Review - Crosbie's Hot Sauce
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Another "all-purpose" hot sauce coming your way, this time courtesy of Crosbie's Hot Sauce, based out of Philadelphia, PA.
The bottle's label makes the claim of this being the "World's #1 All-Natural Hot Sauce". I don't think anyone could prove or disprove that little fact, so we'll let that slide by. According to their company website, the Crosbie family was been doing this for 40 years. They go on to state, "we started manufacturing our sauce for everyone to enjoy using spices originating in Africa and the Caribbean Islands. It was hot and tasty then and still is today."
Since it's been a while from my last review of a straightforward pepper sauce, I couldn't wait to sample this one.
Ingredients:
Distilled Vinegar, Habanero Pepper, Garlic, Salt
Aroma:
3 out of 5. A sharp, tart vinegar and garlic bite with a hint of habaneros.
Appearance and Texture:
2.5 out of 5. If there was ever a sauce that was a dirty orange color, this would be it. This was not a turn-off at all, as I would prefer sauces to be a nice, natural darker tine instead of something that's brighter but more artificial. What was a bit unappealing to me was Crosbie's Hot Sauce's thin consistency. It was just bit too runny for my tastes. One aspect that almost amazed me was that amount of whole (not half or fragmented, but wholy-intact) habanero chile seeds afloat in the blend.
Taste Straight Up:
3 out of 5. Lots of vinegar twang with a high-end citrusy hit of habaneros, all wrapped around a garlic flavor core. By itself, Crosbie's is tart and punchy and leaves a lovely burn remaining on your tongue long after the spoonful was swallowed.
Note the numerous whole chile pepper seeds from Crosbie's Hot Sauce, especially visible on the pepperoni sauces.
Taste on Food:
3 out of 5. With a simplistic three-pronged thrust of garlic/vinegar/habaneros, I thought that Crosbie's Hot Sauce would be a good replacement for standard Cayenne or Louisiana-style hot sauces, and I was not wrong in this assumption. I tried this with eggs, burritos and pizza.
It fit well, and added some minor flammage to my food. Crosbie's seemed balanced enough that not any one component seemed off-kilter. If there was any faults that this sauce would have (and they are minor), is that the overall flavor of the sauce got a bit lost with my meals. While it complimented my grub, some of the "kick" somehow got diluted.
Heat:
2 out of 5. A bit bland and white in my opinion. A larger logo and title of the hot sauce would make this really pop out. This also contains hieroglyphs with a larger drawing of a pharaoh adorn the label. Nothing bad about that, but without much context (you can only read about the story on Crosbie's website about a how a king of Egypt sent his his son to the New World in search of spices) this does not speak "hot sauce" at all to me.
Label:
2.5 out of 5. Perhaps low-end for a habanero sauce. A lot of the perceived burn came from the brightness of the vinegar. The heat was slow to build, but long to last on my lips and in my mouth.
Overall: 
Nothing spectacular, yet this is still worth a look. What makes this extremely enticing is that you can pick up a bottle at the ridiculously low price of $2.50 for a 5 oz. bottle (plus shipping) or $30.00 for a case of 12 (and the shipping is free for this amount).
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Spicy Food Reviews - Hot Sauce Reviews, Hot Snacks, Hot Wings, Seasonings, BBQ Sauces, Condiments, and More
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2012-07-03 19:39:41
2012-07-06 14:08:15
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