Butterfly Bakery of Vermont – Rosemary Lime Squash Hot Sauce

Bitter: 🟡🟡○○○

Salty: 🟡🟡○○○

Sour/Tangy:🟡🟡🟡🟡○

Sweet: 🟡○○○○

Umami: 🟡○○○○

Heat: 🟡🟡○○○○○○○○

Quick Flavor Notes: Bright, tangy, tart, piney

Recommended: Yes

Texture: Medium-thin with some small bits

Ingredients: Honey Field Farm red serrano peppers, organic white vinegar, roasted butternut squash, lime juice, Dutchess Farm fresh rosemary, salt.

I have a confession that I have several boxes of Butterfly Bakery of Vermont sauces open in my spare bedroom and I can never quite recall when I purchased each of them. Because of that sometimes I end up finally getting around to a micro-batch release which is no longer being offered, which seems to be the case with this sauce. On the bright side Butterfly Bakery of Vermont does occasionally re-release micro-batch sauces and, more frequently, release new ones that are variations on a previous theme.

Perhaps it’s just the luck of the draw or perhaps Butterfly Bakery of Vermont just recently got really into squash but it occurs to me that it’s been an ingredient in three of the last hot sauces I’ve reviewed from them, this included. Both their Guster’s Ooh La La and their latest Hot Ones sauce their Smoked Serrano Squash Reaper X make use of it but both of those also lean into smokier flavors whereas Rosemary Lime Squash Hot Sauce doesn’t have any of those smoky notes. Instead this sauce leans bright and herbaceous with lime and rosemary being the major flavor elements aside from the serrano pepper base. I’ve mentioned before how much I love red serranos, especially the high quality peppers used by Butterfly Bakery of Vermont but rosemary happens to also be one of my favorite herbs. It’s piney resiny flavor with some deeper peppery notes has always seemed exotic to me, perhaps because I’ve spend the last twenty years in humid tropical Florida so anything that reminds me of piney forests gives that special magic vibe. That rosemary comes through strong in the aroma of the sauce as does the tangy vinegar. Texturally this does have some pepper and vegetable bits and is medium-thin in consistency.

Like most Butterfly Bakery of Vermont sauces the vinegar is forward with a very tangy profile, something I personally love. The lime juice is very present and adds a sweet-tart citrus brightness that’s a great blend with the fruity and slightly vegetal red serranos. Lime and rosemary aren’t a flavor combination I’d normally have thought about, after all rosemary is an herb that’s normally associated with Italian cuisine or for use in roasted meats and root vegetables, places where lime doesn’t typically show up. Somehow it totally works though with the lime bringing out more of the bright piney notes of the rosemary and the butternut squash bridging the gap to the earthier resiny flavors. That butternut squash also adds some body to the sauce as well as a very gentle background sweetness. The result is a sauce that’s tart, tangy, piney, vegetal, a little bit earthy and a tiny bit sweet but somehow balances all of those flavors against each other. It’s low in heat, no spicier than Taco Bell Fire Sauce for example, but does have an intensity to the flavor that gives it a big impact.

The bottle suggests pairings with sushi and rice bowls. I wouldn’t have considered the flavors of this sauce to be particularly in line with Asian flavors but I decided to give it a go with a hibachi chicken rice bowl and while I didn’t necessarily hate the combo it wasn’t one that I’d go for again. Much more successful was with a turkey sub – Rosemary Lime Squash Hot Sauce bought the right amount of brightness and tang to really lift it up, as it did also with some chicken salad stuffed into an avocado. Something that worked surprisingly well was using this with some shrimp tacos. I thought that the serranos and lime would be natural partners there but how well the rosemary played with the shrimp, cilantro, and onion was surprisingly great.

While this isn’t available on their site right now I do recommend it if you happen to come across a bottle, especially if you love the flavor of rosemary as I do. This sauce is also all natural with no artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, or thickeners.