Bitter: ⭐⭐⭐✰✰
Salty: ⭐⭐✰✰✰
Sour/Tangy: ⭐⭐✰✰✰
Sweet: ⭐✰✰✰✰
Umami: ⭐⭐✰✰✰
Heat: ⭐✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰
Quick Flavor Notes: Earthy, savory
Recommended: Yes
Texture: Thin and smooth
Ingredients: Water, Jalapeno (or Rocoto) Peppers, Salt, Paprika, Malt Vinegar, Garlic Powder, Xanthan Gum, Sazon (Culantro and Achiote), Chili Powder
Robert Vasvary, known as Tennessee Bob, is the man behind Tennessee Bob’s Hot Sauce Co. In addition to running the hot sauce company he’s also an electrical engineer and an author. Robert says he was inspired to make his hot sauces after spending time with his Ecuadorian wife in her home town of Quito and falling in love with the local flavors. Despite the Tennessee in the name of the sauce the company is actually based in Boca Raton, FL. It was at the Pinellas Pepper Fest in Tampa, FL that I first discovered this hot sauce company and where after sampling many of his wares ended up coming home with several varieties of his sauce.
Something that’s interesting about this sauce is that the ingredients list on the bottle doesn’t match the ingredients description or list on the website. Rather, it’s all the same other than the name of the pepper printed on the bottle. The label (as well as the photo of the label on the website) say that the primary pepper is a jalapeno while the text and printed ingredients indicate it’s a rocoto, a South American pepper native to Peru. I’m not sure if it’s a recipe change or a misprint at play here. In addition to the peppers there’s garlic powder and an interesting vinegar choice in malt vinegar. Malt vinegar is of course very popular for serving with fish and chips but it’s not one that shows up often in hot sauces. Some interesting ingredients in this are achiote and culantro. Culantro, also called sawtooth cilantro and chadon-beni, is a cilantro-like herb with a stronger flavor. Achiote is a spice made from the annatto seed which has a mild earthy and bitter flavor but also imparts a deep red color. Rico Sauce has a thin consistency, perhaps a step up from Tabasco and the like, and a generally smooth texture though you can see some small spice bits inside. There’s an aroma of spice and earthiness.
On the first taste I’m not sure that I can tell whether this is red jalapeno or rocoto based. The flavor reminds me more of rocoto peppers which have a unique earthy savory flavor with some hints of citrus, but the heat level is extremely low in this sauce which leads more credence to these being jalapenos as rocotos are quite a bit spicier. This sauce does require some vigorous shaking as there’s a bit of sediment that settles to the bottom and it can taste too watery until its fully incorporated, something strange for a sauce that includes xanthan gum to require. This is a very earthy sauce in general – the combination of malt vinegar, which is nutty and on the earthier side as vinegars go, along with the achiote and whichever peppers are used all combine to shift the flavor of this sauce much more towards the darker end of the flavor spectrum. The malt vinegar, which does provide enough acidity to keep the sauce from tasting flat, also somehow doesn’t make it taste very tangy, which is interesting. As I mentioned the heat level in this sauce is minimal with virtually no burn either initially or lingering.
With the name and some of the ingredients I decided to try this with Mexican food first. While it’s not a bad pairing I did feel myself wishing for more brightness and tang when I used this with some nachos and tacos. Something I found better was using this on a hot dog along with some mustard. With the mustard providing the bright tangy element this sauce added a nice depth of flavor that contrasted to the mustard beautifully. Using this on wings works as well but oddly I found it not a great pairing with blue cheese to dip – not only is this mild enough that you don’t need to cool things down, the lack of tang meant that there wasn’t anything to fight the creamy fattiness of the blue cheese dressing.
