Gindo’s – Spicy Cranberry Hot Sauce

While I generally don’t go for fruit-forward hot sauces, I do enjoy cranberries quite a bit, and they’re not the most common fruit or berry to be found in hot sauces. So far the sauces I’ve tried from Gindo’s have all been excellent, so when Thanksgiving rolled around I decided it was the perfect opportunity to try out this limited release Spicy Cranberry hot sauce.

Cranberries and habaneros are prominent in both the aroma and the flavor. The texture is mostly smooth, but it does have some nice little bits of pepper and cranberry inside. Spicy Cranberry flows easily while still having enough body to it that it won’t run off of your food. The fruity tartness of the cranberries pairs well with the fruity vegetal nature of the habaneros included, and a base of red bell peppers adds some additional vegetal sweetness to the mix. You can taste the earthy and slightly smoky hint of the ghost peppers at the very back of the flavor profile and they also bring a nice bit of additional heat.

This does give the impression of a traditional cranberry sauce when applied to food, just one spiked with peppers. There’s a pleasant sweetness to the sauce but the heat from the habaneros and ghosts plus the salt blend and vinegars do a good job or balancing that sweetness so that the sauce doesn’t become cloying. Speaking of the salt blend, Gindo’s uses a variety of different salts in almost all of their sauces. Himalayan Pink Salt, mined in the Punjab region, has a high natural mineral content which gives it a unique flavor. Alaea Salt from Hawaii is a natural sea salt mined with volcanic clay. Black Lava Salt can come from Hawaii, Cyprus, or Iceland and is natural sea salt mixed with natural activated charcoal. The combination of these three flavorful salts gives Gindo’s sauces a “house flavor” that seems to tie together all of the sauces I’ve tried from them even if the individual sauces have otherwise quite different flavor profiles.

I first tried this sauce with Thanksgiving dinner where it was a perfect pairing with the turkey, ham, stuffing, corn, green bean casserole, and really everything else at the table. I’d worried that it might not work well outside of that setting but I’ve been impressed with its versatility. It’s great with grilled steak and salmon, worked beautifully with some fried cod, and gave a nice kick to leftover turkey sandwiches. The latter should probably have not been surprising for me as one of my favorite Publix subs is their holiday special of turkey, orange cranberry relish, gouda, and bacon.

If you’re a cranberry lover like I am I can definitely recommend this sauce. If you like sweet heat this is a winner. It’s al limited time release so if you’d like a bottle now is a great time to pick one up.

Ingredients: Red Bell Peppers, Distilled Vinegar, Water, Cranberries, Habanero Peppers, Himalayan Salt, Orange Cane Sugar, Alaea Salt, Brown Sugar, Black Lava Salt, Ghost Peppers, Four Peppercorn Blend, Xanthan Gum

Heat Level: 3/10. The habaneros may be a bit down he ingredients list but when paired with the ghost peppers they do make their presence known.