Bravado Spice Co – Black Garlic Carolina Reaper Hot Sauce

Bitter: ⭐✰✰✰✰

Salty: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✰

Sour: ⭐⭐⭐✰✰

Sweet: ⭐✰✰✰✰

Umami: ⭐⭐⭐✰✰

Heat: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐✰✰✰✰✰

Quick Flavor Notes: Garlic, Fruity, Vegetal, Umami

Texture: Medium-thin with some small spice and pepper bits

Recommended: Yes

Ingredients: Red Serrano Pepper Puree (Red Serrano Peppers, Salt, and Acetic Acid), Distilled Vinegar (diluted with water to 4% acidity), Carolina Reaper Pepper Puree (Carolina Reaper Peppers, Salt, Acetic Acid), Pure Maple Syrup, Roasted Garlic (Garlic and Water), Black Garlic, Black Pepper

Bravado Spice Co, founded in 2012 by MasterChef season 4 contestant James Nelson, has grown from a sauce made to share with friends at a dinner party to a sauce company with a large and varied lineup with both retail and online sales presence nationwide. Their Black Garlic Carolina Reaper Hot Sauce is one that I’ve always heard good things about and seems to be one of their most popular sauces, so I decided it would be the next I’d open up from them.

While Bravado Black Garlic Carolina Reaper Hot Sauce gives black garlic and Carolina reapers top billing on the bottle the dominant peppers by volume in the sauce are actually red serranos. Red serranos are one of my favorite peppers so that’s not a negative for me, though it is a pet peeve of mine when a sauce advertises itself as a particular pepper and that pepper isn’t the main pepper ingredient. Black garlic was originally produced in Asia for purported health benefits but its extra umami punch has led to it gaining popularity in the west. It’s produced by aging garlic in a humid and high temperature environment where it both cures and develops roasted flavors from the Maillard reaction. In addition to the black garlic this sauce contains regular roasted garlic as well as maple syrup and black pepper. The aroma of the sauce reminds me more of a habanero sauce, though the garlic comes through as well, and it has a medium-thin texture with some black pepper and small pepper bits inside.

On the first taste of Black Garlic Carolina Reaper I was struck that it was a very garlicky and savory sauce, but that it also tasted very fresh and had a nice brightness as well. Compared to the same company’s Arbol Chili and Garlic Hot Sauce, which I felt leaned a bit too far into the earthy side of things, this one is much better balanced with more pop and more acidity. The serrano peppers come first in the flavor profile with their vegetal nature almost giving me the flavor of celery in this sauce though none is present. The fruity flavor of the reapers comes in right after with the garlic and black pepper lingering. The combination of big garlic and black pepper flavors reminded me a lot of Gator Hammock’s Gator Sauce, just spicier. This is the first sauce I’ve tried with black garlic so I can’t say if I can pick out the black garlic flavor independently, and it is the second-to-last ingredient on the list so I think the roasted garlic may be overshadowing it, though there is a general sense of umami in the sauce. This is a bit saltier than I’d think it has to be – at 125mg/tsp it’s on the high end for craft hot sauces, or any hot sauce for that matter. There’s not much up front heat but the reapers show their colors with how long the tail of the heat of this sauce is with the burn lasting several minutes after enjoying it.

Since this reminded me of Gator Hammock Gator Sauce I decided to try it out on a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich first as I’ve found Gator Hammock is the best breakfast sauce out there. Black Garlic Carolina Reaper excels just as well, and that lingering reaper heat will get you going in the morning. With how savory this sauce is I thought it would be great on meat as well and I wasn’t disappointed – grilling up a NY strip and some pork chops this goes very well with both beef and pork. Like most sauces this is also great on wings and really helped elevate a Wawa turkey sub. With peppers and garlic being the primary flavor profiles it’s a very versatile sauce.

Bravado Black Garlic Carolina Reaper gets my high recommendation. This is a great sauce with a strong high-medium heat level a vey balanced flavor profile and that’s flexible enough to go on almost anything. This sauce is also all natural with no artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, or thickeners.