Howler Monkey – Original Hot Sauce

Bitter: ⭐✰✰✰✰

Salty: ⭐✰✰✰✰

Sour: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✰

Sweet: ⭐⭐✰✰✰

Umami: ⭐✰✰✰✰

Heat: ⭐✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰

Quick Flavor Notes: Vinegary, sour, pungent, earthy, sweet

Texture: Thin with small bits inside

Ingredients: Distilled Vinegar, Red Scotch Bonnet Pepper Mash (Red Scotch Bonnet Peppers, salt), Garlic, Onions, Mustard (Distilled Vinegar, #1 Mustard Seed, Salt, Turmeric, and Spices), Cumin, Black Pepper, Turmeric

Recommended: Yes

Howler Monkey was created by two friends who’d grown in the US controlled Panama Canal Zone where they fell in love with the local food before eventually moving to Florida. In Panama it’s typical for restaurants to have their own special “Aji Chombo” style of hot sauce on the table, made with a special Panamanian version of the scotch bonnet pepper. Howler Monkey seeks to recreate that flavor profile for hot sauce lovers in the USA.

The Panamanian Aji Chombo sauce is a blend of influences from Latin and Central America as well as Caribbean influences from the Antilles. This can be seen in the ingredients with mustard and turmeric making an appearance, ingredients common in many Caribbean style sauces, while the cumin in the sauce is more common in Latin American and Mexican hot sauces. In addition to the spices and aromatics this sauce gets its heat from red scotch bonnet peppers. This sauce has a very thin consistency though there are some little bits of peppers and spice inside.

The flavor of Howler Monkey Original hot sauce is very vinegar forward but with a sweetness from the scotch bonnets that sets it far apart from vinegary Louisiana style sauces of similar consistency. The mustard amplifies the vinegar tang making the initial flavor profile very sour-forward. The earthy elements of garlic, onion, and turmeric help balance that sourness and the black pepper flavor is quite prominent as well which makes this sauce taste unlike any I’ve had before. With a mix of tangy, sour, sweet, pungent, and earthy Howler Monkey Original packs a more complex flavor than its thin consistency would indicate.

Since this is a take on a traditional Panamanian table sauce style I went with that style of food first. While I don’t have any Panamanian restaurants near me I do have Honduran and Salvadoran restaurants, and being from the same area of the world I assume the food is fairly similar. A Plato Tipico from those places is usually some grilled steak, eggs, beans, rice, plantains, tortillas, and chicharron. I found this was a good pairing for this sauce – the sourness and tanginess are great for cutting through fatty fried pork belly and the big flavors of the sauce are just what beans, rice, and eggs need to liven them up. I also found this sauce works very well on hot turkey and cheese and ham and cheese sandwiches, as well as in chicken soup where it adds some great depth and acidity.

I’m happy to recommend Howler Monkey Original Hot Sauce. It’s a style that’s adjacent to many Latin and Caribbean sauces but also unique enough that it will be something different even if you’ve tried many of those. This sauce is also all natural with no artificial preservatives, flavors, colors, or thickeners.