Oso Rojo – Umami Bomb Hot Sauce
Bitter: ⭐⭐✰✰✰
Salty: ⭐⭐⭐✰✰
Sour/Tangy: ⭐✰✰✰✰
Sweet: ⭐✰✰✰✰
Umami: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✰
Heat: ⭐✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰
Quick Flavor Notes: Soy sauce, dark, dried fruit, rich
Texture: Medium thick and mostly smooth
Recommended: Conditional
Ingredients: Guajillo, Pasilla, Distilled White Vinegar, Habanero, Apple Cider Vinegar, Water, Organic Gluten Free Tamari (water, organic soybeans, salt, organic alcohol), Onion, Carrot Tomato, Dried Mushrooms, Garlic, Salt, Brown Sugar, Paprika, Spices, Olive Oil
Oso Rojo, which is Spanish for “red bear” but refers to the red panda instead, is a hot sauce brand out of Denver. Founded by chef Cameron Ayers in 2020 after finding demand for his homemade hot sauces he gave out as gifts to friends the company originally started preparing and bottling using the facility owned by fellow Denver brand Horsetooth Hot Sauce. In 2024 Oso Rojo almost went out of business but were able to negotiate the sale and transfer of the company to someone with more distribution and manufacturing experience so that the brand and sauces could live on. I’ve previously enjoyed Oso Rojo’s The Peach Phantom, so was looking forward to trying another from them.
Umami Bomb looks like it takes its name seriously from the ingredients list. Starting with a pair of dried Mexican chiles, Guajillo and Pasilla, both known for having a combination of earthy and fruity flavors as well as hints of fried fruits and are often used in moles, the sauce also contains fresh habaneros for heat and brightness. The sauce then loads up the umami ingredients including Tamari, a Japanese style of soy sauce that’s made entirely from soy beans, dried mushrooms, and tomatoes. Garlic and onion round out the aromatics and carrots are present for bulk and some natural sweetness/ This sauce is on the thicker side of medium and mostly smooth. The tamari soy flavor comes through first in the aroma with some pepper scent coming in as well.
The tamari soy sauce flavor comes through very strongly in the sauce as well. While not as much a soy sauce as Puckerbutt’s Oh Boy! Garlic Soy Sauce, it’s still a dominant flavor here and makes the sauce taste saltier than the 15mg of sodium listed on the bottle. I can taste some of the earthy flavors and some hints of raisin from the dried chiles. The dried chiles also add a tiny bit of grit when tasting a spoonful of the sauce straight, but it isn’t apparent when using the sauce with food. The fresh habaneros bring a little heat but I don’t get a lot of fresh habanero flavor or freshness overall in this sauce. Similarly while there is a general meaty mushroom flavor in the background it’s not super prominent here, though they do add to the overall umami sense of the sauce. While Oso Rojo Umami Bomb does have a strong umami element I wish it also had some brightness and more acidity. It’s a very dark, earthy, and rich tasting hot sauce. There’s a little bit of sweetness from the carrots and brown sugar, but they’re overshadowed by the tamari soy sauce flavor as well along with the tomatoes and fresh habaneros. The habaneros also don’t bring much heat to the table here, this sauce is as mild as a basic Louisiana type of sauce.
With that tamari flavor my first thought with this sauce was to use it with Asian food, and having some leftover white rice from a bean dish I’d cooked previously I made some quick fried rice using this instead of soy sauce. In that application it works very well, adding a nice richness to the dish though the heat level of this sauce is extremely low. The lack of brightness and acidity made this a poor sauce for sandwiches and melts. It does work well as a marinade, and let some boneless pork country style ribs sit in a marinade of it overnight before grilling, they came out with a vaguely Asian flavor but it did seem to also enhance there inherent meatiness.
I have a difficult time when it comes to recommending this sauce. Oso Rojo Umami Bomb isn’t a bad sauce by any means. At the same time I’ve had umami-forward sauces that I prefer and feel have a better balance overall, for example Heartbeat’s Darkside of the Grill Shiitake Szechuan, La Pimenterie Mycelium, and Seed Ranch Truffle Hound. My biggest challenge with Umami Bomb comes from it needing more brightness and acidity to really shine. I believe Oso Rojo may have agreed because while my bottle predates the new ownership the recipe has slightly changed since the company changed hands – gone now are the guajillo and pasilla peppers, replaced with anaheim chiles and chiles de arbol, both brighter fresher tasting pepper that may give the new version of this sauce some bite. I’ll give this sauce a conditional recommendation. It’s made well and if you like very dark earthy tasting sauces with low acidity you may very much enjoy this. I will have to check out the new version myself to see if the recipe change addresses my personal misgivings about the sauce. This sauce is al natural with no artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, or thickeners.
