face doing two Dave's Gourmet reviews twice in succession.
Tasting Notes: From the start, it's clear these two are different beasts. The Insanity sauce is a much darker, like the Hot Headz variety I'd tried previously, while the Ghost Pepper is a bit lighter, orange-y sauce. A smell confirms - the main aroma of the insanity is actually a tomato, although with touches of spice; the Ghost Pepper is definitely chilli all the way down, and has more in the way of vinegar. I'll admit, I was pleasantly surprised by the smell of both, I was expecting the smell to be a lot nastier than that. Both have a slightly thicker consistence than I was expecting - I don't have a bottle of WDB for comparison, but I remember it being a good deal runnier - these guys have the consistency of ketchup. A taste lets the Insanity sauce down, though. While it does try hard to have flavour in and of itself, it's just overwhelmed by the chemical taste of the chilli extract. Obviously it has a healthy kick to it, but it's hard to think of another term for the flavour besides "unpleasant". The Ghost Pepper scores miles better; this is a sauce that has been crafted for flavour rather than kick-your-head-in-heat. In my humble opinion it's let down somewhat by the bitterness of the extract, but that's always going to be a tradeoff with the super-hot sauces. Personally, I'd be interested to taste the same sauce without the infamous "hot pepper extract" on the ingredients list; but then, that's not really what you buy a Dave's Gourmet sauce for, is it?
What's it Good For: In the case of the Insanity Sauce, I'm sorely tempted to say "Huh, absolutely nothing". In the couple of weeks since picking it up, I've tried it in a handful of things while cooking, and frankly if you can taste the sauce itself, it's been to the detriment of the dish. Now this isn't a bad thing so to speak - it's easy enough to add a few drops to a dish with a strong flavour to pep up the heat without getting the chemical taste - but frankly, I already have a little bottle of this for that, and I really struggle to see why I'd need something that tastes just as vile, but isn't as hot. Also, the consistency is just a little bit wrong for this usage - it's just too thick to add a small amount. It's about the right consistency to add a few splotches on some cheese-on-toast, if you were enough of a heat-junkie that you didn't mind that your cheese-on-toast tasted like it was topped with used engine oil. As for the Ghost Pepper - well, despite my prejudices, I'm actually quite impressed with this one. The flavour is more natural (although with a big spike of unnatural-tasting bitter extract), so I could just about see it topping something like a pizza or cheese-on-toast; and the flavour is almost strong enough to compete as a topping-sauce for soup or pasta or something. Tipping it into a sauce while cooking would be a bit of a waste, since you'd lose the subtlety of the flavour, and it doesn't quite have the strength to stand up like some other super-hot sauces. It's well worth the extra couple of pounds, so if it's a choice between one or the other it's a no brainer - and don't be put off giving it a try if you plumped for the Insanity Sauce last time.
Final Thoughts: Insanity Sauce: it's not the worst in it's class, but I really don't see why this is so popular when there are so many better sauces out there. I'm already wondering if there's someone I can palm it off on who'd appreciate it more than me. Ghost Pepper: This is more like what a super-hot sauce should be, about the right balance of flavour and heat for it's class. That said, I probably wouldn't buy it again, 'cos I prefer food not to taste like tear gas, however slightly. If you're a chilephile like me, it's worth a shot while it's cheap in Tesco's though.
The Verdict: Have a try, but probably only once.
