Review - Royito's Hot Sauce
Digg
Share
I know what you first thought; maybe Scott did a typo and accidentally called this jarred salsa a "hot sauce" instead. I assure you, this was no typo. Yep, this is one of those rare instances of a product billed as a hot sauce is sold in a jar. Kind of fitting, and perhaps a little confusing, as Royito's Hot Sauce could possibly be considered either a salsa or a hot sauce because of it's ingredients, texture and taste. That's certainly not a fault, because I often like it when cooks and chefs do fusion dances in their kitchens when creating new food enhancers.
The person responsible for this product is Roy Spence, one of the founders of the large Austin, Texas ad agency called GSD & M. Roy took his 60-year-old family recipe of all-natural ingredients, and applied his childhood nickname of Royito that his father gave him as the company moniker to his spicy condiment. John Blackington, Royito's employee and Self-described "friend of Roy", submitted a jar of which I will review right now...
Ingredients:
Fresh tomatoes, serrano peppers, lemon juice and salt.
Aroma:
3 out of 5. Very much like you typical pico de gallo-type salsas, except with a sour scent that blends in with the acidic smell of the tomatoes. Usually, lime juice is used in salsa, but Roy opted to go lemon juice instead.
Appearance and Texture:
2.5 out of 5. A dirty orange tint with loads of tomato seeds and shreds, along with the odd fragment of serrano flesh and seeds as well. If you were to consider this to be a salsa, it would be at the extremely thin end of the consistency spectrum. If you were to to think of this as it's labeled as a hot sauce, then it may be considered to be more of a medium texture with runny tendencies. Whatever was Roy's rationale between sticking this stuff in a jar instead of a bottle is unknown. Maybe because he could get more in a 16 ounce jar than a standard 5 ounce woozy bottle? But to extract this out of said jar without making a mess and having sauce run down the side, you must spoon this out onto your food.
Taste Straight Up:
2.5 out of 5. Very tart, sour, with a kick a few seconds in of the medium heat (as well as the flavor) of serrano chiles. Not much sweetness comes through from the tomatoes; and just like the aroma, you get more of the acidity of the red fruit.
Taste on Food:
3 out of 5. I spooned some Royito's Hot Sauce out on some tacos and the flavor was a bit better than by itself. It blended well with the taco's refried beans, seasoned beef (try a great seasoning recipe here), shredded cheddar cheese, lettuce and tomatoes. It was nothing but complementary and added a bit of extra flavor notes and a touch of heat.
This sauce is home on other forms of Mexican cuisine - quesadillas, burritos, and fajitas. If there's any problem, is that while it's very agreeable and should appeal to your whole family, it doesn't rise much above the level of pedestrian. It adds a little but does nothing to wow me a lot.
Heat:
Given the line on the label "we don't do mild" I was interested in how incendiary Royito's truly was. To me, it sites at a comfortable medium, probably a 2 or 2.5 on a scale of 1 to 5. If you and your family like a smidgen of hotness, this might be a good compromise for everyone.
Label:
4 ut of 5. A snazzy lookin' label with a clean, modern look. Roy Spence's smiling visage is smack dab in the middle, and how he appears on here reminds me of a cross between Matt Damon and Gary Busey. Because just abut everyone associates hot sauce with bottles and salsa with jars, there is thankfully in big enough letters "hot sauce" to help deter most people away from accidentally thinking that this might be a salsa. But, again, the consistency blurs the lines between the two types of pepper condiments, so who cares?
Overall: 
Royito's is a nice, non-offensive hot sauce with some attributes and flavors of a salsa, that if you and your loved ones or friends with varying heat tolerances had to settle on just one Mexican food topper, this might be a good candidate for that task. I liked Royito's Hot Sauce, but I probably wouldn't use it much and instead use one of my go-to sauces that really pop with bold flavor & flair and a tad more burn.
If you would like to purchase some for yourself, go to royitoshotsauce.com.
Comments
2012-07-10 17:29:39
Add Your Comment: