Florida Cracker Trading Co. – Anastasia Datil Pepper XXX Hot Sauce
Bitter: 🟡○○○○
Salty: 🟡🟡🟡🟡○
Sour/Tangy:🟡🟡🟡🟡○
Sweet: 🟡🟡○○○
Umami: 🟡○○○○
Heat: 🟡🟡○○○○○○○○
Quick Flavor Notes: Fruity, Tart, Salty, Citrusy
Recommended: Yes
Texture: Thin and smooth
Ingredients: Datil Peppers, Vinegar, Lime Juice, Spices, Salt
Florida Cracker Trading Company is the merchandise brand of Florida Cracker restaurant group started by brothers Blair & Ethan Hensley. Beginning in Brooksville, FL, a small town west of Orlando along Florida’s Gulf Coast, the brothers now own eleven restaurants focusing on old-school Florida recipes and fresh Florida seafood. I’ve previously tried their Datil Pepper Bloody Mary Mix and quite enjoyed it so I was excited to give their Anastasia Datil Pepper XXX Hot Sauce a try.
Datil peppers are a unique pepper grown primarily in the area of St. Augustine, FL. They’re closely tied to the history of the Mincorcans in the area, descendants of indentured servants brought to Florida from the Spanish island of Minorca by a Scottish doctor in the 1700s. The history is a bit murky on whether the Datil pepper actually came with the indentured servants from the island of Minorca or if it came from the Caribbean or Africa and was introduced to them by other indentured servants or slaves that they interacted with. What is known is that in the late 1700s a group of the Minorcan indentured servants escaped from their plantations and traveled to what was then the British colony at St. Augustine where they were granted freedom and began sowing datil peppers which are still beloved in the area today.
While the datil pepper flourished in the area it was originally used in cooking, especially in a Minorcan dish called Pilau which is sort of an amalgam of jambalaya and paella and which prominently featured the pepper. With St. Augustine being coastal the pepper found use in chowders and eventually in a table condiment which is how the hot sauce connection with datil peppers began. Palates being a bit more sensitive to heat back in the 18th and 19th centuries datil pepper hot sauces began as a type of cocktail sauce used with the local seafood and mixed with the typical Minorcan ingredients of tomatoes, green bell peppers, and onions. That’s led to most datil pepper hot sauces today such as the ubiquitous Dat’l Do-It to become ketchup based with the datil peppers falling far down the ingredients list. The closest I’d come to a hot sauce that featured the datil pepper prominently before this was with Zab’s Datil Pepper Sauce and even then datil peppers are the fifth ingredient by volume. Wanting to taste a datil pepper sauce which put the datil pepper up front was what attracted me so much to Florida Cracker’s Anastasia Datil Pepper XXX Hot Sauce – datil peppers are the first ingredient and aside from that it’s just vinegar, lime juice, spices, and salt.
Anastasia Datil Pepper XXX Hot Sauce is thin in consistency, very similar to a Louisiana style sauce with a very similar texture that’s completely smooth and free of any pepper or spice bits. I’d personally have loved to see something thicker with lots of chunks of datils but the aroma is promising with a fruity pepper-forward scent. On the palate the first thing that comes forth is that beautiful fruity datil pepper flavor. Datil peppers are similar to habaneros and scotch bonnets but have an even fruitier flavor profile with hints of citrus and tropical fruits. Fully ripe datil peppers are orange and while I typically avoid orange habaneros as I find they have a more astringent flavor than red ones there’s very little of that here. This sauce is also quite puckeringly tart in a great way that contrasts with the sweet fruitiness of the pepper. The combination of the lime juice and vinegar keeps either from dominating. In terms of the spices used I can taste some garlic, so garlic powder is likely one of them, and perhaps some onion powder and white or black pepper. One thing that does stand out to me is that this sauce tastes much saltier than the indicated 45mg on the label. I’d rank the saltiness level to be much closer to Louisiana style sauces than a typical craft hot sauce. Despite the intimidating XXX Hot Sauce on the front Anastasia Datil Pepper is quite mild, just a step above a standard Louisiana style hot sauce.
With a clean pepper-forward tart flavor profile this sauce is extremely flexible. Since the Mincorcans often paired datil peppers with seafood I went that direction first. I always keep a couple of bags of Publix frozen shrimp in the freezer for quick dinner-preps and with a quick sauté in some olive oil followed by the Anastasia Datil Pepper XXX Hot Sauce showed what an amazing pairing it is – sweet and meaty shrimp meeting fruity citrusy tart hot sauce is a match made in heaven. This sauce is also perfect for breakfast. Fresh, tangy, and bright just works so well with eggs, sausage biscuits, and breakfast burritos. Finally this is an excellent sandwich sauce. It’s perfect for cutting through rich chicken salad sandwiches or cheesesteaks while also adding a great clean pepper flavor on top.
Florida Cracker Trading Co. Anastasia Datil Pepper XXX Hot Sauce gets my full recommendation. I do wish it were a bit thicker and ideally hotter – so if anyone from the company ever reads this and decides to release a special edition with tons of pepper pulp in the mix I’d pick it up in a heartbeat – but even as it is it’s delicious, super flexible, and a great showcase for the datil pepper. This sauce is also all natural with no artificial preserva
