Bitter: ⭐⭐✰✰✰
Salty: ⭐⭐✰✰✰
Sour/Tangy: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✰
Sweet: ⭐⭐✰✰✰
Umami: ⭐✰✰✰✰
Heat: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✰✰✰✰✰✰
Quick Flavor Notes: Tart, vinegary, earthy, bright
Recommended: Conditional
Texture: Thin and mostly smooth
Ingredients: Blueberries, Rice Vinegar, Red Ghost Pepper Puree (Red Ghost Chili Peppers, Salt, Acetic Acid), Sea Salt, Lemon Juice from concentrate, Black Pepper
My usual routine after finishing off a bottle of hot sauce is to go rummaging around the room where I keep all of my unopened sauces, usually focusing on the areas where I’ve kept the sauces I purchased the earliest, until I find something that fits the type of mood I’m in. I pulled this one out from the bottom of a box and it’s one that I’d completely forgotten that I’d purchased. Blueberries are one of my favorite fruits and I do enjoy ghost peppers so I decided to give this sauce, which appeared on Hot Ones in season three in the number six position, a try.
While some Bravado sauces such as their Aka Miso Ghost Reaper (which I loved) have quite complicated and intricate ingredients lists they kept it simple with this one with only six ingredients. Leading things off are the blueberries, always great to see when one of the ingredients listed on the label gets top billing, followed by rice vinegar and the ghost pepper puree. Rice wine vinegar is a nice touch as it’s typically a bit sweeter and less harsh that distilled vinegar. One thing I’ve noticed about many Bravado sauces however, and something I don’t care for as much, is their reliance on premade pepper mashes for their peppers instead of fresh peppers. Bravado has stated that they use a co-packer instead of producing the sauces in-house, which is a legitimate choice and something many sauce makers do, however there’s absolutely a range in quality when it comes to co-packers with some relying on pre-made mashes and others willing to source fresh (or frozen fresh) peppers for better quality. On that same topic they do note the lemon juice is from concentrate, which while cost saving, also doesn’t compare to the quality of fresh citrus juice such as what Haico’s Hot Sauce uses in their sauces. Black pepper isn’t an uncommon ingredient in hot sauces but I do love the inclusion here as it’s a classic culinary pairing with tart berries, though more often seen with strawberries. While you can see some small bits of spice in the sauce its mostly smooth texturally and has a very thin consistency. The blueberries jump right to the front in the aroma with some vinegar and chile pepper undertones.
I was surprised at how vinegar-forward and tart/sour this sauce was on the first taste. Blueberries can have a natural tartness and that’s being amplified in a major way by the lemon juice and vinegar in this sauce. Before I opened the bottle I’d assumed that this sauce would be a sweet heat flavor profile because of the blueberries being the first ingredient. While there is some sweetness from the blueberries (and a tad bit of pepper fruit flavor from the red ghosts) this sauce leans much more into the savory realm in no small part due to the vinegar flavor and overall acidity. Since the lemon flavor is bright and the blueberries are tart and sweet the ghost pepper earthy and slightly smoky flavor provides and excellent contrast. It does have a bit of the astringent super-hot chile bitterness though the blueberry flavor helps to counter that. The black pepper with its pungent and sharp bite further entrenches this sauce in the savory realm rather than the sweet but also adds a needed extra dimension of flavor to help balance the tartness and vinegar-forward nature of the sauce. I also found Bravado Ghost Pepper Blueberry to be on the milder side for a ghost pepper sauce, which isn’t surprising given how thin this sauce is I don’t believe it contains a large amount of actual ghost peppers. It presents as medium-mild at first though there is a building and lingering heat with a long tail, something common with ghost pepper based sauces.
Bravado’s website recommends this sauce on bagels with cream cheese so I decided to give that a go and it is a nice combination. I added a slice of prosciutto as well and found that the tartness and acidity of the sauce is great for cutting through the creaminess of the cream cheese, and cured meats always pair well with fruits and berries. Interestingly when combined with cream cheese I found that the blueberry flavor came more forward than it did when trying the sauce straight from a spoon. I also liked this sauce with ham, and again pork and berries can be a classic combination so unsurprising it works well. Ghost Pepper Blueberry also made for some interesting buffalo wings. Combining it with some melted butter both helped the texture and adding that creamy and fatty element helped balance the acidity.
