Bell’s Peppers – Alliumphobia Mild Garlic Hot Sauce

Sometimes I’ll see a sauce label that immediately grabs my attention and makes me interested in purchasing one or more sauces from that company. That was the case with Alliumphobia. I saw a post regarding in on Reddit and the cute little vampire running away from the garlic bulb grabbed my attention. When I looked into Bells’ Peppers I discovered that not only were they a small-batch craft hot sauce company, they were based within driving distance of my house (and in fact I believe they just had someone from their company deliver the box to my door instead of mailing it after I’d placed the order).

I’d previously tried the brand’s Ghost #7, their take on a flavorful hot-but-not-too-hot ghost pepper sauce, and I enjoyed it. I decided to slide down to the bottom of their heat scale for the next bottle I opened going with the sauce whose bottle art caught my attention in the first place. Alliumphobia, or “fear of garlic” (though I suppose it could also include onions, leeks, chives, and other alliums) is a mild garlic sauce with a tangy and slightly sweet flavor profile.

Bells’ Peppers doesn’t disclose the peppers used (which is a pet peeve of mine) just stating it’s a “special blend” but whichever ones are used they don’t have much of any heat, this is one of the mildest sauces I’ve ever tried, coming in even below the level of Frank’s and Crystal. I’d actually rate the heat about on par with Butterfly Bakery of Vermont’s Trinidad Perfume sauce which uses a pepper specially bred to have low to very little heat. Lack of heat doesn’t mean lack of flavor, however.

The garlic dominates the palate up front, but it’s prepared in a more mellow way in this sauce so there’s no harshness from it, just a full garlic flavor with some sweetness. The onions come in next and, combined with the sugar and the red wine vinegar, add a sweet onion flavor profile. There’s the teensiest tiniest bit of pepper heat and flavor, but this sauce is almost all about garlic and onion and everything else takes a back seat. The blend of acids is also interesting as this uses a combination of lemon juice, white vinegar, and red wine vinegar. Lemon juice and white vinegar can both have a harsh quality, but that’s not present in this sauce. Perhaps the red wine vinegar helps mellow them out, or perhaps the low heat just doesn’t reinforce any of the harsh qualities, but while this sauce is undeniably tangy – you can taste there’s vinegar and acid in there – it’s also very smooth and without harshness.

I first tried this sauce with some eggs and potatoes and then later with some Ropa Vieja. In both instances I found it worked to a point – tangy and garlicky can meld with a lot of flavors, but the sweetness of the sauce did come across as a bit off-putting in those applications for me. The bottle mentions use of the sauce as a marinade so I poured about half of a bottle in with a skirt steak and let that marinate for several hours before cooking it hot and fast on my charcoal grill. For that application I found this sauce amazing – the garlic and onion flavors still came through strongly even in the cooked meat but the sweetness had disappeared, perhaps helping create some caramelization on the surface of the meat on the grill.

I can absolutely recommend this sauce as a marinade. It may be the most flavorful marinade I’ve used, and I look forward to trying it with some pork country style ribs on the grill next. As a hot sauce I didn’t find it matched as well to my tastes, though if you prefer sauces with some sweetness and low heat it would be just the thing you’re looking for. The sauce is available at https://www.bellspeppers.com/.

Ingredients: Water, Garlic, Lemon Juice, White Vinegar, Fresh Hot Peppers (special blend), Red Wine Vinegar, Onion, Sugar, Salt, Pepper, Xanthan Gum

Heat Level: 1/10 – This sauce is super mild, milder than even your basic Louisiana style sauces.