« November ’07 …”No Fear Zone” Part 2 | Home | Clean Living, and Healthy Eatin’ »
Review: El Yucateco Green Hot Sauce
By admin | November 14, 2007 |
By Buddah
I wanted to do this review of El Yucateco blind, with no information about the hot sauce nor the company that makes it. I feel like such a rookie writing about a hot sauce that seems like its been around for ages. I have seen it on some lists of Chileheads top 10 hot sauces, which is why I bought a bottle a few months back. The bottle’s label is colored in a way you would notice it, with mostly in bright cheery yellow, blue and red colors, but it is this same design that leads me to think that it is unremarkable in taste as it is on a shelf. It looks like an old hot sauce that I have seen before, but never wanted to buy. Other hot sauce bottles have something about it to reach out and grab you and El Yucateco seems so ordinary.
I am a total novice in hot sauce and with peppers, and when I bought this bottle I wasn’t too excited about it because it was a green liquid. Green hot sauce says jalapeno all over it. The label clearly says “HOT SAUCE Salsa Picante de CHILE HABANERO”. Yet it didn’t excite me because it was watery with no visible flakes. How many green sauces look appetizing? So now that I look at the ingredients for the first time, there is no jalapeno peppers in the ingredients. None at all. There is indeed habaneros, but it says, “green habaneros”. I didn’t even know they came green. Yeah I am an idiot. I am not even going to look that fact up on wikipedia or google it, I don’t really care. I like the fact that I am learning as I go. I am thinking that the green habs are not really matured yet, and they aren’t fully ripened ones, hence the color. I am probably wrong, and once the other chileheads tell me such after this review I will then be much wiser for it. Buddha was a wise man or at least that is what they say.My thought process here for choosing El Yucateco, which is made in Mexico, is that I just wanted to get it over with, and onto some exciting bottles with skulls and/or cool looking graphics on them. Marketing does sell in the minds of the consumer, no doubt, but let us not forget word of mouth carries more weight than some fancy looking label. In this review it is all about the word of mouth that has brought me to El Yucateco. For I know in my heart I would never have bought this hot sauce product if it wasn’t for a chilehead’s recommendation. Thank you INCaneFan and Anthony from the HSB. So let us turn away from how I came about this review and get to the actual review.
The egg omelet might not have been the best choice for this hot sauce, but you have to start somewhere and that is where I started. I made an omelet with cheddar and monterey jack cheese with a little bit of ATKRider’s 40:1 salsa which is a perfect compliment to the eggs. I poured some El Yucateco onto the corner of my plate and I was surprised how slow and thick it came out. I was expecting the viscosity of tabasco, yet what I got was more like motor oil. What was even more surprising was the vibrant greenish color. I know what I saw in the bottle, but once it was on a plate it reminded me of finger paint. I even had a flashback to 3rd grade and wanted to make a turtle with my fingers on the eggs as my canvas. I will have you know I resisted the temptation.
I didn’t think that the El Yucateco was the right choice for the omelet, but once I put the fork to my mouth, my tastebuds actually told my brain I was a dork. This stuff rocked on my eggs. This is why you have to open your mind to all possibilities with food. If I failed with the eggs, I might have tried chicken next before I called it a day. Yet, I am thinking of all the wonderful applications I can have with this product. The flavor is kind of good to ordinary by itself, but on my eggs with cheese it was so very pleasant on my palette. Because ATKRider’s salsa has some bite, I had to sample the hot sauce alone. It does have some burn that I wasn’t sure if I noticed because of the flame of the salsa. El Yucateco does not have an overpowering heat but a nice one that lingers in your mouth and gives the forehead a layer of sweat as a reminder of its presence.
From the time I bought this hot sauce, until now, I have seen other products by El Yucateco, and I wasn’t sure before today that I bought the right one from INCaneFan’s recommendation. I checked out their website www.elyucateco.com before finishing this review just so I knew some of the facts of this company’s products. They started up in 1968 as a small family business and have grown over the years to be sold in many countries as a world-renowned company. At their website they have a scoville scale for their hot sauces which I loved to see. The Green Habanero hot sauce I tried was their 2nd hottest at 8910 scu, and their hottest one, Kutbil-lk(Mayan Recipe) was at 11600 scu. I also escaped with one bit of information from their “Interesting Facts” page under “our raw materials”, that I will wind up the review with. The green hab is an unripe hab. I guess this Buddah is wise too.
Cap’n's pick for a great site to purchace this product is Mexgrocer.com. Other than Wal-Mart, you cannot beat their prices for El Yucateco and other really good products from south of the border.
