Tag: super HOT

Lola’s “Fine” Hot Sauces – an Iowa Thing…

So, I know it’s been a few months since my last post. I promised that I had more Iowa hot sauces to review. I decided I’d better get my ass in gear and get going. I’m tackling Lola’s Fine Hot Sauces in this post, and then I finally get to try my Iowa Pepper Company sauces that I’ve been sitting on for almost a year. I have a feeling that my next review will be covering some amazing sauces (or so I hope). Meanwhile…

… Lola’s. It’s actually Lola’s Fine Hot Sauce, which come in a variety of “flavors”. I’m kind of guessing that the “Fine” came from someone at Lola’s, when they first made their sauce(based on their grandma’s secret recipe, apparently), asking a taste tester how the sauce was. The conversation probably went something like this:

Family member: So, what did you think of the sauce?

Taste tester: It’s pretty okay. I mean, I’ve had better, but it’s far from the worst hot sauce I’ve tried.

Family member: But, I mean, if you had to use one word to sum it up, what word would you use? Fantastic? Flavorful? Spicy? Original?

Taste tester: It’s fine, dude, chill. Your sauce is just fine!

And in this imaginary conversation lies a possible reason for the name of the sauces being Lola’s Fine Hot Sauce.

I’m not going to dog on these sauces… at least not most of them. Lola’s original was one of the first sauces I bought when I moved to Iowa in July of 2023. I hated it. I was extremely disappointed. My first Iowa hot sauce and, at the time, it seemed like some basic store-brand Louisiana sauce full of vinegar and not much heat. I have, after a year-and-a-half of retrying this sauce (because this stuff is everywhere, Hy-Vee, Walmart, a local chain called Fairway… I even saw these sauces in Nebraska grocery stores when I was last in that state), I’ve become somewhat of a, I don’t know… not exactly a fan, but… not a hater?

I mean, how can something that is getting so much shelf space be as completely disgusting as I originally though?

For this review, I ordered a gift set of four sauces from Lola’s website (as you read this review, you will realize that I’m making zero money by putting this link here). The four-pack I ordered had the Original, Green Jalapeno & Serrano, Carolina Reaper and the Family Reserve. I think I picked up the Trinidad Scorpion at Walmart and I know I got the Mango Ginger Scotch Bonnet at Hy-Vee (it used to be a Hy-Vee exclusive).

I gotta be honest here, I could honestly just review three of these sauces and say, ‘It’s the same as the Original but hotter… and thinner,’ but I tried them all, damnit, and you’re going to have to read them… or not. You can leave at any time, but you can stay, too.

I’m going to start with the mildest of the Lola’s Fine Sauces: Green Jalapeno & Serrano. The flavor profile that almost all of these sauces share is a nice blend of lime and garlic. When I finally distinguished these flavor amongst the vinegar and pepper of the sauces, it was what helped me realize that Lola’s aren’t just another garbage cayenne pepper sauce. You have to realize, Covid screwed my taste buds up, and flavors aren’t immediately distinguishable to me… which is why I’m drawn to a lot of heat. The hotter the food, the more alive my taste buds become and the more flavors I can enjoy. With Lola’s only green sauce, lime and garlic compliment the tanginess of the green peppers. Is it hot? No. Is it warm? Yes, and it has, in my opinion, the most useable flavor of any of the Lola sauces. Now, if the fine folks at Lola’s would consider making it with, perhaps, a green Ghost Pepper…

Lola’s Original: this is the sauce that, upon first taste, I assumed was another low-quality cayenne sauce. The thing is, there is no cayenne in this sauce. The heat (and color) comes from Red Jalapeno and Red Habanero. The garlic and lime work well. Although this sauce is only mildly hot, it really does have a decent flavor and I can understand how the mild palettes of Iowa have claimed this sauce as one of their own… kind of like Caitlyn Clark. I think Caitlyn is an amazing basketball player and have nothing but respect for her, but I’ve seen 70-year-old grandma-types on social media trying to defend her when someone says something bad, and it’s all like:

“Caitlyn is a God-fearing woman who comes from a good family and knows true sportsmanship. Some of these other women in the WNBA could learn a lot from her. She represents Iowa so well, and we are proud of her and know she has a great future ahead.”

And the commenter’s name is like Ethel Wilmington, and her profile picture is a gray-haired old lady with her cat, and you can tell she knows next-to-nothing about basketball, but by-golly, Caitlyn is from Iowa and that makes her the best! I feel like this is how a lot of supporters of Lola’s are: it’s made in Iowa, so it can’t be bad. And Lola’s isn’t bad… it’s really not.

On to the Mango Ginger Scotch Bonnet. I was super stoker to try this sauce. A Scotch Bonnet sauce, made in Iowa, with ginger and mango! What could go wrong? First, the heat level is pretty disappointing. Second, it’s really not very sweet. It’s really a pretty bland sauce. Not sweet enough to be fruity, not spicy enough to keep on hand. This is the only one of the Lola’s sauces that I truly didn’t like, which sucks, because I feel like this sauce had a lot of potential.

