The Spicy Shark – Original Habanero
This isn’t the first sauce I’ve tried from The Spicy Shark, but he first that I’ve opened new since I’ve been able to work on taking better photographs, so I will have to revisit some of the previous flavors when I have the opportunity.
Born in New England according to the bottle, The Spicy Shark sauces are what I to call “kitchen sink” types of sauces. Some sauce makers focus on very small numbers of ingredients – sometimes just peppers, vinegar, and salt and let the natural flavors of the peppers shine, others add some flavor enhancers with a few herbs or vegetables, and yet others, like The Spicy Shark, have incredibly long and diverse lists of ingredients that take their sauces into interesting new flavor dimensions that you wouldn’t expect from just seeing the name of the pepper on the front of the bottle.
In this case with The Original Habanero (which according to the bottle blurb was the first sauce the company developed) that direction is extremely fruity and at least tropical-adjacent. Since habanero peppers do have some bright and fruity flavor notes already, and since pairing them with mango and/or pineapple is also an extremely common sauce style, this isn’t new territory, but the first taste of this sauce did make my brain do a little double-take as it wasn’t the salty pepper-forward type of sauce the color would have indicated, but instead sweet and filled with a flavor-bomb of fruit.
The ingredients list contains ‘orange oil’ somewhat far down the list, but that little bit of orange oil dominates the flavor of the sauce to me, this is very orange-forward. After that the banana, apple, and fennel all start pushing their way forward as well as the flavor of the actual habanero pepper merging and blending with the mélange of fruit.
While the sauce is sweet, it doesn’t quite trend into dessert-sauce territory for me. There’s enough citrus and brightness in the flavor that it’s refreshing. This would work very well as a breakfast hot sauce – combining it with some breakfast sausage would be a natural an perfect combination, and it also goes well with pork and Latin/Caribbean dishes. This could also be a great addition to give citrusy based cocktails like screwdrivers or margaritas a little spicy edge.
If you like fruity sauces this is a great one to give a go. It’s more complex than your typical habanero mango or habanero pineapple sauce, but if you’re familiar with those that will give you a general idea of what you’re getting into here.
Ingredients: Bell Pepper, Carrot, Onion, Apple, Vinegar, Habanero Pepper, Lemon Juice, Banana, Water, Garlic, Fennel, Ginger, Salt, Sunflower Oil, Fruit Pectin, Sugar, Orange Oil, Organic Fruit & Vegetable Juice for Color
Heat Level: 3/10. This has some warmth from the habaneros, but there are enough other things going on in the mix that the overall heat level is diluted from what the pure peppers would be. Easily accessible.
