Taste Test: Hot Sauce

 Sounds funny but truthfully hot sauce has been a part of life since i was very young, my favorite is Louisiana hot sauce. Growing up my summers were spent in Louisiana visiting my family, just about every meal served came with a bottle of hot sauce. My grandma swore that hot sauce deserved to be on absolutely everything, from red beans and rice, to jambalaya, she would not eat unless she drizzled her bottle of Louisiana hot sauce on top. She loved hot sauce so much that for one of her birthdays i got her a twenty four pack of different samples of the hottest hot sauces on the market. 

There’s not many items i can say that I would truly enjoy taste testing except for hot sauce. When i saw this assignment to me it was an easy choice since we never run low on a variety of hot sauces. My three choices are, Louisiana hot sauce, Valentina, and cholula- three very iconic and well known budget friendly choices. I have always been a firm Louisiana hot sauce type of person and i have never had another kind before so i thought this would be the perfect opportunity.  i think being able to break down and compare a few will be fun. 

To make sure I wasn’t being bias i had my mom pour the three into three different containers and had her label them one, two, and three. I tested these using a spoon full of rice for each choice since it is bland and also allows for a noticeable difference. For a bit of a spin i decided to blindfold myself after taking down the visual appearance of each. My mom did random order so i was unable to tell which was which. I will also be using water to clear my palette after each taste test. 

Louisiana hot sauce and Valentina shown, cholula was in a small container not shown

Sample 1: had a deep brick red color and thick texture, my first thought was it reminded me of a taco sauce texture. No shine just very rich

Sample 2: much more color, bright red/orange, very thin and runny. 

Sample 3: it looked to be right in between the other two, medium thickness.

Sample 1 was Valentina, it tasted like a chili flavor, kind of smoky. The texture was thick and seemed to be stuck to the rice. Not very hot but a lot of flavor. Sample 2 was Louisiana hot sauce, classic, the heat hit very fast but fades just as quick. Left a tangy, peppery taste. Sample 3 was cholula, very balanced. The flavor was sweet and the heat was more of a slow build the more i consumed. It didn’t hit as hard as the puissant hot sauce but i will say the heat remained a lot longer.

Overall i will say i really enjoyed this assignment and i was pleasantly surprised to say i might even prefer cholula than my go to Louisiana hot sauce. The taste was more than just the heat element, it was great flavor and well balanced. I will definitely be buying Louisiana and cholula hot sauce again but i was not a fan of Valentina as it was too thick of a texture for me, i like the more runny type of texture.