Gindo’s – Ghost of Christmas Present
The second bottle from the 2024 Gindo’s Ghost of Christmas trio, Ghost of Christmas Present is described by the company as “a love letter to the bold flavors of today’s hot sauces”. Featuring a range of red heirloom and super hot varietals of peppers (as opposed to the peach and yellow varieties featured in the Ghost of Christmas Past sauce) as well as a bevy of savory, trendy, and umami rich ingredients Ghost of Christmas Present has a bold and unique flavor profile.
A look at the peppers in this sauce which includes scorpion peppers, Carolina reaper peppers, ghost peppers, fatalli peppers, habanero peppers, and more indicates that this sauce will pack a pretty hefty heat punch, and it does. There’s a nice pepper aroma and a medium-thick chunky consistency. I love that this sauce doesn’t try to hide from the peppers. In addition to the peppers the ingredients list of Ghost of Christmas Present is a who’s who of the trendy ingredients in the hot sauce world including black truffles (both in truffle salt form and real actual black truffles), Sichuan peppercorns, fermented soybean paste, hops, fennel, olives and more.
The ripe red chiles and the bevy of salty and fermented ingredients give Ghost of Christmas Present a salty and savory initial flavor. This is noticeably the saltiest of the three sauces, bordering on what I’d even consider to be too salty for my taste but not quite stepping over that line. That saline quality likely comes from some of the natural salty ingredients as opposed to just added extra salt at the end – the olives, fermented soybean paste, and truffle salt all add big punches of flavor but are all salt bombs on their own. There’s a nice punch of heat, a burn that comes on quickly and builds, but also a beautiful depth of flavor that opens up underneath of it. The earthy funky flavor of the truffles is just present enough to play a supporting role without overpowering the sauce. The olives add a briny quality, a little bit of freshness and bitterness from the hobs and cilantro, a hint of smoke from the chipotle, a citrusy tingle from the Sichuan peppercorns, a savory salty umami hit from the fermented soybean paste, and just an itsy bit of sweetness from the fennel and honey all combine for an extremely deep and complex flavor. I put off writing this review for several days because every time I tasted this sauce I kept discovering something new.
Though the flavor is quite complex in this sauce I did find it paired well with a variety of foods. The saltiness and depth of flavor adds complexity to milder proteins like chicken and pork, but also holds up well to beef and lamb. It’s very nice on pizza, though the salt can be a bit much in that application, and makes a good sauce for dipping fried dumplings.
As I mentioned in the previous review from a sauce of this lineup it’s impossible to buy the sauces separately so a recommendation for any is a recommendation for them all. Even if they were available individually I would still give this sauce my seal of approval however. The one thing I don’t love about it is that it’s a bit saltier than I prefer, but the great depth of flavor and heat keep me coming back to it regardless.
Ingredients: Red Bell Pepper, Distilled Vinegar, Water, Red Jalapeno, Habanero Pepper, Ghost Pepper, Reaper Pepper, Trinidad Scorpion Pepper, Fatali Pepper, Chipotle Pepper, Tomato, Honey, Garlic, Cabernet, Sea Salt, Truffle Salt, Organic Cane Sugar, Black Garlic, Black Truffle, Kalamata Olive, White Truffle Oil, Soy Bean Paste(rice malt, soy sauce), Xanthan Gum, Ground Peppercorn, Onion Flakes, White Pepper, Bolete Mushroom, Paprika, Shallot, Szechuan Peppercorn, Fennel, Coriander, Hops, Green Onion, Chives
Heat Level: 5/10. Very nice heat with a sustained burn.