Trinidad Scorpion: not a bad sauce. In fact, it’s pretty similar to the Original, but hotter. Not a lot hotter, but hotter. There is the common garlic/lime combo that takes the Lola’s sauces a level above your simple cayenne and Louisiana sauces that I truly don’t like. Lola’s also has a Ghost Pepper sauce which I have tried but am not reviewing at this time… but if you’ve tried the Trinidad Scorpion, you’ve pretty much tried any of the Lola’s that are up in the Super Hot range. With the Trinidad Scorpion, I did get some lingering mouth warmth, which is a good sign, but it really isn’t a Super Hot Sauce. But, this is Iowa, after all, and I think the folks at Lola’s know their target market.

Carolina Reaper: not only is the Carolina Reaper a Super Hot Pepper, it’s one of the hottest peppers in the world! Much like the Great Value Carolina Reaper/Jack cheese at Walmart or the Herr’s Carolina Reaper Cheese Curls, Lola’s Carolina Reaper Sauce uses the Carolina Reaper name, but doesn’t come close to living up to that name. So many food brands have tried taking advantage of Super Hots and their followers by throwing a Super Hot Pepper name on their products without offering close to the Super Hot heat levels. Campbell’s Chunky Ghost Pepper Chicken Noodle is a rare exception. Chunky’s Ghost Pepper soup is actually pretty hot. The Ghost Pepper may be the first (and mildest) of the true Super Hots, but it still packs a freaking wallop! Campbell’s cheats a bit with some pepper extract, but they still deliver a soup that can truly warm even the coldest of souls (I should know) on a cold winter’s eve. Lola’s Carolina Reaper sauce? Not so much. I actually feel like their Carolina Reaper sauce is considerably thinner (i.e. runnier) than the Trinidad Scorpion counterpart, but it’s not quite as spicy. Maybe they had to add more water to make up for the cost of the Carolina Reapers that they use in their sauce, but it doesn’t seem to be nearly as spicy as it should be. Again, it has a nice lime/garlic flavor boost, but all of their standard red sauces do.

Finally, a HOT sauce: Family Reserve! This is the only one of Lola’s sauces that I would consider to be actually hot. Similar to the Reaper sauce, this one is relatively thin. But the Family Reserve sauce is significantly hotter than any of Lola’s other sauces. It actually has a heat that can build as you eat it, and it can bring about the kind of sweating that I truly appreciate in hot sauce. If you decide to partake of a bit of Lola’s best sauce, it’s going to set you back around $12.00 for a 5oz bottle. Really, for a truly hot, all natural sauce, this is the kind of price you should expect to pay. The only issue I have with this price is the competitive sauces that are around the same price that deliver so much more. So much more not only heat, but flavor! Volcanic Peppers has a slew of sauces that are not only hotter but have better taste! Puckerbutt Peppers has a similar offering! If you are looking for true Super Hot sauces, look elsewhere.

However…

I have found a perfect use for Lola’s Family Reserve! I love me a good red beer! And I usually add a few dozen splashes of a decent table-side hot sauce to my concoction… usually something with Tabasco in the title. I have found that Lola’s red sauces are perfect complements to the tomato-based juice of you choice and the lager of you choice for a great red beer! Looking for an example?

Lola’s (along with Garage Beer Lime) offers up an almost perfect red beer, so they have an offering that is worth checking out!

More reviews to come. I hope you’ll continue to follow me on this adventure!

Brown Dogs Farm: Totally Fruity Hot Sauces

I love spicy food. The spicier the better. Since having Covid in 2020 and losing my senses of taste and smell for over a year, and never having those senses completely return, I took my love of a little spice on my food to the next level.

Over the course of the past few years, I have developed an infatuation with super hot peppers… you know, the ones that break one million on the Scoville scale. Ghost Peppers, Scorpion Peppers, 7-Pot Peppers, Carolina Reapers… these are the things of my food-fueled dreams! And, to be honest, living in Iowa makes satisfying my desires a bit… difficult. Iowa seems to be one of those places where many people feel that black peppercorn is too spicy; this pretty much sums up most (but not all) the Midwest.

When I moved here, I almost instantly researched hot sauces made right here in Iowa. I found three companies that are local to Iowa and give access to an easy way to purchase their products online. I’ve ordered a sampling of sauces from each of them, and I’m going to give a little review of each sauce.

First up, Brown Dogs Farm.

On Brown Dogs Farm’s website, they were selling a set of mini bottles (1.76oz each) that I thought would be a great way to sample all of their sauces. The only regret I ended up having over ordering this set was the fact that I went through the small bottles way too fast!

The folks at Brown Dogs Farm seem to think that spicy sauces need some fruit to complete them… and for them, it seems to work. Even their standard “Hot Sauce” gives off fruity vibes… although the only “fruit” in this sauce is green and hot peppers and tomatoes; maybe it’s the brown sugar and lime juice?