Overall I’ve enjoyed this sauce. It’s not a flavor profile I’d necessarily seek out again but I’m glad that I got to try it and I do find it interesting. I’ll give it a conditional recommendation just because this sauce is quite thin and quite vinegar-forward which isn’t what I, and I’m assuming most others, are expecting from a fruit-based hot sauce. Cutting down on the vinegar and lemon while doubling or tripling the amount of blueberries and ghost peppers in this sauce would do a lot to improve the texture and balance the flavor in my opinion.
by MagnusAlbusPater
1 Comment
Bitter: ⭐⭐✰✰✰
Salty: ⭐⭐✰✰✰
Sour/Tangy: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✰
Sweet: ⭐⭐✰✰✰
Umami: ⭐✰✰✰✰
Heat: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✰✰✰✰✰✰
Quick Flavor Notes: Tart, vinegary, earthy, bright
Recommended: Conditional
Texture: Thin and mostly smooth
Ingredients: Blueberries, Rice Vinegar, Red Ghost Pepper Puree (Red Ghost Chili Peppers, Salt, Acetic Acid), Sea Salt, Lemon Juice from concentrate, Black Pepper
My usual routine after finishing off a bottle of hot sauce is to go rummaging around the room where I keep all of my unopened sauces, usually focusing on the areas where I’ve kept the sauces I purchased the earliest, until I find something that fits the type of mood I’m in. I pulled this one out from the bottom of a box and it’s one that I’d completely forgotten that I’d purchased. Blueberries are one of my favorite fruits and I do enjoy ghost peppers so I decided to give this sauce, which appeared on Hot Ones in season three in the number six position, a try.
While some Bravado sauces such as their Aka Miso Ghost Reaper (which I loved) have quite complicated and intricate ingredients lists they kept it simple with this one with only six ingredients. Leading things off are the blueberries, always great to see when one of the ingredients listed on the label gets top billing, followed by rice vinegar and the ghost pepper puree. Rice wine vinegar is a nice touch as it’s typically a bit sweeter and less harsh that distilled vinegar. One thing I’ve noticed about many Bravado sauces however, and something I don’t care for as much, is their reliance on premade pepper mashes for their peppers instead of fresh peppers. Bravado has stated that they use a co-packer instead of producing the sauces in-house, which is a legitimate choice and something many sauce makers do, however there’s absolutely a range in quality when it comes to co-packers with some relying on pre-made mashes and others willing to source fresh (or frozen fresh) peppers for better quality. On that same topic they do note the lemon juice is from concentrate, which while cost saving, also doesn’t compare to the quality of fresh citrus juice such as what Haico’s Hot Sauce uses in their sauces. Black pepper isn’t an uncommon ingredient in hot sauces but I do love the inclusion here as it’s a classic culinary pairing with tart berries, though more often seen with strawberries. While you can see some small bits of spice in the sauce its mostly smooth texturally and has a very thin consistency. The blueberries jump right to the front in the aroma with some vinegar and chile pepper undertones.
I was surprised at how vinegar-forward and tart/sour this sauce was on the first taste. Blueberries can have a natural tartness and that’s being amplified in a major way by the lemon juice and vinegar in this sauce. Before I opened the bottle I’d assumed that this sauce would be a sweet heat flavor profile because of the blueberries being the first ingredient. While there is some sweetness from the blueberries (and a tad bit of pepper fruit flavor from the red ghosts) this sauce leans much more into the savory realm in no small part due to the vinegar flavor and overall acidity. Since the lemon flavor is bright and the blueberries are tart and sweet the ghost pepper earthy and slightly smoky flavor provides and excellent contrast. It does have a bit of the astringent super-hot chile bitterness though the blueberry flavor helps to counter that. The black pepper with its pungent and sharp bite further entrenches this sauce in the savory realm rather than the sweet but also adds a needed extra dimension of flavor to help balance the tartness and vinegar-forward nature of the sauce. I also found Bravado Ghost Pepper Blueberry to be on the milder side for a ghost pepper sauce, which isn’t surprising given how thin this sauce is I don’t believe it contains a large amount of actual ghost peppers. It presents as medium-mild at first though there is a building and lingering heat with a long tail, something common with ghost pepper based sauces.
Bravado’s website recommends this sauce on bagels with cream cheese so I decided to give that a go and it is a nice combination. I added a slice of prosciutto as well and found that the tartness and acidity of the sauce is great for cutting through the creaminess of the cream cheese, and cured meats always pair well with fruits and berries. Interestingly when combined with cream cheese I found that the blueberry flavor came more forward than it did when trying the sauce straight from a spoon. I also liked this sauce with ham, and again pork and berries can be a classic combination so unsurprising it works well. Ghost Pepper Blueberry also made for some interesting buffalo wings. Combining it with some melted butter both helped the texture and adding that creamy and fatty element helped balance the acidity.
Overall I’ve enjoyed this sauce. It’s not a flavor profile I’d necessarily seek out again but I’m glad that I got to try it and I do find it interesting. I’ll give it a conditional recommendation just because this sauce is quite thin and quite vinegar-forward which isn’t what I, and I’m assuming most others, are expecting from a fruit-based hot sauce. Cutting down on the vinegar and lemon while doubling or tripling the amount of blueberries and ghost peppers in this sauce would do a lot to improve the texture and balance the flavor in my opinion.