Haico’s Hot Sauce – Red Dawn
Bitter: ⭐✰✰✰✰
Salty: ⭐✰✰✰✰
Sour/Tangy: ⭐⭐✰✰✰
Sweet: ⭐⭐✰✰✰
Umami: ⭐⭐⭐✰✰
Heat: ⭐✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰
Quick Flavor Notes: Rich, tomato, subtly sweet
Texture: Medium-thick and smooth
Recommended: Yes
Ingredients: Chili Peppers (Cayenne, Ring of Fire), Vidalia Onions, Water, Apple Cider Vinegar, Tomato Paste, Maple Syrup, Fresh Herbs and Spices, Soy Sauce.
I’ve always been impressed with Ottawa, Canada’s Haico’s Hot Sauce. Not only does he do things the right way with all natural ingredients in his sauces, he grows all of his own peppers and even most of he other ingredients (as the Canadian climate allows). Red Dawn is a collaboration sauce with the Canadian punk band The Riptides and is named for a song from their 2006 album “Hang Out”.
The peppers used in Red Dawn are cayenne and Ring of Fire. The Ring of Fire pepper is a variant of the cayenne pepper that’s known for being especially prolific as well as about 50% hotter than a typical cayenne pepper. With a cayenne base you’d think that this would go in the direction of a Louisiana style sauce but Haico’s turns that a bit on its head with the addition of ingredients such as Vidalia onion, dark Canadian maple syrup, and soy sauce. Apple cider vinegar provides the acid, typically sweeter than other vinegars and something I always worry about when seeing it combined with sweet ingredients in sauces. On the other hand the addition of tomato paste plus the soy sauce, both umami-heavy ingredients, has the potential for a nice savory punch. Red Dawn is smooth and medium-thick. It does take some agitation to reincorporate. The tomato, garlic, and onion are some of the most prominent aromas.
On tasting the first thing I realized is that despite having two versions of cayenne peppers as the primary ingredients this sauce tastes virtually nothing like a typical cayenne pepper sauce. Most of us are hardwired when seeing cayenne based sauces to expect something in the Louisiana style, but this doesn’t have that intensely vinegary sharp flavor of those and instead comes across as very rich with an underlying sweetness. There’s a bit of that characteristic cayenne sharpness but the tomato paste and onions are more prominent with the garlic adding to a presentation that’s almost more spicy tomato sauce than cayenne pepper sauce. There’s not a strong soy sauce flavor but Haico’s Red Dawn does have a lot of umami savoriness. The maple syrup flavor is there but in the background and thankfully the apple cider vinegar doesn’t become cloying. I can’t place all of the herbs and spices used but there is a nice strong black pepper flavor that comes in towards the end. The one thing I miss, and this is true with many Haico’s sauces, is salt. The only salt in this comes from the soy sauce and there’s not enough salty flavor for my taste. That could be a good thing for those on restricted-sodium diets, and it is easy enough to add a bit of salt to the sauce, and it also makes it more flexible in some ways to add to already salty foods without going into sodium overload. In terms of heat it’s very mild, on a similar level to most cayenne based sauces.
With the tomato-sauce vibes in this I wanted to see how well it paired with Italian food. Since Publix had a BOGO on Buitoni fresh pasta I used this with some jarred pasta sauce on some cheese tortellini. I found it to be a great blend, adding more richness and freshness to the jarred sauce plus just a little extra heat. I also wanted to give it a go in an area where I normally love cayenne sauces – in clam chowder. Again this is great, not the same as adding Tabasco or Louisiana by any means, but it added the requisite acidity plus a richer deeper flavor that those don’t normally add. I also loved this hot sauce on a burger, again perhaps the tomato mimics some of the flavor of ketchup but without the cloying sweetness that ketchup has.
Haico’s Hot Sauce Red Dawn gets my recommendation. It’s a unique take on a cayenne based sauce that’s delicious and versatile, and especially appealing to those of use who love tomato based hot sauces. This sauce is also all natural with no artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, or thickeners.