This is an interesting sauce with quite a different flavor profile than I can recall experiencing in a while. I’ll go ahead and recommend it just keep in mind that it’s not necessarily the most flexible hot sauce on the planet and that the heat level is extremely low.
by MagnusAlbusPater
1 Comment
Bitter: ⭐⭐⭐✰✰
Salty: ⭐⭐✰✰✰
Sour/Tangy: ⭐⭐✰✰✰
Sweet: ⭐✰✰✰✰
Umami: ⭐⭐✰✰✰
Heat: ⭐✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰
Quick Flavor Notes: Earthy, savory
Recommended: Yes
Texture: Thin and smooth
Ingredients: Water, Jalapeno (or Rocoto) Peppers, Salt, Paprika, Malt Vinegar, Garlic Powder, Xanthan Gum, Sazon (Culantro and Achiote), Chili Powder
Robert Vasvary, known as Tennessee Bob, is the man behind Tennessee Bob’s Hot Sauce Co. In addition to running the hot sauce company he’s also an electrical engineer and an author. Robert says he was inspired to make his hot sauces after spending time with his Ecuadorian wife in her home town of Quito and falling in love with the local flavors. Despite the Tennessee in the name of the sauce the company is actually based in Boca Raton, FL. It was at the Pinellas Pepper Fest in Tampa, FL that I first discovered this hot sauce company and where after sampling many of his wares ended up coming home with several varieties of his sauce.
Something that’s interesting about this sauce is that the ingredients list on the bottle doesn’t match the ingredients description or list on the website. Rather, it’s all the same other than the name of the pepper printed on the bottle. The label (as well as the photo of the label on the website) say that the primary pepper is a jalapeno while the text and printed ingredients indicate it’s a rocoto, a South American pepper native to Peru. I’m not sure if it’s a recipe change or a misprint at play here. In addition to the peppers there’s garlic powder and an interesting vinegar choice in malt vinegar. Malt vinegar is of course very popular for serving with fish and chips but it’s not one that shows up often in hot sauces. Some interesting ingredients in this are achiote and culantro. Culantro, also called sawtooth cilantro and chadon-beni, is a cilantro-like herb with a stronger flavor. Achiote is a spice made from the annatto seed which has a mild earthy and bitter flavor but also imparts a deep red color. Rico Sauce has a thin consistency, perhaps a step up from Tabasco and the like, and a generally smooth texture though you can see some small spice bits inside. There’s an aroma of spice and earthiness.
On the first taste I’m not sure that I can tell whether this is red jalapeno or rocoto based. The flavor reminds me more of rocoto peppers which have a unique earthy savory flavor with some hints of citrus, but the heat level is extremely low in this sauce which leads more credence to these being jalapenos as rocotos are quite a bit spicier. This sauce does require some vigorous shaking as there’s a bit of sediment that settles to the bottom and it can taste too watery until its fully incorporated, something strange for a sauce that includes xanthan gum to require. This is a very earthy sauce in general – the combination of malt vinegar, which is nutty and on the earthier side as vinegars go, along with the achiote and whichever peppers are used all combine to shift the flavor of this sauce much more towards the darker end of the flavor spectrum. The malt vinegar, which does provide enough acidity to keep the sauce from tasting flat, also somehow doesn’t make it taste very tangy, which is interesting. As I mentioned the heat level in this sauce is minimal with virtually no burn either initially or lingering.
With the name and some of the ingredients I decided to try this with Mexican food first. While it’s not a bad pairing I did feel myself wishing for more brightness and tang when I used this with some nachos and tacos. Something I found better was using this on a hot dog along with some mustard. With the mustard providing the bright tangy element this sauce added a nice depth of flavor that contrasted to the mustard beautifully. Using this on wings works as well but oddly I found it not a great pairing with blue cheese to dip – not only is this mild enough that you don’t need to cool things down, the lack of tang meant that there wasn’t anything to fight the creamy fattiness of the blue cheese dressing.
This is an interesting sauce with quite a different flavor profile than I can recall experiencing in a while. I’ll go ahead and recommend it just keep in mind that it’s not necessarily the most flexible hot sauce on the planet and that the heat level is extremely low.