The only two of these sauces that I didn’t love instantly were the mild Jalapeno Green Apple and the hot Cherry Rhubarb Reaper… but my feelings toward those sauces changed by the ends of the bottles. I’m going to give a little breakdown of each sauce.

I’m going to start with the one simply called “Hot Sauce.” This is actually just a really good table sauce – you know, the kind of sauce that kind of goes with anything. It has a nice low-level of heat. One of the things that I really like about the sauces from Brown Dogs Farm is they aren’t overly vinegary. I like vinegary sauce on occasion, like Buffalo or Louisiana sauces (or Tabasco especially the scorpion version); these sauces are great in bloody marys or in red beers or on the occasional wing. For most foods, I prefer a sauce where the taste of the peppers or other ingredients aren’t overpowered by vinegar, and Brown Dog Farm’s Hot Sauce fits that bill. This sauce (like all of BDF’s sauces), leans into being fruity tasting. It’s a slightly sweet sauce with nice tomato accents and a little heat.

The first time I tasted the Jalapeno Green Apple Sauce, I thought it tasted like apple sauce with a little bit of jalapeno blended in. I didn’t really care for it in a hot sauce kind of way. By the time I finished the small bottle, I thought it tasted like apple sauce with a little bit of jalapeno blended in… and I liked it. The flavor combination works, and it works well. When I first tried the sauce, I wondered where the use of this sauce makes sense. At the end of the bottle, I came to the realization that any savory food that goes well with apples is a great thing to use this sauce with. Roasted pork or pork chops, fried potatoes, chicken, sausages… there are a lot of foods out there that would pair well with this lightly sweet, slightly spicy sauce.

I’m pretty sure the next three sauces are what Brown Dogs Farms is hanging its hat on. Habanero Peach was a very pleasant surprise… as were the Ghost Pear and Ghost Pineapple sauces. What I really liked about the Habanero Peach Sauce isn’t just the nice sweetness that comes from the peach, but the incredible savory kick I got from this sauce. The habanero pepper gives this sauce a nice heat… I’d say medium to low-level hot on a typical hot sauce scale. I love habanero sauces when mixed with a nice, sweet fruit, but the savory undertones in this sauce really make it stand out. Scouring the ingredients to see what could make this sauce so good to me, I discovered that mustard is on that ingredients list and may be the reason this sauce makes me so happy.

The Ghost Pear and Ghost Pineapple are quite similar to each other. Although both sauces are pretty sweet, and neither of these sauces really seem significantly hotter that the Peach Habanero, the pineapple version did have a slightly savory component as well… but this sauce doesn’t have the mustard of the habanero sauce, so I’m clueless where that component comes from. I really didn’t get nearly as much pear and pineapple from these two sauces as I got just “sweet”. The Peach Habanero, on the other hand, really did taste like peach. All three sauces are well worth a try.

Finally, we come to the Cherry Rhubarb Reaper Sauce. Here we are at the second sauce in Brown Dogs Farm’s lineup that I was like, “What in the hell would you use this sauce on?!?” This sauce has a really nice heat! Carolina Reaper in just about anything will give a really nice heat. I wouldn’t even consider thinking of this sauce as a “super hot”, but it does have a nice burn that builds with each bite. What kind of threw me off with this sauce wasn’t the heat or the smidge of sweetness. What kind of threw me off with this sauce was the incredible tartness of the cherries and rhubarb. I was really struggling to imagine foods this sauce would go well with. And yet again, by the end of the bottle and after giving this sauce a go with some different foods, this is actually a sauce I’d keep around for regular use. It’s amazing on a burger with cream cheese. It rocks on any fruit-based dessert… think apple pie or peach cobbler. If you can’t imagine adding a nice sweet, tart heat to a dessert, you probably shouldn’t be reading my blog. If a hot sauce you could easily use on desserts (slather some on vanilla ice cream and you won’t be disappointed) is something you are looking for, or can at least imagine, this may be the sauce for you. I’m not saying that Cherry Rhubarb Reaper Sauce is just a dessert hot sauce, though, because this sauce would be amazing in small amounts on grilled cod or as a dip for fried shrimp (or even chicken tenders or nuggets). I added a little to some ranch dressing and went to town on an order of French fries.

I really don’t know anything about the folks at Brown Dogs Farm, and I’m definitely got getting anything compensation-wise for doing this review, but if you’re looking for something new in the way of hot sauces and your regular sauces are starting to get a little boring, the sauces from this place are definitely worth a try. There are some Iowans who did right at Brown Dogs Farm. Check out what they have to offer at Brown Dogs Farm. If you do give these sauces a try, I’d love to know what you think. Comments on my posts are always open… except to spambots, which I remove when I can. I may not always respond, but I almost always see them and appreciate the feedback.

Now, on to another hot sauces that I want to try and review. There’s like seven or eight sauces from the next Iowa company I’m going to review. Seven or eight hot sauces that I have to try… yes, sometimes things in life go just a little bit right…