Karma Sauce – Bad Karma

I’d heard of Karma Sauce from a variety of online sources before I had my first experience with one of the company’s sauces, their Scorpion Disco that I enjoyed as part of taste-testing and ranking 10 different scorpion pepper based sauces (an informative and fun experience, though one that tested the limits of my spice tolerance). Scorpion Disco ended up being one of my favorite sauces from that experience so I knew that I had to try more from the company.

Gene, the founder of Karma Sauce, a second generation Polish-American and former scientist has a great write-up on their site about the history of the company. Something that really stood out to me is his commitment since the beginning to sourcing locally whenever possible and doing things the right way, even if it’s the harder and more expensive way, and using whole peppers and vegetables in their sauces, the majority from their own farm, instead of using a co-packer that depends on canned products and pre-prepared pepper mashes. Some fun tidbits are that the company was named after their neighbor’s puppy, and that this sauce, Bad Karma was one of the two original sauces the company developed.

Bad Karma is interesting in that it uses two different fall vegetables that are rare to find in hot sauces – butternut squash and sweet potato, which when combined with the ginger in this sauce give it an autumnal flavor. The pureed squash and sweet potato also give Bad Karma a smooth and silky texture that’s just thick enough to easily pour without being runny. The sweet vegetables along with the honey make this sauce lean towards the sweeter side, though it’s the type of sweetness that comes from roasted starchy vegetables as opposed to the tropical fruit sweetness that comes from mango or pineapple in tropical sauces.

The habanero flavor in Bad Karma sits in the background of the flavor profile. You can taste the fruity notes that contrast from the squash and sweet potato, and there’s a hint of that vegetal pepper flavor. The onion and garlic add savory notes that balance against the sweetness and help reinforce the flavor of the habaneros. Perhaps because of the starchy vegetable base this sauce doesn’t come across as very acidic. Though this sauce is marked as “Hot” on the label I found it to be very mild and I doubt this would be a struggle for anyone even with a low spice tolerance. Even with the low heat however this sauce is packed with flavor, and a rather unique one that’s quite fitting for the season given the butternut squash and pumpkin used.

I find more pepper-forward and vinegary sauces to be easier to pair with a variety of foods, and with this sitting in a completely different category it didn’t become a “use it everywhere” type of sauce for me, but I did find some places where it worked very well. Bad Karma was most successful for me as a ketchup substitute. It’s great for dipping fries into and excellent on a burger. I used some to deglaze a pan after cooking some pork chops and make a quick pan sauce, and the sweetness worked very well in that application as well.

I can recommend this sauce, especially if you like sauces on the sweeter side or are looking for some variety from the typical pepper and vinegar sauces yet don’t want something loaded with Mexican spices. This sauce is also all-natural with no artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, or thickeners, something I always appreciate.

Ingredients: bell and habanero peppers, butternut squash, apple cider vinegar, onion, sweet potato, New York honey, garlic, salt, ginger

Heat Level: 2/10. Very little heat, but a nice deep flavor