Tabasco – Family Reserve Pepper Sauce
Tabasco is one of the most well known hot sauce brands in the world. Over time they’ve expanded their line-up from their original pepper sauce to include sauces made from habaneros, jalapenos, and even scorpion peppers plus a number of specialty products such as a Sriracha, a buffalo sauce, and most recently a Mexican style sauce.
This product, their Family Reserve, uses essentially the same recipe as their original red pepper sauce, but with a few key differences. Normal Tabasco uses peppers aged for up to three years, and this sauce uses peppers aged for up to eight years. The box also indicates that only specially selected peppers are used in this sauce. Finally, instead of distilled white vinegar, this sauce uses white wine vinegar.
Despite having the same essential ingredients – tabasco peppers, vinegar, and salt, the flavor of this sauce does depart noticeably from the Tabasco original red pepper sauce. The white wine vinegar is softer than the distilled vinegar, imparting some tang but also a subtle sweetness. The extra aged and hand selected peppers have a richer flavor, more complexity from the extra aging, and almost a slight fruitiness. The overall result is that this tastes like a Tabasco that went to finishing school. It’s instantly recognizable as a Tabasco product, but it’s more sophisticated, subtle, and nuanced than the original.
With it being similar to the original Tabasco you can use this anywhere you would use that sauce. I added several dashes to some clam chowder and it was delicious, a richer and more robust flavor than my normal standby of original Tabasco for the application. You could also easily use this for some fancier Bloody Mary drinks, and of course a perfect pairing with Cajun or Creole food.
Of course, with only three ingredients, this is another expression of simplicity and an all-natural sauce. This is an easy one for me to recommend, and something that adds a nice extra dimension of taste vs the original Tabasco.
Ingredients: White Wine Vinegar, Red Pepper, Salt
Heat Level: 2/10. Slightly spicier than Franks/Crystal/etc, but not by much, easily accessible by anyone
