TORTUGA CARIBBEAN HELL-FIRE SAUCE - SAUCE REVIEW

This past summer my good friends BRAMANDA went on a work related cruise. AJ has the best job ever. Anyways, they were super awesome and brought me back some hot sauce from their Caribbean adventure.


The name "Hell-Fire" sauce excited me, but so many hot sauces out there have grandiose names, but can't deliver. I could see all sorts of scotch bonnet pepper seeds floating around, and that's a pretty hot pepper. Nature has this way of telling you how hot a pepper is by its size. Bell peppers are giant and have no heat. Scotch bonnets are small little buggers.

I had grilled up some wings (read about my adventure in the rain HERE) and while they were seasoned, they needed some sauce.

2008 SAUCE SCORE v1.0: Tortuga Caribbean Hell-Fire Sauce

BOTTLE INFO
TYPE:	Hot pepper sauce
PRICE & BOTTLE SIZE:	$ = ??? (dunno, it was a gift) 142ml (5 fl oz)
OTHER SAUCES:	Jerk Sauce Gourmet Steak Sauce Sweet Heat Caribbean Pepper Sauce Mango and Ginger Stir Fry Sauce
INGREDIENTS:	Water, scotch bonnet peppers, vinegar, modified food starch, salt, approved spices, 0.1% sodium benzoate, (preservative).
CLAIMS/SLOGANS:	Tortuga Caribbean Spicy "Hot as Hell" Sauce adds a unique enhancement to any meal or snack! Try it as a relish on Hot Dogs, Hamburgers, Sandwiches, Patties or Crackers.
WEBSITE:	Tortugarumcakes.com
THE SENSES
APPEARANCE /TEXTURE:	-Watery -orange -visible heat seeds
SMELL:	-sweet vinegary smell -instant nostril flare
FLAVOUR:	-sweet, almost fruity
THE PAIN
HEAT:	burn, a nice zap	2/3
BURN CHRONOLOGY:	Beginning Burn – POW! to start Middle Burn – dies down quick After Burn – tingle stays for a minute or two I could smell the heat to begin with. After tasting it attacked the tongue. It dies down after the initial volley, but the sting remains on the exposed lips and tip of the tongue.	X X X
TASTE:	Good – this would be great to kick up a salsa, but I don’t know if I would eat it as a sauce on its own	2/3
FINAL SCORE		4/6
OTHER:	Might be hard to find in Canada/North America

I poured just a little first to get the flavour. A little heat, vinegary smell. I poured more on, took a bite and BAM! the heat kicked in. Big bold bite to begin with, then it cools down. But my lips and tongue were still tingling. I was half trying to conserve the small bottle and half trying to douce my wings. And I had to cover my leftover wings the next day for sure in the sauce.

FINAL SCORE: The sauce is zingy, but not a rich flavour. But it does have a good kick. Mixing it in with a weak sauce would definetly kick things up a notch. 4/6

Tortuga Caribbean Hell-Fire Sauce
Tortugarumcakes.com

PS: THANKS FOR THE SAUCE!!!!