Now that it’s getting warmer and we are pulling out of winter, it’s time to get our hot sauce talk going again.
Now that it’s getting warmer and we are pulling out of winter, it’s time to get our hot sauce talk going again. Last time we visited Voodoo Chiles hot sauces and did a run down on some of there very fine sauces.
For this review we are visiting a favorite of mine – High River Hot Sauces!
In the first hot sauce guide article we talked about High River’s Foo Foo Mama Choo as that was my first introduction to these really good sauces. Our friend and totally bad ass drummer Dave Witt (Municipal Waste) told me about his fellow musician friend Steve Seabury and his Hellacious hot sauces. Steve is also known for his Heavy Metal Cookbook Mosh Potatoes – that is a collection of some resipes from some of the biggest bands in Heavy Metal. While working on his book and sharing his passion for food, he started his hot sauce adventure with High River. You can see from many of the bottle’s designs and names, much of the sauces are inspired from his travels in the metal scene.
I can say that we are pretty found of all of there offerings, and these sauces all have a high quality of flavor and heat. Lets get into each of them here and break it down so you can find the one that fits you perfect.
Tears of the Sun —
Tears of the Sun is a great tropical sauce with a good habanero backbone that has some decent heat. We opened this one first, it was popular with our crew with the Chicken Fiesta we got – though prior warning, we tend to love anything with Chicken Fiesta.
This one has some pineapple and papaya in it, a really good combination with habanero and on chicken it was bomb. The bottle is about gone at this point, so it’s a everyday sauce that most anyone can handle and enjoy.
Rogue –
Rouge from High river is a blood orange scorpion pepper sauce that gets serious and has a good kick. To talk about this sauce, I have to break it down into two parts.
First trying it a few months ago, and then trying it more recently.
So to first try it had some kick and a real orange/vinegar base with a good flavor. This sauce is more liquid than Tears of the Sun, and the blood orange and pear were very apparent. Trying it some time ago, we enjoyed its flavor – though it was more of a little additive with our meal than a full on dipping kinda sauce.
So coming back to this sauce after a few months, and now it really kicks! The scorpion pepper has taken control and started to get really hot – upper level sort of hot here the kind that grows and takes control. I enjoy knowing that the peppers can change over time and start to grow. This is a good one, and apparently it’s Darth Vader’s favorite as well – thats a pretty big endorsement in my book.
Hellacious Hot Sauce
Hellacious sauce is a fun sauce that has a smoked flavor thats perfect on food of all kinds. We dogged this one pretty well using the Chicken Fiesta (mmm Chicken Fiesta!).
It has a mix of peppers that add a good flavor: Habanero, smoked Jalapeño, and roasted Red Peppers all add to the mix to have a smokey delight that you can pour on if you wish. It was popular in the group — we imagined this one would be great on hamburgers and steaks.
The heat is not too intense for those who know and can handle hot sauces vs. those who might just be looking for a little additional spice. It has grown a bit since the first try of this sauce, but still very enjoyable by anyone unless your a wuss.
Foo Foo Mama Choo
Well this is where it all began, the sauce I was first told about and bought to try.
Giving this one to the group I had high hopes that they would really like it. I was spot on as this one was the favorite of them all. Its just so solid, great flavor with real heat. The Carolina Reaper pepper has this really tropical flavor that lends well to the tomato and rice vinegar taste.
I really like the choice of using rice wine vinegar as we get a little sweetness with the chile and onion, it kinda reminds you of a hotter Sriracha sauce. This one went fast as it was the most used, it lends itself to flavor with a real building heat. As this one ages it gets stronger – as most do. I have gone through three bottles of this one already – it’s often a sauce I share with people to get them into some of the hotter, but more flavorful sauces I have. If I was to pick a everyday sauce this would be it. It’s amazing with morning foods like eggs and breakfast burritos, or any Chinese food with a incredible flavor and heat.
I also love the label and name — go for this one as a start!!
You can pick up all these sauces through High River’s website here!
