Tabasco – Roasted Pepper Sauce

Tabasco is obviously the biggest dog in the hot sauce world. With a history dating back over 150 years and bottles available at nearly every restaurant in North America and beyond (plus famously included in US Military MREs and even having made the trip to space as part of astronaut meals) the brand’s original hot sauce is one of the first, if not the very first, that the majority of aspiring spicy food enthusiasts will taste.

Aside from that original hot sauce the brand has expanded over the years to include a variety of other blends. Some have been around for quite a while such as their green jalapeno sauce and sweet chipotle sauce, some are newer such as their delicious and rather spicy scorpion sauce as well as the subject of this review – their Roasted Pepper Sauce.

Described on their site as using peppers roasted over an open fire for a hint of smoke, this sounded like something I’d like to try, as while I don’t care for overly sweet Chipotle based sauces, charred pepper sauces such as El Yucateco’s excellent XXX Hot Mayan Recipe sauce are right up my alley. Their website also says this is blended with fresh garlic, onions, balsamic vinegar and basil, which sounds delicious, and gave me the idea this would have a somewhat Italian flavor profile.

Coincidentally I opened this bottle up on the same day that I did Casa Firelli’s Italian Hot Sauce and there are obvious parallels in flavor between the two sauces. The use of balsamic vinegar in each is the biggest tie together, but both also include garlic, and I do get a somewhat Italian herb flavor from Casa Firelli as well.

The two aren’t identical however. This sauce is sweeter than Casa Firelli, which makes sense as sugar is the second ingredient listed after Balsamic Vinegar, which is one of the sweeter vinegars as it is, and the texture of this sauce is quite different. While the website promises fresh garlic, onions, and basil, when you read the actual ingredients on the label you realize that instead of using fresh ingredients Tabasco opted to use powdered garlic, onions, and basil, as well as powdered shallots.

I’m not a fan of powders being used in sauces, either pepper powders or powdered spices in any great quantity (obviously some like black pepper, cumin, etc, only come in ground or powdered form). The use of so many powders in this sauce gives it an unpleasantly gritty texture. Purees of fresh garlic, onion, basic, and shallots would have given a silkier mouth feel and possibly helped tilt the balance of this sauce away from teetering over the edge into too sweet for my tastes.

Due to that sweetness I didn’t find this sauce to be as good of a pairing with Italian food as Casa Firelli, but it does make a nice ketchup alternative to dip french fries in. The fate of this bottle for me will likely be using it inside of recipes where the texture won’t come in to play and the sweetness will be offset by other ingredients.

While this particular sauce isn’t to my taste, if you’re a fan of chipotle sauces or sweeter sauces in general this is something that you may quite enjoy.

Ingredients: Balsamic vinegar, water, sugar, salt, roasted garlic powder, roasted onion powder, roasted red pepper, basil powder, yeast extract, shallot powder, xanthan gum.

Heat Level: 1/10. This is an extremely mild sauce, possibly milder even than Frank’s or Crystal.