Bitter: 🟡🟡○○○
Salty: 🟡🟡○○○
Sour/Tangy:🟡🟡🟡○○
Sweet: 🟡🟡○○○
Umami: 🟡🟡🟡🟡○
Heat: 🟡🟡🟡○○○○○○○
Quick Flavor Notes: Fresh corn, black pepper, earthy, fresh
Recommended: Yes
Texture: Medium-thin with some small bits
Ingredients (corrected label version): Vinegar, Sweet Corn, Avocado Oil, Salt, Onion, Garlic, Ghost Pepper, Cilantro, Chile De Arbol, Nutritional Yeast, Raw Sugar, Black Pepper, Lemon.
Savir Foods was founded by chef Josue Rivas. Originally from Callao, Peru, a port area of Lima, he grew up with a family who loved to cook at home which gave him a great appreciation for food. After moving to Los Angeles he studied both computer engineering and attended culinary school where he had the opportunity to learn from the greats such as Julia Child, Wolfgang Puck, and Masaharu Morimoto. Rivas owned a number of Peruvian restaurants and catering companies over the years before going back into engineering. During the pandemic after relocating to Austin, TX he found himself missing cooking and started experimenting with hot sauces for his family and friends. Focusing on natural ingredients and flavor first he received such a great reception for his sauces he decided to turn it into a business. After his first sauce, Jala Pepa, appeared on Hot Ones seasons fifteen his company blew up with two other sauces appearing in later seasons. This particular sauce, Elotes Loco Fire Edition, appeared in season twenty-six in the number four position.
ELotes Loco Fire Edition is the second edition of Savir Foods Elotes Loco hot sauce. The original featured only chiles de arbol as the heat source while the Fire Edition adds ghost peppers. Both are based on the popular Mexican street food Elotes which is grilled corn typically seasoned with a mix of mayonnaise and/or Mexican crema, cotija cheese, ground chili, hot sauce, and lime juice. Savir Foods uses sweet corn in this sauce to bring the authentic corn flavor as well as a chile de arbol, traditional in Mexico, as well as ghost peppers to bring the heat. Nutritional yeast adds that umami cheesiness that would normally come from the cotija while keeping the sauce dairy free and avocado oil to give it the richness missing from the lack of cheese and mayo or crema. Garlic, onion, and cilantro are all present to add depth of flavor and are present in seasoning salt often used in elotes. Interestingly, I do believe the label on my particular bottle, which was one from the first run of this sauce, is incorrect. Mine for instance lists salt as the second ingredient by volume, and at only 45mg per serving there’s no way that’s correct. On the Savir Foods website they have an updated label that looks much more accurate and breaks out the “spices” into black pepper and sugar while also listening lemon juice, which seems to match a citrus flavor I can taste in the bottle. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen a label revision in a hot sauce, but I believe in this case it was just a matter of correcting an incorrect early label rather than a revision in the recipe.
I’ve always loved both corn and elotes, and in fact whenever driving through the Mexican area of town and seeing the women selling it out of the back of their minivans I’d stop for some. This isn’t the first corn-based hot sauce I’ve tried, that honor goes to Heartbeat Hot Sauce x Korn’s Here to Slay. While the corn was present in that sauce it’s sweeter and more fresh tasting in Elotes Loco Fire Edition. The earthy smoky ghost peppers and fruity nutty chiles de arbol both contrast that sweet corn flavor that help it stand out in this sauce. Compared to the Korn sauce Elotes Loco is also tangier which is something that I prefer and helps it pair better with more foods, and the use of the lemon juice keeps that tang fresh instead of having it be all from vinegar. Onion and garlic naturally pair well with both corn and peppers and do so in this sauce as well, filling in the flavor profile between the sweetness of the corn and the earthier pepper choices. I also like the inclusion of the avocado oil. While this sauce doesn’t have the emulsified consistency of some oil-rich sauces (and in fact it’s rather thin in consistency) the avocado oil does add richness and brings out the fat-soluble flavors in the peppers and vegetables in the sauce. Combined with the nutritional yeast, which is high in glutamates, there’s a surprising amount of umami in this sauce. The corn even comes through in the aroma of the sauce and while I wouldn’t say that it’s the taste of elotes bottled, it does hit the same notes of sweet corn plus chiles, tang, cheesiness, spice, smokiness, earthiness, and freshness. Heat level is medium with not much initial burn but one that builds over time as is common with sauces incorporating ghost peppers.
I had to go with tacos with this sauce first. I found a new place that makes amazing chicken tinga and loved them with this sauce, the sweetness of the corn is a great match with the smoky tomatoey tinga. I also tried this with some shrimp tacos and again corn and seafood is a match made in heaven and I loved the earthy bite of the ghost peppers with the shrimp. This sauce is also a great breakfast option and it mad me realize corn should play a bigger role in breakfast other than in grits and hoecakes. This goes extremely well with eggs and when some got into my biscuits in gravy, not something I normally eat with hot sauce, I found that it worked very well there too, perhaps its the strong black pepper flavor in the sauce that makes it a natural pairing.
This one is an easy recommend for me and another winner from Sean Evans or whoever it is that picks the hot sauces that appear on the Hot Ones. If you’re a fan of corn or just of hot sauces that do a great job balancing a wide range of flavors this one is a must try. This sauce is also all natural with no artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, or thickeners.
by MagnusAlbusPater