La Anita – Habanero Xtra Picante

This is another sauce that I brought back from Mexico on a trip that I took earlier in the year. La Anita seemed to be fairly common in Mexico, however it’s not a brand I had recalled seeing in the USA – although I have since discovered they do have some limited distribution inside of the US. The brand itself is over 100 years old and was founded in Merida, Mexico in the Yucatan Peninsula, the same birthplace as the popular and widely available El Yucateco line of Mexican hot sauces.

La Anita has a range of habanero sauces, including a more premium “Mayan” line, as well as a number of different marinades and seasonings. This one is the spiciest option from their standard Habanero line. The color and texture are similar to the El Yucateco XXX Hot Mayan Recipe, my personal favorite from their line, but despite both being habanero-based sauces the similarities end there. This sauce doesn’t use charred habaneros as El Yucateco XXX Hot does, and despite it appearing to have a more natural color the La Anita sauce is also loaded with artificial colors and considerably more preservatives compared to El Yucateco XXX Hot.

The amount of artificial ingredients in this sauce change the aroma and the taste. There is a chemical tinge when you sniff the open bottle, and tasting a dollop of the sauce on a spoon also carried that chemical flavor. In addition there’s a strong tartness to this sauce, and the habanero flavor doesn’t seem as realistic or natural as I’ve had in other sauces. There is a certain brightness to the flavor of this sauce, though it lacks the depth of flavor and the complexity derived from roasting/charring the peppers that El Yucateco XXX Hot delivers.

The artificial flavors and aroma were thankfully much less pronounced when added to food, and I did try this sauce on some fajita tacos where it did an acceptable job, but I realized as I ate them I’d much rather use other sauces.

Needless to say, this is not one that I can recommend. The ingredients list is loaded with far too many artificial additions and they effect the aroma and the flavor. Anything this sauce does El Yucateco XXX Hot does much better.

Ingredients (translated): Water, Habanero Pepper, Iodized Salt, Acetic Acid, Spices, Artificial Flavor, Xanthan Gum, Modified Corn Starch, Sodium Benzoate and Potassium Sorbate as preservatives, Calcium Disodium EDTA, FD&C Red No. 40, FD&C Yellow No. 5, FD&C Blue No. 1, Caramel Color Class IV.

Heat Level: 3/10. There’s some habanero bite, but the unpleasant flavor prevails over the heat