Chile Lengua De Fuego – Heatonist No. 8
Bitter: ⭐⭐✰✰✰
Salty: ⭐⭐✰✰✰
Sour/Tangy: ⭐⭐⭐✰✰
Sweet: ⭐⭐⭐✰✰
Umami: ⭐⭐✰✰✰
Heat: ⭐⭐✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰
Quick Flavor Notes: Fruity, creamy, funky, tropical
Recommended: Yes
Texture: Extremely thick
Ingredients: Zapote Puree, Bitter Orange Pulp, White & Dark Rum, Apple Cider Vinegar, Water, Salt, Passion Fruit Concentrate, Tamarind Concentrate, Scotch Bonnet Pepper Puree, Annatto Powder, Ginger, Chili Pepper Powder, Cinnamon, Allspice
Heatonist celebrates the anniversary of the opening of their Brooklyn, NY based hot sauce store each year with the release of a special hot sauce from one of their many partner hot sauce makers. For their 8th anniversary they invited Chile Lengua De Fuego (literally “Tongue of Fire”) a Honduran hot sauce company to create the anniversary sauce. Founded in 2004 and originally making chile oils Chile Lengua De Fuego has appeared on the Hot Ones four times, the most of any Latin American hot sauce brand. After having tried and enjoyed the Heatonist 5th Anniversary made by Marshall’s Haute Sauce I was excited to see what Chile Lengua De Fuego would bring to the table with their unique twist on tropical flavors.
The first ingredient of this sauce is something many won’t be familiar with – zapote. It’s a starchy fruit native to Mexico and Central America with a flavor somewhat similar to a sweet potato and a more custardy texture. My first experience with it was in a Mexican ice cream parlor, where it’s called Mamey, where I tried a delicious ice cream flavored with it. Next up is bitter orange. Sometimes also called sour orange this is unlike the sweet oranges that people eat as a fruit. Instead it’s juice and pulp are used in marinades and sauces in many Latin American cuisines, with Cuban mojo pork being one of the most notable. Honduran light and dark rum come next, and this marks the first hot sauce I’ve tried with rum as an ingredient followed by passionfruit, which has a unique funky flavor, and the sour tart influence of tamarind. The rest of the sauce is rounded out by scotch bonnet peppers, chili powder, and the warming spices of cinnamon and allspice. Texturally this is one of the thickest sauces I’ve ever opened. I have to shake the bottle vigorously just to get sauce out and it comes out more in little clumps than it pours. It smells like a tropical drink – the tropical fruits and the rum both mixing into a very alluring aroma.
Trying out the sauce the first time the zapote flavor does come through with its unique starchy custardy semi-sweetness which is accentuated by the tropical-funky flavor of the passion fruit and the tartness of the sour orange and tamarind. The rum flavor doesn’t hit you over the head but it’s there. The way the rum and tropical flavors mix reminds me of some of those dangerous tropical drinks that you don’t notice sneaking up on you until you try to stand up and go sideways. The allspice and cinnamon mixed with the fruity flavor of the scotch bonnets give this sauce a very Jamaican jerk flavor on the tail end after the rum and tropical fruits fall off a bit, which is interesting as the sauce changes character from the initial taste to the tail and aftertaste. While this sauce has no added sugar it does contain a number of naturally sweet ingredients which does make it lean towards the sweet a bit but still comes across as well balanced and never tasted cloying. As the scotch bonnets are so far down the ingredients list the heat level is pretty tame though something about the spice blend does seem to make the heat linger a bit longer than you’d expect. Heatonist No. 8 isn’t lacking acidity or tartness, the tamarind and the natural acidity of the passion fruit and sour orange help there, but also isn’t vinegar-forward at all.
The biggest issue in terms of pairing with this sauce is how dang thick it is. It comes out of the bottle more like a paste than a traditional hot sauce. Going with the Latin theme I tried this with some empanadas from a local Cuban restaurant and the tropical flavors do blend beautifully with both chicken and beef ones. The Heatonist website mentioned this pairing especially well with pork, and since Costco had quite a deal on pork chops recently I tried it there and I’ll confirm it’s also a success. Along those lines I had this on a Costco hotdog as well and thought I was being clever putting a papaya sauce on a hot dog after the famous NYC stand Gray’s Papaya, only to be reminded this is actually passion fruit in this sauce and not papaya when I looked again. Still delicious though.
I can recommend Chile Lengua De Fuego’s Heatonist No. 8. It’s a different take on a tropical hot sauce than the common mango and pineapple habanero sauces that you see everywhere but will still scratch that tropical sauce itch. This sauce is all natural with no artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, or thickeners.