Related Posts
- Multi-Review: Kato’s Island Sauce
- Review: Illegal Alien Hot Sauce
- All American Hot Sauce: Review Preview
- Multi-Review: Three Hot Tamales “Cranked Up Cranberry” Sauce…Part 1
- Ode to a Great Hot Sauce…XX Hot Ring of Fire
Topics: Hot Product Reviews | 17 Comments »
Glad you finally gave it a whirl. I love this sauce on Mac & Cheese, you’ll have to give it a whirl sometime. Without question though, it’s my favorite on that application.
I’m not a big fan of the red El Yucateca although some people prefer it to the green. The Mayan is pretty good as well so you should give it a whirl.
For the price, you simply cannot complain. Have a good one and nice review. I’ve never been to this site before so thanks for shooting me the email message that brought me here!
Nice review :nerd:! Habaneros do come green- as in “unripe”. I know of no variety that ripens green. That’s why they have all the artifical coloring in the sauce.
This brings up some interesting points, since you consider yourself a ‘consumer’ rather than a specialist. Actually, they’re more questions than anything.
Unless the ingredient list has changed greatly recently, El Yuc has the following: artificial coloring, potassium sorbate, sodium benzoate, and Xantham.
Given all the thrashing of those things in general hot sauce discussions, did they influence you? Did you consider *not* purchasing it because of their presence? Did you consider it a ‘con’? Do you look at ingredients before considering a sauce?
first off Jim, I tried contacting a couple times by email without much luck. I am sending you a package today, so look for that shortly. Thanks for the peppers, and now you can sample what I did with it.
On the list of ingredients, I look for sugar and wheat, leading to high carbs/ serving. After that its only a few ingredients that I am wary of. Corn syrup, high frustose, MSG, I often stay clear of as well.
Welcome to the group INCaneFan, and thanks for the kind words and recommendations. This is definitely a Mac ‘n Cheese lot.
Nice review :nerd:. The green El Yuc has long been one of my favorites. Any Mexican place that has this as their table sauce automatically scores a few points from me…
Jim, I know your questions were aimed at :nerd:, but my .02: I do look at ingredients, but not to check for things like Xantham and artificial stuff. I’m more interested in where the vinegar and water fall in the list of things (if present at all) and what type of peppers were used. The other stuff just doesn’t matter to me. I probably put worse things in my body on a regular basis, so will the extra little bit of Xantham hurt me? I don’t actually know the answer to that, but El Yuc is yummy, so I keep buying and eating it…
Great review :nerd:, keep em coming!
Morning folks !!!
Great review of an average sauce :nerd:, I don’t think I’ve ever bought, but I have tasted, nothing spectacular. The color is kinda scary in my opinion.
:nerd:, you have a real talent for writing you know?
AJ,
you have a real talent for vanishing for weeks on end. call me, we need to do lunch.
BTW, nice review as always :nerd:.
Thanks guys, your compliments mean a lot. I have written some short stories online, and even got 4th place in a Holiday writing competition a few years back for a story entitled, I swear I am not joking, “Marty the Midget’s Erotic Christmas”. Yes, I am strange, but most of you knew that all ready. :P
the best sauce that they make is the carribian sauce, i dont even know where to get it but a guy here at work buys me a bottle every once in a while, iv had all of the diffrent sauces from this brand and the carribian is 100% better than the second place, it has good heat and delicious flavor.
:nerd:, aren’t you Jewish? HA HA HA….I swear my hubby, Garry, would love to see something like that! He always says from one Jew to another! Yes I am …..whatever you call us catholic girls married to good little Jewish boys-as I have been told. :-)
I did forget about the Carib one, that’s tasty as well in my book. I guess I just don’t like their red and chipotle.
the red is ok on sandwiches, i didnt like the chipotle at all.
the green isnt really my favorite either, but its ok, i ended up eating most of that one as a dip with tortilla chips.
Jodie Says:
November 16th, 2007 at 12:42 am
“:nerd:, aren’t you Jewish? HA HA HA….I swear my hubby, Garry, would love to see something like that! He always says from one Jew to another! Yes I am …..whatever you call us catholic girls married to good little Jewish boys-as I have been told.”
Marty the Midget was Jewish in my story. Always write from a place you know.
Great write up as always :nerd:. I think eggs for a green sauce is pretty good, my favorite thing for green sauce is pizza. I have tried the El Yuc and as always you usually get what you pay for, not bad but nothing to package up and send as Christmas gifts.
As far as ingredients I am more like Ethan, more curious about the order of ingredients in association to the taste.
:nerd:, another great review. I peronally have not tried most of their line however I have tried their chipotle. I really like it. It doesn’t have much in the way of heat but the flavor is great. I’m not sure what they smoke the peppers with but a friend of mine who gave it to me said it is traditional in Yucatan to use the stems and leaves of the pepper plants to smoke the peppers. I have no factual data to support that, but he has been down there several times and is buddies with a family that grows habs there.
Thanks guys.
Generalee….busy busy busy, new toy remember?
I’ll call you monday