Review - Marie Sharp's Orange Pulp Habanero Hot Sauce
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I've been a fan of Marie Sharp's Fiery Hot Habanero Pepper Sauce for the longest time. Taste one drop of it and you'll see why - achingly fresh ingredients, cool vegetable taste and a blistering hot flavor make it one of the standard-bearers of the carrot-based corner of the spicy foods marketplace. Because of this I had high expectations for Marie Sharp's Orange Pulp Habanero Hot Sauce.
Ingredients:
Yellow Habanero Peppers, Orange Pulp, Onions, Key Lime Juice, Vinegar, Garlic And Salt
Aroma:
2.5 out of 5. Very light and "airy". Although hints of orange are detectable, it lacks the strong punch of freshly grated orange zest or the sugary zap of the artificial orange flavoring/scent found in candies and citrus-smelling cleaners. The aroma also contained small amounts of chile peppers, lime, and vinegar.
Appearance and Texture:
3 out of 5. In the bottle this stuff looks light orange, a bit watery in some spots and ground-up and clumpy in others (this needs shaken up a bit!). When you actually go to use it, Orange Pulp Habanero Hot Sauce is thick - VERY thick. So thick, in fact, that I had to remove the plastic dropper piece from the tip of the bottle just to get any to come out! A large hunk of sauce (is that the best way to describe it?) started to clog the bottleneck, so a few violent arm swings was necessary to get that stuff loose and free-flowin'.
On your plate (or in my case, a styrofoam box) Orange Pulp Habanero looks like a chunky mess of orange fruit, almost like a fruit smoothie. This sauce can almost be considered a dense salsa, and would be easier to access in a jar with a spoon than being force to shake this out of a skinny bottle.
Visually the orange pulp and habaneros were indistinguishable, and an odd speck and discoloration is noticeable in the coalition.
Taste Straight Up:
2 out of 5. This is mildly disappointing. While I can taste orange, habaneros (barely), onions and limes all distinctively, all the flavors are weak, almost "watered down". I was craving some "pop" and "sizzle" out of this...where was the biting sourness or tartness from the oranges? The kick from the peppers? Plus, the ingredients list mentions salt....and this sauce is as plain as can be.
Just so you don't get the wrong idea, there's nothing bad-tasting about this; it's just relatively bland.
Taste on Food:
2 out of 5. I shook some chunks of it on fried chicken. It barely added any additional flavor. The fried, oily taste from the chicken's breading still remained the dominant flavor. Honestly, it made the breading a bit soggy where it sat for a few minutes, so my food probably would have been better without Orange Pulp Habanero.
Suggested Uses:
It doesn't add much of anything to foods, but I can imagine this being marginally decent on meats like grilled fish or pork. It probably would be good with some additional spices like salt or ground garlic put into your dishes.
Heat:
1.5 out of 5. Low heat from a habanero sauce. If you can handle regular McIllhenny's Tabasco Pepper Sauce, you should probably be able to tackle this with little difficulty.
Label:
3 out of 5. Not bad. The label is silver with an orange tint. In my opinion, a bit feminine-looking.
Overall:
Marie Sharp's Orange Pulp Habanero doesn't have much to offer. While it tastes alright, there's not enough "oomph" there for me to recommend it.
If you're curious, Marie Sharp's Orange Pulp Habanero Hot Sauce can be found at many online outlets. A 5-oz. bottle will cost you around 5 greenbacks plus shipping.
Related Articles:
Spicy Food Reviews - Hot Sauce Reviews, Hot Snacks, Hot Wings, Seasonings, BBQ Sauces, Condiments, and More
Comments
2009-04-18 21:53:07
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