Review - Tom's Hot Sauces - Official Scott Roberts Web Site

Review - Tom's Hot Sauces

Scott Roberts September 3, 2009 at 8:27 pm food Digg this Article

Tom's Hot Sauces

You know the sign of a really good sauce? It's when you make it tag along with you wherever you go; when you dine out for lunch, when you drive to work munching on your breakfast in the car, and when you walk over to someone's cubicle to splash some on your co-worker's tortilla chips (of course I shared!). You mentally prepare meals in your noggin specifically to go along with that hot sauce because you love it so much. The past two days that sauce for me has been Tom Schickel's all-natural hot sauce creations, which comes in two varieties - Old Man Medium and Kickflip Fire.

Ingredients:
Old Man Medium - White vinegar, carrots, onions, lime juice, water, yellow bell peppers, habanero peppers, olive oil, garlic, sugar, salt.
Kickflip Fire - White vinegar, carrots, onions, lime juice, water, habanero peppers, olive oil, garlic, sugar, salt.

Smell:
4 out of 5. Both versions of Tom's Hot Sauce have the distinctive, delicious scent of a carrot-based habby liquid. For those not acquainted with that type of sauce, it is typically light, airy, fresh, heavy on the tartness of vinegar, garlic, and peppers with heavy garden vegetable overtones. The only subtle difference between this and other carrot/habanero sauces was the stronger performance from the onions. The Kickflip Fire, the hotter of the two, possesses a bit of a high-end tang while the Old Man Medium is a little more subdued and sweeter.

Tom's Hot Sauces

Texture and Appearance:
4 out of 5. Pureed and yellow-orange with a medium consistency. I found the Old Man Medium to be a skosh thicker, possibly due to the presence of bell peppers. Each as a restricter piece at the end of the bottle neck, which quite frankly weren't needed since I wanted to douse my food with Tom's Hot Sauce.

Taste Straight Up:
4.5 out of 5. Mouth-pleasing blend of veggies and chiles with the right amounts of vinegar. There's very little salt taste whatsoever. Tom has found the magic formula for carrot-based sauces that others such as Marie Sharp's, Intensity Academy Hot Cubed Hot Sauce and Benito's Naranja Organic Hot Sauce have also hit upon. Tom's may be missing that final, elusive puzzle piece to push his sauces to the complete state of perfection like the aforementioned sauces have reached. It may be a photo finsh and Tom's Hot Sauce may be lagging behind by a few inches, but who cares? Tom's still has a fine product, and it's something of which he can be proud.

Taste on Food:
5 out of 5. I went ahead and gave it a perfect score (I'm not going to play a goofy decimal point "ballet" by giving this a score of 4.7 or 4.8). I shook some on put it on a tortilla chip - superb! It's an excellent alternative to tomato-y salsas.

Tom's Hot Sauces

I applied it to a breakfast potato, egg, and cheese "mashup" and it felt right at home, giving it a nice warmth and bite.

Tom's Hot Sauces

I even poured out large quantities on my 3-Cheese Chicken Nachos which I had for lunch from Qdoba. Regularly Cholula Hot Sauce is the preferred perker-upper on these for me, but Tom's Kickflip Fire was great on this as well.

Heat:
Surprising, the Old Man Medium is relatively hot for a medium-level sauce. There is honestly not a lot of difference in the heat levels of the two. Kickflip Fire provides a good sting to the tongue and is something chileheads would like when it comes to a general all-purpose "table" sauce. Old Man Medium may be a little too spicy for the timid. On a scale of 1 to 5, OMM would rate a 2.5 and KF a 3.

Labels:
The picture of the old man facing the other away on the medium bottle is a somewhat odd for a hot sauce. The typography and layout of each I could easily envision on an old-fashioned "homespun" barbecue sauce, but maybe not pepper sauces.

Overall:
These get a high recommendation from me. First-rate flavor with just enough heat.

Each one is $5.00 for a 5 oz bottle at Tom's Hot Sauce Website and costs less per bottle if ordered in larger quantities.

Comments

Chileman
2009-09-08 06:04:15

Look s like really good stuff.

Tom Schickel
2009-09-08 21:38:25

Hi Scott-
Thanks for taking the time to review my sauce and write it up. I really appreciate this!
Tom

nikos Tsakonas
2009-09-08 21:57:33

Man, I eat this stuff on just about everything, but it really does the trick for breakfast.Some of the best I've ever had! Bravo Tom!!!!

Poolman
2009-09-09 05:38:34

I have been using Tom's hot sauce since his first bottles were made and love it. I use it on just about anything and it makes a great kick to Bloody Marys. I took it camping for Labor Day weekend and all my friends used up almost a whole bottle. Glad I have more.

Laura Farrelly
2009-09-12 20:30:32

Couldn't agree more with the "first rate flavor" comment - old man medium is my favorite!!!!

barb
2009-09-13 10:31:55

We eat it on absolutely everything, it is really good on pizza!

Jennifer
2009-09-14 17:46:37

I have two words for you “tuna salad". I was trying to eat what was in the cupboard instead of spending more money. So I decided to spice the tuna up with Tom's Hot Sauce. WOW!! I forgot about just trying to save money . Try it!!

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