Zesti – Fiery Pumpkin Spice Hot Sauce

Bitter: ⭐⭐⭐✰✰

Salty: ⭐⭐✰✰✰

Sour/Tangy: ⭐⭐⭐✰✰

Sweet: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✰

Umami: ⭐✰✰✰✰

Heat: ⭐⭐✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰

Quick Flavor Notes: Cinnamon, Pumpkin Pie Spice, Astringent

Texture: Thin and smooth

Recommended: No

Ingredients: Pumpkin, Pumpkin Pie Spices, Red Habanero Peppers, Garlic, Vinegar, Lime, Sugar, Salt, Sodium Benzoate, and Potassium Sorbate

Zesti Hot Sauce out of Cleveland, OH may or may not still be in business. Their website is still active but they’ve been showing out of stock on all items for pretty much the entire year. I’ve previously reviewed their XXXtra Hot Freshly Grated Parmesan Garlic Hot Sauce and absolutely loved it (and the beauty of their cheese based hot sauce is what made me seek out Buc-cee’s Hot Cheddar Hot Sauce, which is a bottle of distilled garbage juice). Since it’s Pumpkin Spice season I decided to open up this flavor from Zesti to see if it would be another hit.

Fiery Pumpkin Spice Hot Sauce starts things off with pumpkin and pumpkin pie spices, a good start for what’s on the label. Following up with red habaneros, one of my favorite peppers in any hot sauce, keeps up the ingredients win-streak. Things get a little stranger with the garlic and lime juice – both classic pairings with habaneros, but not so much with pumpkin or pumpkin spice. Unfortunately Zesti also decided to include artificial preservatives in this one, both sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate, things I never want to see in any hot sauce. This sauce does have a very pumpkin-spice-y aroma, though the vinegar and peppers do come through in the nose. This is a thin sauce with a smooth texture and in fact comes with a flip-top with an integrated orifice reducer.

While I’m not a big coffee drinker I’ve been known to enjoy some pumpkin spice coffee this time of year and Zesti Fiery Pumpkin Spice Hot Sauce goes hard on those pumpkin pie spice flavors. Typically those are cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, clove, and sometimes allspice. In this case they absolutely dominate the flavor of the sauce with the cinnamon coming on especially strong. There’s not much pumpkin flavor which surprises me since it’s the first ingredient listed on the label, yet this sauce also being so thin makes me question how much pumpkin could actually be inside. Angry Goat Pepper’s Pumpkin Habanero Hot Sauce is quite a bit thicker with much more pumpkin flavor. Compounding the overbearing pumpkin pie spice flavor in this sauce is the fact that it tastes somehow artificial – like the cheap pumpkin pie spice syrup they have by the coffee bar at 7-11. The lime juice combined with the vinegar does give this sauce a surprising sour edge that you don’t expect with the fall flavors as well as an astringency and the garlic gives it a savory anchor point that seems at odds with the rest of what’s going on. The habaneros themselves add some quick sting of heat but are overpowered in flavor by the pumpkin pie spices, though you can get a tiny bit of pepper flavor towards the back of the palate.

Pairing on this sauce was difficult. The bottle suggests chili, soup, and sweet potato casserole. I only make sweet potato casserole for Thanksgiving so a bit early for that, though I did try this in some chicken and corn chowder there the result was poor – the artificial edge of the pumpkin pie spice flavor coming on especially strong in that context. I tried this with some fried ham since it often pairs well with warm spices and while not awful I wouldn’t say it was good either, again too much pumpkin pie spice not enough pumpkin. As a last-ditch effort I thought this would be good on ice cream and that was the most successful pairing, though the garlic was distracting and again that artificial astringent flavor crept in.

I’m not going to recommend this one. Not only is the flavor imbalanced there’s also an artificial edge to it and it’s somehow way too thin for the amount of pumpkin it’s supposed to contain. Add in the use of artificial preservatives and this is one that’s safe to skip whenever (or if) Zesti ever manages to restock.