Puckerbutt Pepper Co – Smokin Racha Hot Sauce

Bitter: 🟡🟡○○○

Salty: 🟡🟡🟡○○

Sour/Tangy:🟡🟡○○○

Sweet: 🟡🟡○○○

Umami: 🟡🟡🟡○○

Heat: 🟡🟡🟡○○○○○○○

Quick Flavor Notes: Habanero, rich, tomato, garlic

Recommended: Yes

Texture: Thick and mostly smooth

Ingredients: Red Habanero Pepper Mash (Chile Peppers, Salt), Distilled Vinegar, Red Jalapeno Pepper Mash (Red Jalapeno Peppers and Vinegar), Tomato Paste, Garlic, Pure Cane Sugar

I’ve always been curious why Ed Currie seems to have a dual-branding system with his hot sauces. Some are sold under the Puckerbutt Pepper Company moniker while some get sold simply as Smokin’ Ed’s even though they’re on the Puckerbutt website. As far as I can tell it seems his older recipes are mostly the ones sold as Puckerbutt while his new creations and experiments get sold as Smokin’ Ed but that doesn’t seem to hold true universally. It took me a bit longer than I’d like to admit to understand the name of Smokin Racha. I get the Sriracha reference of course but the Smokin part kept flying over my head as this doesn’t actually include smoked ingredients. I finally realized it was, of course, a reference to Smokin’ Ed Currie who, of course, always puts a blurb about himself on every bottle of his sauces. Despite Smokin’ Ed’s lack of humility, I was still excited to try this one.

The original sriracha style sauce was invented in Sri Racha Thailand in the 1930s. From the beginning it consisted of Thai chiles, pickled garlic, sugar, and white vinegar. The most famous brand, of course, is Huy Fong Sriracha developed by a Vietnamese refugee to the United States with his brand named after the ship which carried him to safety. Huy Fong replaces the Thai chiles with fermented red jalapenos but otherwise keeps the formula the same. I’m generally not a huge fan of the sriracha style because most that I’ve tried have been entirely too sweet which clashes with the garlic flavor in my opinion. In Huy Fong Sriracha for instance sugar is the second ingredient by volume. With Smokin Racha Puckerbutt goes a different direction. Using habaneros as the primary pepper (which is listed as a mash which implies, though does not guarantee, that it’s fermented) along with red jalapenos as well. The other ingredients mainly follow the form with garlic and sugar making an appearance but Smokin’ Ed does take a detour by adding tomato paste. Tomato paste is an amazing ingredient in a hot sauce – it’s rich, umami packed, and adds its own acidity which is different from the vinegar so it can help keep a sauce tangy and vibrant without it becoming vinegar-dominant. Something I also loved to see, and one of the reasons I ordered this sauce, is that the sugar is the smallest ingredient by volume.

Puckerbutt Smokin Racha is, like many Puckerbutt sauces, rather thick in consistency. It’s also blended smooth. Not quite as plasticky smooth as sauces like Yellowbird or many Melinda’s but smooth enough as to not be chunky other than just the thickness of the pepper mash. The aroma is also very pepper forward though there are hints of garlic and sweetness. Smokin Racha packs much more of a kick than Huy Fong Sriracha. Having previously tried another habanero based sriracha from Kitchen Garden Farms I’d say that the Puckerbutt sauce was also spicier than that. Smokin’ Ed does know how to breed peppers with heat. This sauce leans much more heavily savory and pepper-forward in flavor than other srirachas I’ve had, with Puckerbutt stating that this sauce is made up of 50% peppers. There’s a subtle background sweetness from the small amount of sugar and from the tomato paste but it’s not an up-front element of the flavor as it is with Huy Fong and other srirachas. Because of that the flavor profile sits somewhere between a typical habanero hot sauce and a sriracha but it’s much more sriracha-y than the Hell’s Kitchen Sriracha which I’ve previously tried which had no sriracha characteristics whatsoever. I do wish Smokin Racha had a stronger garlic flavor. While the garlic is present it’s also a bit in the background whereas other brands seem to make it more of a focus. The tomato paste adds a lot of umami to this sauce and also gives it a rich taste and some extra earthiness, this also helps balance out the vinegar in the sauce so that it doesn’t taste vinegary while still tasting vibrant. Smokin Racha has more of a prolonged burn than I’ve experienced with other srirachas or from most habanero based sauces.

I feel that there was a period of time shortly before or during the pandemic where there was a cultural fascination with sriracha, particularly the Huy Fong brand, where people were putting it on everything. I’ve always felt that it wasn’t that flexible of a sauce but the Puckerbutt Smokin Racha is much more flexible due to it not having an overwhelming sweet garlic flavor. I first enjoyed this dabbed into some chicken and dumplings where the earthy richness and fruity habanero flavors complimented the chicken-y gravy and chewy dumplings well. I also found this sauce to be excellent with seafood, complimenting yet not overpowering some grilled halibut and shrimp. When mixed with some melted butter it was also excellent with a grilled lobster tail. Wanting to give it a shot in its natural environment with an Asian soup I made some instant pho and found it better than the Huy Fong variety in that application as I always found the sweetness of Huy Fong combined with the cinnamon and star anise used in pho to create an overly sweet cloying flavor that Smokin Racha didn’t.

While Puckerbutt Smokin Racha doesn’t fit the sriracha archetype exactly it’s still a great sauce and one I recommend. If you’re like me and find that typical srirachas lean far too sweet and would like one that leans into the savory and pepper flavors instead this is a must-try. This sauce is also all natural with no artificial preservatives, flavors, colors, or thickeners.