Dave's Gourmet Insanity Sauce and Ghost Pepper Sauce

I'm going to say right up front that I'm seriously not a fan of "enhanced" chilli sauces á la Dave's Gourmet, Hot Headz and the like. I'll admit that I've not tried many, but since getting a hold of them can often be tricky (I'm in mail order country for most of the fun sauces - you'll notice that a good few of these reviews are supermarket pickups!), I'm usually reluctant to give yet another variation of mediocre-sauce-with-added-capsaicin a try.

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.

Frank's Original RedHot Sauce

The "Louisiana-style" hot sauce is probably the definitive hot sauce that most people have experience of, including among it's ranks probably the single most famous brand of all: Tabasco. The race for second place is a bit more fraught, and personally for me the gap is filled by Crystal, which I discovered while I was at uni, and liked so much I could barely keep it in the house without it disappearing. In fact, I liked Crystal better than Tabasco; the flavour of the chilli is foremost, where Tabasco has more of a compromise between the vinegar and the fruit. Sadly, Crystal has more or less disappeared from UK shelves - I can only assume that the company is still recovering from the destruction of it's main factory in New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and the export market comes second to their domestic trade. So the fruity cayenne flavour in Louisiana-style chilli sauces vanished from my life for several years.





Enter Frank's Original RedHot sauce. Like Crystal, Frank's has quite a pedigree, but achieved some notoriety by being the key ingredient in Buffalo wings. Possibly because of the industrial quantities needed to make Buffalo wings en masse, Frank's is gradually becoming more available in the UK, and taking over the gap left by Crystal. Having spotted it in my local supermarket, I thought I'd give it a try and see how it measures up.

Without a bottle of Crystal to compare it to, I'm making most of the comparisons to Tabasco.

Tasting Notes: Much like Crystal, and in contrast to Tabasco, Frank's aroma and flavour is dominated by cayenne. While vinegar is a key to both, it's much more muted in Frank's and the salt and spices are much stronger. While both are apparently "cask-aged", the ageing seems to do more for tabasco (which tastes a bit to me like hot balsamic vinegar rather than chilli). Frank's is about the chilli's. It's also thicker than Tabasco - while it's runny enough to pour, it's still got a bit of viscosity to it. It's not perfect though; there's a slightly waxy, bitter aftertaste to Frank's, although you'd only notice it if you were more or less drinking it straight. I don't have a bottle of Crystal to hand, but I don't remember it having that aftertaste. Also, Frank's flavour is far from subtle, and the salt is kicked up several notches over Tabasco. The effect is that where Tabasco is a condiment, Frank's RedHot sauce is, like Encona, more of an ingredient than a table sauce, beefed up to fight off other flavours when cooked into something. Still, Tabasco does seem to defeat it on heat - Frank's has the flavour of the peppers, but it's not setting fire to my mouth.

What It's Good For: Buffalo Wings, apparently. It'll certainly do as a table sauce, but better something with it's own flavour, like pizza, unless you like it salty. The sauce is designed for cooking though, so mix it in for best results.

Final Thoughts: A good alternative Louisiana-style sauce to Tabasco, but I'm still missing Crystal. I'd like to taste those two back to back, and see if I'm remembering Crystal's flavour right.

The Verdict: I'll probably keep a bottle in my cupboard, but I'll be dreaming of Crystal...

Encona Hot Pepper Sauce

After kicking off with a disappointing show by Dilita, I thought I'd compensate with one of my long-time favourites: Encona. Apparently the full title of this little number is "Encona West Indian Original Hot Pepper Sauce", but it'll always be "Encona" to me. While I'm pleased to say that it's been gaining popularity (along with other "world cuisine" brands) in recent years, Encona has a long pedigree in the Afro-Caribbean community, with it's maker Enco going back to the 1930's. Enco's recent expansion has probably been driven by it's 2007 takeover by a larger Caribbean food company Grace; the takeover was marked by a rebranding of Encona and an expansion of their sauce range.




Encona was my first taste of the super-hot Capsicum chinense chillies (made with Scotch bonnets and Habaneros) and I'd be surprised if I've spent more than a few weeks without a bottle in my kitchen ever since. Also, being the first chilli sauce I really took a liking to, I do slightly regard this as the benchmark by which other sauces should be judged - Darth Naga at the ChileFoundry is a little less impressed. Also, this is definitely an "old fashioned" chilli sauce that was presumably intended to be a replacement for C. chinenese for those who couldn't get a hold of it, rather than a sauce in it's own right. So in many ways, it's kind of fighting different battles to "modern" hot pepper sauce, like comparing cooking chocolate to Dairy Milk. So with that in mind, here's my thoughts.

Tasting Notes: The sauce is bright orange, and has a strong rich smell that's dominated by the chillies, although there's a strong acid bite to it. The spices are definitely there, it's salty and a bit sharp, but they really compliment the Scotch bonnet's characteristic flavour rather than adding to it. To some extent that's all there is to this sauce: chillies with preservatives like salt and vinegar, so it probably loses on complexity. It has plenty of texture to it, with lots of chilli mash in there - although this is a downside if you buy the squeezy bottle, as it frequently jams the rubber nozzle - there's a knack to getting the amount you want, but be careful when you first use it, or you could end up with your food drenched in it. And you do want to be careful, because it's hot; but unlike other sauces in this heat range, it doesn't compromise on flavour - the rich flavour of the chillies is foremost.

