Review - Big Fat's 8o8 Naga Jolokia Hot Sauce
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With the dizzying and overwhelming assortment of hot sauce names (let alone the sauces contained inside the bottles) already flooding the market, I imagine it would be an almost impossible chore for any sauce manufacturer to create a moniker for a product that not only isn't uncomfortably close to what someone else has already come out with, but is also mostly original and memorable.
I think Jeremy Walsh has accomplished that task with his Bigfat Hot Sauces. The company name comes from a video game handle given to Jeremy by coworkers, but the names of the sauces themselves are based upon the fact that he was the youngest of eight children, so that as the youngest he was "8 of 8", or 8o8.
The first product leading the way for Bigfat's is the hottest of the eight planned sauces, the 8o8 Naga Jolokia Hot Sauce, with the others still on tap will be called 1o8, 2o8, and so on, with increasing levels of spiciness all the way up to 8o8.
Jeremy has provided a review bottle of the 8o8 to get my take on it and to see whether or not if this would be a promising start for the Bigfat's line.
Label:
4 out of 5. There's some terrific looking graphics on here, all done with a top-notch flair. Smooth gradiants, lovely color palette of browns, reds, oranges and yellows. There are also eight "heat dots" (which origins come from how Jeremy's mother used to mark his siblings' socks; one dot for the oldest child and eight dots for Jeremy) that signify the heat level of the sauce.
One thing I must point out is that there's a faint hexagonal pattern in the background, and it either consciously or subconsciously making me think of honey combs and bee hives. And when you get that in your head, you figure there must be honey in this hot sauce, right? Well, nope, no honey. This really ain't misleading, but I'm probably not going to be the only one making this incorrect assumption.
Ingredients:
Water, onion, tomatoes, habanero peppers, garlic, habanero mash (fresh habaneros, salt), naga jolokia pepper powder, spices, lime juice concentrate, ancho chile powder, sea salt
Aroma:
4.5 out of 5. This was not at all what I was expecting. Sweet and aromatic scents danced around my nose, reminding me of cinnamon, brown sugar, limes, tomatoes and even ginger. The scent was fantastic!
Appearance and Texture:
2.5 out of 5. There's a disclaimer of sorts on the bottle: "Color of the sauce may vary due to natural ingredients." Who knows what this can be with a lot of variance, but the color of the sauce in my test bottle is a mucky brown. I'm not going to go any further into what this resembles (see the photo on food below) as I'll try to keep this review a classy affair.
Big Fat's 8o8 Naga Jolokia Hot Sauce is loaded with specks and shreds of ingredients and has a dense and sort of clumpy texture. It suffers from the watery separation that plagues one of my favorite spicy condiments, Ring of Fire Habanero Hot Sauce, and continues to be like this even after a vigorous shaking. The amount of thickness is heavy and hefty, but because of the mixture break-down it lacks a uniform consistency. That really bugged me.
Taste Straight Up:
2 out of 5. Upon taking a lick from the back of hand, I immediately felt an overly strong tart presence coupled with a burst of cinnamon and black pepper-like tones. The heat blasted through a second later with some highly annoying bitter flavors laying underneath. It's as if Bigfat's aim was to make an elixir with all sour bluster, bitterness and heat but no real enjoyable flavor.
I think that this is a very incomplete hot sauce. From the initial get-go of putting some on my tongue to the expected scorching of habanero and jolokia-derived heat, there were some really savory elements sorely lacking. My advice is that if you're going to include spices such as cinnamon, maybe a little sweetness or fruitiness could have greatly improved this product. I found it very disheartening that not even the naturally-occurring fruity and citrus-like flavors of habaneros and bhut jolokias are allowed to thrive, and are only employed to provide intense heat.
Heat:
4 out of 5. Well, this didn't disappoint in the fire department. This by no means reaches extract territory, but there's a vicious heat that's meant only for hardcore fiery foods fans. For me, it was a dual-stage, capsicum chinense burn that began shortly after tasting and kicked into high gear 20 seconds later. Novices would be completely overwhelmed.
Taste on Food
2.5 out of 5. I had thought that perhaps in some ways, Big Fat's 8o8 Naga Jolokia Hot Sauce may vaguely resemble an Asian sauce. So I tried some on some chicken cooked in a sweet Thai chile sauce, with brown rice, snap peas, scallions and carrots on the side. The 8o8 fared only slightly better, and existed in this instance to only add raging heat to the dish. Unfortunately, when you're anxiously hoping for the food to help mask the bitter taste of the sauce, when instead it should be the sauce improving the food, you know you've got a big problem on your hands.
Overall Rating: 
Big Fat's 8o8 Naga Jolokia Hot Sauce, like I've stated, needs some work. The other sauces in Big Fat's lineup (which are promised to be coming soon) may provide substantial flavor that 8o8 is lacking, so I'm eager to try them. Although at the time of this writing they're not available, a thumbnail image of all eight sauce bottles is up on the Bigfat's Hot Sauce website. With some of the other Bigfat's offerings having intriguing flavors such as Chipotle, Jerk and Garlic Ginger, there could be some hope for the brand new company.
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Spicy Food Reviews - Hot Sauce Reviews, Hot Snacks, Hot Wings, Seasonings, BBQ Sauces, Condiments, and More
Comments
2010-10-12 07:21:24
2010-10-12 13:01:23
I can see you had big hopes for this sauce, but it wasn't there.
Still, Jeremy's efforts are remarkable, and the back-story was interesting to me.
I'm looking forward to the 4o8, 5o8, & 6o8's.
2010-10-13 10:41:01
2010-10-18 12:38:43
2011-02-19 10:54:10
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