Lottie’s – Yellow Hot Pepper Sauce

Bitter: ⭐⭐✰✰✰

Salty: ⭐⭐✰✰✰

Sour: ⭐⭐✰✰✰

Sweet: ⭐⭐⭐✰✰

Umami: ⭐✰✰✰✰

Heat: ⭐⭐✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰

Quick Flavor Notes: Mustard, sweet, earthy, vegetal

Texture: Medium-thick with some chunks

Recommended: Yes

Ingredients: Water, Mustard Seed, Vinegar, Onion, Habanero, Sugar, Salt, Spices (including Turmeric)

Bajan style hot sauces, or those made in the style popular in the island of Barbados, have always been a style that I’ve enjoyed. They typically combine mustard, habanero or scotch bonnet peppers, and some aromatics and spices to make a pleasantly hot and savory combination. Lottie’s is a brand that I’ve seen mentioned online here and there and that I’d been meaning to try. As luck would have it while I was repurposing some cardboard boxes I’d had delivered full of hot sauces originally I found this bottle which had slipped underneath the packing peanuts and gone unnoticed originally. The drawback of buying as many hot sauces as I do is that sometimes I forget what I’ve actually bought. Since I rediscovered this one I felt it was time to check it out.

Lottie’s Hot Pepper Sauce comes in two varieties, red and yellow. This yellow version is typical of Bajan style sauces in that it blends habaneros, onion, mustard, and spices, with turmeric being fairly common as noted on this label. The addition of sugar isn’t as common but isn’t unheard of either. The sauce has a medium-thick texture and is perhaps a bit more pureed than my preference for this style, but there are still some pepper and vegetable bits inside. The mustard comes through strongly in the aroma as do some hints of the habaneros.

I enjoy hot sauces that incorporate mustard and in fact the sauce that sent me down the rabbit hole of craft hot sauces, Butterfly Bakery of Vermont’s Vienna Lager Mustard Hot Sauce, includes it. Mustard flavor is very forward in Lottie’s Yellow Hot Pepper Sauce. Perhaps because of how it’s been pureed or because of the seeds used the mustard element in this sauce reminds me a bit of French’s yellow mustard, which when combined with the sweetness of the sugar give it a honey-mustard-esque vibe. The habaneros do bring some heat and some minor fruity and vegetal notes but being pushed down the ingredients list a bit they’re not as prominent as I’d have hoped. The onions and turmeric help swing things back in a positive way be providing an earthy base flavor to the sauce that counterbalances the sweetness. While Lottie’s is a bit sweeter than I’d prefer for this style of sauce the flavors are balanced overall, though the heat level of this sauce is still on the milder side.

I’ve been on a hot dog kick lately (or as the Gen Alpha kids would say, slurping some glizzies) and found the mustard forward nature of this sauce works very well in that application. Lottie’s is also a solid sauce for fried fish but I liked it even more with some grilled salmon, which typically also goes well with mustard. Going along with that theme is is also excellent on a ham sandwich. With as mustard-forward as the sauce is using it anywhere you’d use mustard is a safe bet, and saltier foods like ham and sausages provide a counterbalance to the sweetness in the sauce.

While I don’t love the sweetness from the added sugar in this sauce I will still give Lottie’s Yellow Hot Pepper Sauce my recommendation. This sauce is also all natural with no artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, or thickeners.