Butterfly Bakery of Vermont – Rum Barrel Fermented Smoked Jalapeno Hot Sauce

I’ve tried a lot of different hot sauces. Most of them I have enjoyed, and some have stood out as being great. An even smaller number have reached that level of near perfection where I crave them and keep bottles of them on hand, unable to resist the urge to pop one open on occasion even when I have new untested bottles of sauce to try.

Butterfly Bakery of Vermont’s Rum Barrel Fermented Smoked Jalapeno Hot Sauce (which is a mouthful, they’ve even taken to just calling it Maple Wood Smoked Rumcask Hot Sauce on their website) is one of those sauces, and if I were forced to pick, I’d say it’s my absolute favorite hot sauce that I’ve tasted thus far.

This sauce is an beautiful example of what time, patience, quality ingredients, and restraint can lead to. Featuring only four ingredients – smoked fermented red jalapenos, vinegar, unsmoked unfermented red jalapenos, and salt. It’s what’s done with those ingredients that makes this sauce special. By taking some of those ripe red jalapenos and smoking them over maple wood before fermenting and aging them in rum barrels the sauce develops a wonderfully full flavor and a deep level of complexity.

I’m not a fan of overly smoky sauces. I feel this one strikes the perfect balance. By smoking some of the peppers the amount of smoke in the final sauce is perfectly balanced against the other flavors. It adds fullness and richness without ever being overpowering. Similarly by fermenting some of the jalapenos the sauce develops some rich and complex notes that can only come from that fermentation process, plus of course a little bit of that desired funk. The ex-rum barrels used also play their part, giving the sauce just the tiniest hint of Caribbean sweetness and a bigger hit of wood, the type you might taste in a bourbon or a Scotch. The fresh peppers also play a big role here – adding their juicy red jalapeno sweetness and their freshness to the party.

The overall result is that this sauce is supremely easy on the tongue – it tastes full, rich, and smooth with just that little hint of smoke, but that also opens up and expands into a bigger world of flavors when you savor. The Rum Barrel Fermented Smoked Jalapeno Hot Sauce is like a fine whisky, or, I suppose, a fine rum. Smooth and easy to enjoy, but with a world of more subtle complexity below that easy-going surface.

Because of the simple ingredients this sauce is extremely flexible in terms of pairing. It’s especially great with pork, where that slight smoke and hint of sweetness put it in the lane of a BBQ while being better than any actual BBQ sauce. Mixed with some chicken salad on a sandwich, slathered on a shrimp empanada, or poured over tostones there’s no place where this sauce doesn’t shine. With a low-medium heat level it’s also a great enhancer of flavor without delivering heat that will make any item difficult to eat.

Of course being a Butterfly Bakery of Vermont product this sauce is all natural with no artificial preservatives, colors, flavorings, or thickeners.

I give this sauce my highest recommendation. It’s phenomenally delicious and can be enjoyed equally by the hot sauce newbie as well as by those who’ve been around and tried everything under the sun. I’d especially recommend this sauce to those who may have only tried the basic sauces they can find at the local grocery store thus far and who are wondering why anyone would spend $10 or even $15 in this case on a bottle when so many can be had for $2-$5. This is a sauce that will make you a believer in quality ingredients and quality processes and how big of a difference it makes in the final product. My only real issue with this sauce is that once I open a bottle it’s gone within just two to three days.

Ingredients: Maple wood smoked Familia Farm red jalapenos fermented in a St. Johnsbury Distillery rum barrel, organic white vinegar, Familia Farm red jalapenos, salt.

Heat Level: 2/10. This is a rich and flavorful sauce but just a little bit hotter than your basic Louisiana style sauce. Enough heat so that you notice it’s a hot sauce, but not so much that it will pose a challenge to anyone.