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The Scoville Brothers Hot Sauces Review #1
By DK | June 11, 2009 |
During their visit with Bill and Sandi, The Scoville Brothers were kind enough to leave a few pre-production sample bottles of the sauces that they are working on for the TTF reviewers to sample and review. The Three sauces are called “Rockin’ Red”, “Viva Verde”, and “Singing Smoke”. First up is Ethan’s take on these soon to be released sauces from The Scoville Brothers.
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Reviewed by – Ethan
To sample these sauces, I sliced up a grilled pork tenderloin that had been only lightly seasoned. I stuck a couple slices of meat on some small dinner rolls to make simple sandwiches. One each one, I tried a different Scoville Brothers sauce. Here are my thoughts, in the order I tried them.
Rockin’ Red - Very, very thin! As I poured the Rockin’ Red sauce on my sandwich, it ran right off and pooled on my plate. I took the top part of the bun, soaked up the sauce as much as possible, replaced it, and then dug in. This is a tangy sauce, with plenty of vinegar. If you’re not a fan of vinegar, this is not for you. Heat-wise, it was very mild at first, but finished with a small burn. Because the sauce was so thin, a lot of it (and the burn) ended up on my lips and in my beard. Rockin’ Red is probably not the right consistency for topping a sandwich, but it might work well in a soup or chilli. The flavor was fairly typical of a red vinegar-based sauce, with the emphasis on vinegar.
Viva Verde – Whoa! Tangy! This one didn’t work for me. Like the Rockin’ Red, it was very thin. In addition to the vinegar, there is something else at work here, and it’s overpowering. Too much tang and zip for my tastes. Viva Verde was hotter than I expected, but still a low medium on the heat scale. This might work better mixed in a dip, or something creamy to take some of the tang out. My least favorite of the bunch.
Singing Smoke – This one is less sweet than the typical chipotle sauce, with a very smoky flavor. Usually, I like the sweetness in chipotle sauces, but this one worked quite well without it. The flavor was simple, with less vinegar up front, and it worked really well with the pork. It was still too thin for my tastes, but overall this was my favorite of the three by far. I think it was also the mildest of the bunch, but not by much. If there was one thing I would change, I think there was not enough pepper flavor. There was plenty of smoke flavor, but I thought the peppers themselves were pushed into the background.
Overall, the Scoville Brothers have a good start, but I don’t think any of the sauces are going to knock any of my favorites off the shelf quite yet. They were all too thin for my tastes, and a little heavy on the vinegar. Find a way to thicken them up and reduce the vinegar kick, and they might be onto something, especially with the Singing Smoke.
- Ethan
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The Scoville Brothers
www.scovillebrothers.com
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Topics: General, Hot Product Reviews, Reviews | 5 Comments »
Nice review, Ethan!
Looks interesting. How can these sauces be purchased?
Good review Ethan, thanks for pointing out the vinegar thing. I’m afraid I’ll have to pass on this one. I cant even eat salt and vinegar potato chips.
It’s funny how people’s tastes differ. First of all, we have “given away” quite a few bottles of these sauces and no one has said that they are too vinegary. In fact, most comment that they are not vinegary at all. Go figure.
The sauces were first made with a consistency so we could use orifice shrinkers, but that idea has since flown out the window. The consistency issue is being addressed, and we do realize that most chileheads like a thicker sauce.
It’s also funny that most people that have tried them so far like the green sauce the best and Ethan liked it the least. I could tell you what makes it tangy, but if I did, I would have to kill you.
To us, the heat level of all three is really quite the same with the green sauce being the least hot. None of them are really “chilehead” hot, but the average person doesn’t like them real hot anyway. I would prefer them a little hotter though, especially the red sauce.
We are currently searching for bulk product sources to make our sauces, but finding quality product at a reasonable price is proving difficult. Also, if the weather around here doesn’t warm up, we may not have a pepper crop ourselves this year.
Overall, this has and is continuing to be a learning experience. Thanks for the review Ethan.
Jeff
You got it right Jeff. I make my salsa with red wine vinegar and lemon juice since I dont like regular vinegar. I have yet to meet a Louisiana style sauce that I would go out of my way for, and yes, I do like a thicker sauce.