Tabasco – Buffalo Style Sauce

Bitter: ⭐✰✰✰✰

Salty: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✰

Sour: ⭐⭐⭐✰✰

Sweet: ⭐✰✰✰✰

Umami: ⭐✰✰✰✰

Heat: ⭐✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰

Quick Flavor Notes: Cayenne, tangy, salty

Texture: Medium and smooth

Recommended: Yes

Ingredients: Red Pepper, Distilled Vinegar, Water, Salt, Garlic

I’ve reviewed and enjoyed a number of Tabasco products including their habanero sauce, family reserve, and as part of my Louisiana style sauce roundup their original pepper sauce. One thing they all had in common was that they featured to some degree or another some of Tabasco’s original tabasco pepper aged pepper mash. It’s one of the things that I’ve found makes Tabasco stand out in the market amongst a sea of competitors – they age their peppers for far longer, on average three years, which results in a more complex and funkier flavor, and of course their use of tabasco peppers where most of their competitors use cayenne.

Tabasco Buffalo Style embraces the cayenne pepper as the primary for this sauce but still includes a bit of their aged tabasco pepper mash plus some red jalapenos to round things out, as well as some garlic. Traditionally sauces found on grocery store shelves labeled as “Buffalo Style” will have some form of either real or artificial butter in the mix so that they’re a ready made solution to just dump on wings. That isn’t the case with Tabasco Buffalo Style, no dairy or fake dairy to be found here, but they did blend this sauce to be quite a bit thicker than most of their sauces so that it will stick to wings (and other food) better. In fact, despite the addition of the tabasco mash and red jalapenos this sauce seems to be a shot straight across the bow of Frank’s Red Hot, which also includes cayenne, vinegar, and garlic. Tabasco Buffalo Style is thicker than Frank’s Red Hot, though still just barely medium in consistency and also very smooth. The aroma is of peppers, vinegar, and garlic.

In taste Tabasco Buffalo Style is very reminiscent of a traditional Louisiana style sauce but with a pronounced garlic flavor. The sauce is both very tangy and very salty, at 150mg/tsp it’s not the saltiest of the style out there, but certainly on the high side and I believe the thicker texture makes the salinity stand out more. Cayenne is the dominant pepper flavor in this sauce but I do pick up some of the traditional Tabasco funk behind that. The red jalapenos aren’t bringing much to the table in terms of flavor that I can find, which is a shame because they’re a pepper I love, and some of their fruity sweetness would be a nice contrast to how salty and tangy this sauce is. Overall this tastes like a thicker Louisiana style sauce with a fresher and more forward pepper flavor than many have, plus some prominent garlic.

Being called a Buffalo Style sauce I had to try it on wings. I tried both straight and with butter as in a traditional buffalo wing recipe and while it works both ways I preferred it undiluted as this sauce is rather mild to begin with. With how tangy this sauce is it’s also excellent on sandwiches and mixed into creamy pasta or macaroni and cheese, though in both of those situations I found myself preferring Tabasco Original to this sauce as the original has slightly more heat and much less salt, plus a more distinct and unique flavor. This sauce works well anywhere a traditional Louisiana style sauce will work, which is to say it is very versatile.

If you’re a fan of Louisiana style sauces then Tabasco Buffalo Style is absolutely worth checking out. I’ll recommend it as I enjoyed it, and though I do prefer the flavor of Tabasco Original, this does have the benefit of a thicker texture which makes it cling to food better which is certainly a benefit in some applications. This sauce is also all natural with no artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, or thickeners.