Gindo’s x Brian Ambs – Nam Jim Jaew Hot Sauce

Bitter: 🟡🟡🟡○○

Salty: 🟡🟡○○○

Sour/Tangy:🟡🟡🟡○○

Sweet: 🟡🟡🟡○○

Umami: 🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡

Heat: 🟡🟡🟡🟡○○○○○○

Quick Flavor Notes: Umami, sweet, savory, balanced

Recommended: Yes

Texture: Medium-thick with some seeds and small bits

Ingredients: Red Bell Peppers, Distilled Vinegar, Water, Chili Pepper Blend (Habanero, Thai Chili, Chocolate Moruga Scorpion, Death Spiral, Bird’s Eye, Carolina Reaper, 7 Pot Douglah Pepper), Palm Sugar, Mirin, Onion, *Fish Sauce (anchovy, sea salt), Red Snow Crab Sauce (red snow crab, squid, kelp, vegetable concentrate, onion), Green Onion, Tamarind (tamarind fruit, water, citric acid), Garlic, Organic Cane Sugar, Cilantro, Lime Juice, Shallots, Smoked Salt, Oyster Sauce (water, sugar, soy, wheat, salt, yeast extract, mushroom), Lemongrass, Cilantro, Soy Powder, Ginger, Shiitake Mushrooms, Xanthan Gum, Black Pepper

While Gindo’s needs no introduction at this point, having appeared in my reviews many times in the past, the St. Charles, IL based hot sauce company has become one of my favorites not only because of their consistently high quality of ingredients and flavor, but also because they love to do creative collaborations. This sauce is a collaboration with Brian Ambs, possibly the most noted hot sauce personality out there after Sean Evans, Ed Currie, Troy Primeaux, and Johnny Scoville. I was surprised to find out when I began to look into him that his original fame actually came from skateboarding and that he’s the co-owner of ReVive Skateboards. These days he has a YouTube channel focusing primarily on hot sauce reviews where he likes to help taste and promote smaller batch producers. In fact this is not his first collaboration sauce as he was the inspiration for the wildly popular Ghost of Saffron from High Desert Sauce Company as well as a new one called Java Jam from Down 2 Ferment.

Nam Jim Jaew is a classic dipping sauce that originated in Northeastern Thailand in the Isaan region. Across the border in Laos there’s a very similar sauce called Jeow Som and both feature chiles, sugar, fish sauce, souring ingredients such as tamarind or lime, aromatics, and more. Both are typically used for grilled meats, especially the grilled chicken and pork that are wildly popular in the region. While Gindo’s and Brian Ambs could have went the traditional route with just thai chiles, fish sauce, sugar, shallots, tamarind, and some herbs they decided to go with a more is better approach and this hot sauce has an ingredients list that goes off the rails in the most glorious way almost immediately. Starting with the peppers Gindo’s was able to source some rare pods including the Death Spiral, Chocolate Scoprion, and 7 Pot Douglah in addition to the traditional Thai chiles and Birdseye chiles plus reapers and habaneros. Instead of just fish sauce this contains that plus red snow crab sauce, essentially a fish sauce made from crabs, squid, and kelp. They doubled up on the sour as well with both tamarind and lime juice as well as the sweet with both palm sugar and white sugar. Umami got a quintuple-down with the two fish sauces plus shiitake mushroom, soy sauce powder, and oyster sauce. The aromatics are the only place where things are kept original with shallots, cilantro, and lemongrass filling the sauce out. Gindo’s x Brian Ambs Nam Jim Jaew is medium-thick in consistency with a mostly smooth texture though some bits of pepper and spice remain in the sauce. The aroma is sweet, rich, and umami-filled with the telltale aroma of superhot chiles.

Thai cuisine is known for balancing sweet, sour, spicy, salty, and bitter and Nam Jim Jaew Hot Sauce absolutely nails all of those plus big umami wallop to the side of the head. I’ve tried a number of other Thai inspired hot sauces. Some are stronger in the Thai flavors such as Seed Ranch’s Hot Thai Green that has big lemongrass and ginger flavor’s or Bottle Fed’s Thai Fire which uses all Thai chiles and has a strong sweet and sour lime and white pepper thing going on but I haven’t had one that manages the sweet, sour, spicy, salty, bitter, umami balance better than this one. The exotic peppers in Nam Jim Jaew Hot Sauce bring bitter astringency from the reapers and scorpions plus a lot of bright fruit and floral notes from each, earthy nutty smoky flavors from the Douglah peppers, citrus from the Death Spiral, and plenty of heat from all of them. The rich palm sugar (which tastes similar to brown sugar) and the white sugar help take the edge off of the heat while the tamarind and lime juice help keep the sweet elements from ever tasting cloying. The fish sauce, crab sauce, and oyster sauce all bring a briny subtly seafoody saltiness plus that big umami hit. Finally you have the garlic, shallots, cilantro, and lemongrass that fill in the gaps and add both savory and fresh aromatic notes to the sauce. Lemongrass can be a powerful flavor but it doesn’t come close to dominating here, just adding a subtle background note. The result is a sauce that’s sweet but balanced and with far more depth than the vast majority of sweet heat sauces. Despite the super hot chiles used this sauce isn’t brutal in heat. I’d say it would rank very hot for a non-chile-head but it’s very usable, maybe just a step above Trader Joe’s Habanero in heat but with a longer tail of prolonged burn.

In Thailand Nam Jim Jaew is often served with grilled meats. I made that my first test and used this as a dipping sauce for some grilled pork, chicken, and beef. The rich salty sticky sweet umami of this sauce is perfect with the grilled meats and the pepper flavor compliments meat grilled simply with just salt. I also found this sauce to be amazing with seafood, both some grilled shrimp as well as some air-fried fried shrimp I’d had hiding in the back of my freezer. With seafood the briny seafood flavors in the sauce started to come more towards the front and the bitter notes from the super-hot chiles really complimented the sweeter flavor of the seafood. Staying with the flame-grilled theme I tried this as a burger topping and it excels there as well. I’m not a ketchup fan on burgers but this added a subtle sweetness that ketchup often overshoots plus a more balanced salty, sour, bitter profile that perfectly accented the chargrilled patty. Finally I tried mixing this in with some stir-fried peanut-sesame noodles I’d picked up from Trader Joe’s in the past and that had always been rather underwhelming in terms of flavor to me. Nam Jim Jaew completely woke them up and added a tremendous depth of flavor plus the heat that I always crave while blending perfectly with the nutty sesame and peanut flavors.

Gindo’s x Brian Ambs Nam Jim Jaew Hot Sauce gets my highest recommendation. This is a limited release sauce and as of right now is still available on the Gindo’s website. If you like Asian style hot sauces and want something with a great balance of flavors that excels with meats I’d pick up a bottle before they’re gone. Be warned however that this sauce does contain both fish and shellfish if you have any food allergies.