What it's Good For: Would it be trite to say "everything"? Seriously, this is a staple in my kitchen for a reason: it's incredibly versatile. It works well as a table sauce, and can stand up to strong flavours - I find it's great with ketchup on bacon sandwiches. It's also hot enough to use in cooking without getting lost, and gives that lovely habanero flavour to sauces. I've been known to mix it with sour cream to tone down the heat, just to get that lovely chilli taste - and you know you've found a good sauce when you can take the heat out and it's still nice. That said, it has a bit of an acid bite that make it a little unpalatable on it's own, so I do tend to have it in combination with other stuff, unlike more inventive sauces that could stand better on their own.

Final Thoughts: Hot, tasty, versatile, readily available. If you haven't tried it, give it a shot - you might just find you keep a bottle in your kitchen cupboard too. On the downside, though, it really is a bit of a one trick pony: there's not a great deal of artifice here except letting the peppers shine. If this was the only bottle in your kitchen cupboard, it'd be a pretty boring collection, so be prepared to mix it with other stuff to get the best out of it. Still, it is a damn good trick.

The Verdict: My essential chilli sauce.

As mentioned, Encona do have a broad range of other sauces, but on the whole I've found them disappointing and unmemorable compared to the "original". At some point I might get round to doing the others, but don't hold your breath.

Dilita Afrikana Peri-Peri Hot Sauce

Visiting Tesco's recently, I came across a brand of peri-peri sauce that I hadn't spotted before, and immediately made a grab for it to see what it was like. I'm fond of african-style chilli sauces (thanks mainly to Nando's, a UK chain of afro-portuguese restaurants built around a their peri-peri sauces, but also the delicious Mama Africa's sauces and a few others), so this newcomer had a lot to live up to.



While not a brand name I've particularily heard of before, Birmingham-based Dilita have apparently been around for a while. Reading between the lines of their website, they appear to be an Indian food manufacturer who are diversifying their sauces.

Tasting Notes: So is it any good? Well, right off the bat this sauce hits you, not with the dark heat of chilli, but with a raw kick of citrus. Now this is no bad thing in itself - lemon is a key ingredient in peri peri sauces, and I wouldn't take it away for the world - but in this sauce it comes off as smelling slightly acrid and artificial. Tasting it reveals another disappointment; instead of the fruity bite of fresh lemon, we get a bitter taste, as if it used only the rind. While all the peri-peri flavours are there (although biased heavily towards lemon) it's unbalanced, slightly unappetising, and overall, bitter. The texture is mostly smooth, but very oily - it splits really easily, so give it a shake before using - but it has the odd bit of chilli mash and seed for texture. The skin is a little annoying - it doesn't seem to have much flesh attached to it and just sticks to your throat; it'd probably be slightly nicer if it was properly homogenised. For heat it's passable, although it's probably mid-range for this type of sauce - the hot end of both Mama Africa's and Zulu zulu - heck, even Nando's - would kick the crap out of this one, and taste a damn sight better to boot.

What it's Good For: Difficult to say. Usually peri-peri sauce is great on grilled cheese, or as a thick condiment, but the acrid flavour is a little offputting. I find myself adding it to sauces to try and hide the failings of it's flavour. It's passable as long as it's playing into the flavour of the dish, but really, if you can taste more than a hint of it, it's too much. And what's the point in that?

Final Thoughts: Really, what this reminds me of is lime pickle, with the citrus turned up to eleven, and the spices adjusted to make it a bit more african-y. Which is odd, because I like lime pickle - bitter and sharp and oily - but this sauce manages not to be nice like lime pickle or nice like peri-peri. And it is definitely possible to do indian fusion (I promise, I'll review some of the lovely sauces from Mr Vikki's at some point) - but this is not it.

The Verdict: Give it a miss, really. There are better sauces out there.

Still, worth dismissing Dilita altogether? Not so fast. I've found at least one positive mention of their sauces on the magical intarwebs - a Green Habanero Sauce - perhaps they'll fare better when they're not trying to ram as much lemon peel into their sauce in an attempt to make it "african"? Well, we'll see - while I don't think I'll be trying any of their range with "peri peri" in the title (of which there are four), if I spot the others I'll probably give them a try.

The Starter

Welcome to the inaugural post of the chilli review blog. Welcome one and... well, one. There's only me here. I'm under no illusions of immediate internet celebrity, and I'm already wincing slightly at the narcissism of making some kind of inaugural address to my own blog.

It's here for one reason only - posterity. If I'm lucky, and things keep going, in a few months I might even get a visitor, a visitor who may be thinking "what the f*** is this all about?"

So here's the plan. I'm going to review chilli sauces. I may review other chilli related stuff - restaurants, books, plants, other chilli produce - but for the most part, at least to begin with, we'll be sticking with chilli sauces. I'll try to mix up the more exotic brands with some more household names, but basically these are my own tasting notes.

I'm based in the UK, so some products may not be available everywhere. It's also possible (although I'm not sure how likely) that some products may be made under license in this country, so your mileage may vary if you're somewhere else.