Butterfly Bakery of Vermont – Maple Strawberry Rhubarb Hot Sauce

Bitter: ✰✰✰✰✰

Salty: ⭐✰✰✰✰

Sour: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✰

Sweet: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✰

Umami: ⭐✰✰✰✰

Heat: ⭐✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰

Quick Flavor Notes: Strawberry, sweet, tart, sour

Texture: Medium-thin with some nice chunks

Recommended: Yes

Ingredients: 4 Corners Farm strawberries, organic white vinegar, Honey Field Farm red serrano, pure organic Vermont maple syrup, water, Vermont grown rhubarb, salt.

Rhubarb is an underappreciated vegetable (and also the subject of one of the more entertaining viral videos I’ve seen). Combining tartness and sweetness with a subtle vegetal flavor it’s often combined with strawberries in pies, which seems to be the inspiration for this micro-batch hot sauce from Butterfly Bakery of Vermont.

I can’t recall if I’ve had a hot sauce with strawberries in it before, and I’m positive this is the first I’ve had with rhubarb. Since both strawberries and rhubarb have tart characteristics this sauce includes Vermont maple syrup to add sweetness as well as red serranos for the heat. In keeping with most of Butterfly Bakery of Vermont’s sauces the ingredients list is concise to let the quality of the natural ingredients shine. The strawberries comes through in the aroma with some of the vinegar and a hint of the rhubarb. In terms of texture this sauce is medium-thin but with some nice fruit and pepper chunks inside, and slightly syrupy consistency from the maple syrup.

The strawberries are at the forefront of the flavor of Butterfly Bakery of Vermont’s Maple Strawberry Rhubarb Hot Sauce as well. The fresh and fruity flavor blends well with the fruity flavor of the red serranos, though this isn’t a pepper-forward sauce. There’s plenty of tartness and sourness from the strawberries, vinegar, and rhubarb and a healthy dose of sweetness coming from the fruit and the maple syrup. The slight vegetal flavor of the serranos and rhubarb combined with the tart and sour notes keep this sauce in balance however so while it’s sweet it never comes off as cloying. In some ways the sweet, savory, tart balance of this sauce reminded me of the Mexican fruit salad with tajin and chamoy that a man comes around selling in my office.

Since this sauce straddles the line between sweet and savory I decided to try it out with both sweet and savory foods. The bottle recommends it as a dip for egg rolls and since I had some leftover ones from an overly-ambitious Chinese food order I air-fried them to heat them back up and found that this sauce does work well, and I liked it even more than duck sauce (though I did alternate dips with the hot Chinese mustard, I love that stuff). Going sweet I tried this as a topping for vanilla ice cream and it’s a success there as well, the tart flavors from the sauce really playing well against the sweet on the ice cream. Maple Strawberry Rhubarb Hot Sauce has enough acidity that it’s also a great sauce for sandwiches to brighten them up and I also enjoyed it on some extra tomato and onion slices that I had leftover from grilling burgers on Memorial Day, it playing almost like a sweet vinaigrette.

I’m happy to recommend Butterfly Bakery of Vermont Maple Strawberry Rhubarb Hot Sauce. I swear that when I opened this bottle it was still available on their website but it seems that it’s sold out now, though hopefully this one comes back. They do have another strawberry and another rhubarb hot sauce available as micro batches right now however. This sauce is all natural with no artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, or thickeners.