La Anita – Kut – Ik Salsa con Chile Habanero Tatemado

This is yet another sauce that I brought back from a trip to Mexico last year (and with many more to go it’s no wonder my return bag was quite overweight). I’ve previously reviewed their Habanero Xtra Picante and didn’t walk away very impressed with it, finding that it had an overwhelming chemical flavor. This particular sauce is from their more premium line however and features charred/roasted habaneros which is always something that makes for a tasty sauce in my experience.

With a nice medium-thick consistency with some nice chunks and a dark ruddy brown color this is an attractive sauce. The aroma has plenty of habanero and a hint of smoke. Tatemado is a technique in Mexican cooking which means to roast to the point of allowing some char. Sometimes this is done on a hot comal, which is like a griddle, or sometimes over open flame. The result is bit of smokiness and more complex flavors in the finished product but without the amount of smoke you’d get from actually smoking the peppers.

There are similar flavor notes to the popular El Yucateco XXXHot, another sauce that takes advantage of charred habaneros. I found that La Anita Kut-Ik had a deeper more earthy flavor however, possibly due to the addition of the carrots, and a higher heat level. As compared to their regular line of hot sauces this sauce also tastes much fresher, more natural, and of high quality peppers. The charred slightly smoky habanero flavor is at the forefront, a little bit fruity, a little bit smoky, and a good amount of heat. The carrots add a bit of sweetness, the garlic and onion give a great savory backbone, and the citrus elements add the bright notes to give this sauce a balanced wave of flavor.

With this being a Mexican style sauce pairing with Mexican food made the most sense, and this does go great with anything from that cuisine. It’s also great on sandwiches and basically anything else I tried it with. Unlike some Mexican sauces this doesn’t have a strong cumin element so it’s flexible across a range of flavor profiles.

This sauce doesn’t seem to have official distribution in the USA (though oddly it does seem to have it in Canada) but I’m happy to recommend this if you can find a bottle. It’s far better than the basic La Anita habanero sauces I’ve tried, and I’d even say a step up from the El Yucateco XXX Hot which is one of my favorite sauces of that style. Like most Mexican sauces it is loaded with artificial preservatives and some suspect ingredients, but at least in the case of this sauce it still manages to taste completely natural.

Ingredients: Water, Habanero Pepper, Carrot Pulp, Salt, Acetic Acid, Garlic, Onion, Xanthan Gum, Citric Acid, Ascorbic Acid, Citrus Bioflavonoids, Organic Acid, Sodium Erythorbate, Potassium Sorbate, Sodium Benzoate, Natural Flavors

Heat Level: 4/10. This has a little bit of a bunch and is a solid medium-heat level for a chile head.