Haico’s Hot Sauce – Are You Wing-sperienced

Canadian brand Haico’s is one that I would have likely never heard of were it not for a post about them on Reddit’s hot sauce forum. Not only was I exposed to this unknown-to-me line of sauces, but everyone who replied had nothing but rave reviews for the company’s products. I knew I had to give them a try, so I placed an order large enough to get free shipping (and the relative exchange rate with the Canadian dollar helped out a bit too) and eagerly awaited my sauces.

When they arrived there was an extra surprise – this sauce laying on top of the others in the box along with a little note that it has been included gratis. Thank you to the Haico’s team for the gift, I greatly appreciate getting to try something new.

I don’t normally buy things labeled as ‘wing sauces’ because more often than not they’re just plain cayenne based sauces mixed with oils, emulsifiers, and artificial butter flavorings. Plus, it’s not difficult to mix some hot sauce and real butter together if I want to do a traditional wing sauce.

This isn’t like any of those pre-bottled wing sauces you see at the grocery store however. In fact, not only is there no oil, butter, or any other analog in this, the ingredients are all-natural and very pepper forward. I always appreciate a sauce that doesn’t use any artificial preservatives, gums, thickeners, or other mystery ingredients. Not some wimpy cayenne sauce, this leads with ghost peppers, and follows up with red jalapenos as the first two ingredients.

Ghosts are red jalapenos are a great pairing IMO because they’re very complimentary peppers – the ghosts bring their characteristic smoky burn with some floral notes and the ripe red jalapenos bring some natural sweetness and a fullness of flavor that rounds out the heat. Aside from the peppers some aromatics and spices round out the flavor profile, and the use of lime juice ahead of vinegar helps mellow the tang and give this sauces a rich and complex flavor profile.

Being a labeled a wing sauce I had to try it on wings first, and it worked very well. I tried both straight and mixed with a little butter, and the butter does add more richness plus helps cut the heat for those who don’t want to eat a straight ghost sauce. With the darker and slightly smoky flavor profile this also works well in chili, on pizza, on hot dogs, and anywhere else you might use a hot sauce. It’s full-flavored but with peppers leading the charge it’s also extremely versatile.

I look forward to sampling the other offerings I have in my box from Haico’s, but in the meantime I can heartily recommend this sauce.

Ingredients: Ghost Peppers, Red Jalapenos, Onion, Fresh Squeezed Lime Juice, Vinegar, Water, Garlic, Cane Sugar, Fresh Herbs and Spices (Oregano, Hungarian Paprika, Ground Cumin, Kosher Salt)

Heat Level: 5/10. There’s a solid punch from this one, as would be expected from a ghost pepper sauce, but the other ingredients to help tame the burn.