Review - Purgatory Brand Out of Body Experience Hot Sauce
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Here's a sauce that's been around for a number of years and I have not yet had a chance to give it a try - Purgatory Brand Out of Body Experience Hot Sauce. Not much can be unearthed about this sauce online, or Purgatory Brand for that matter, save for a few mentions on the Purgatory Alligator Alley Asphalt Sauce at a couple of online hot sauce retailers. Out of Body Experience Hot Sauce's label list this one as being made by Hot Damn! out of Sarasota, Florida, but the website provided (hotsauces.com) appears to have been down for some time.
If you do happen to spot a bottle of this on a hot sauce shop shelf, feel free to pick up a bottle for your own experimentation. My thoughts on it are listed below...
Ingredients:
Scanning the bottle, I wasn't able to find an ingredients rundown on the sides or back of the bottle. Instead, this text is spelled out at the bottom of the label's front: "Cayenne, scotch bonnet and Thai peppers pureed with vinegar plus a metaphysical blend of spices and salt."
Aroma:
3 out of 5. Wow! COMPLETELY not what I was expecting after studying the ingredients. It smelled like this sauce contained a tad bit of liquid smoke, a dash of Worcestershire sauce, a milder cider or malt vinegar and truckloads of tomato-like sweetness. Perhaps even molasses? All in all it was tart and sweet but had undertones of being a steak or an all-purpose sauce.
Appearance and Texture:
4.5 out of 5. Deep brown not unlike a barbecue or steak sauce, put a smidgen runnier than a steak sauce and a lot thinner than a typical BBQ liquid. Thousands of shreds and specks of chile peppers and spices adorn the composition. If Purgatory Brand Hot Sauce were a little thicker, I think this would be absolutely gorgeous.
Taste Straight Up:
3 out of 5. After the 180 degree turn brought on from the surprising aroma, this fit in line a lot more with the ingredients. It's got the trademark rigor and sourness from the vinegar and a small scale sting from the peppers. Yet there's a spiciness and sweetness buried deep down that I really liked. It was hard to pinpoint exactly what this is. Too bad the vinegar in all its harshness nearly buried it.
Taste on Food:
I splashed on a lot of Purgatory sauce on a tostada with refried beans, seasoned beef, black beans, monterey-jack cheese and pickled jalapenos. The coalition of the aforementioned components had enough flavor for a cheap, basic Americanized Mexican meal, and any additional taste from a hot sauce should have any served to compliment it and add a dose of heat. Purgatory was able to do that adequately but I was wanting the sauce it make it explode with intensity (and not just from the peppers' heat) and most of what I could detect was the bitter vinegar-induced tartness. I would have loved more spice and personality instead.
Heat:
This boasts an easy medium warmth that comes almost right away after taking a taste. It builds to a medium-hot burn that would rate around 2.5 on a scale of 1 to 5.
Overall:
Soooo much potential lies here, and doesn't quite live up to what I was expecting. It still earns a "good" description from me.
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2010-05-03 17:55:58
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