Salty: ⭐⭐✰✰✰
Sour/Tangy: ⭐⭐⭐✰✰
Sweet: ⭐⭐✰✰✰
Umami: ⭐✰✰✰✰
Heat: ⭐✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰
Quick Flavor Notes: Fruity, citrusy, tangy, ginger
Recommended: Yes
Texture: Medium-thin with some small bits
Ingredients: White vinegar, lemon juice, yellow bell peppers, manzano peppers, serrano peppers, celery, shallots, ginger root, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, salt & spices
Queen Majesty Hot Sauce, founded by reggae-DJ and graphic artist Erica Diehl, has been a favorite of the hot sauce community for quite a while. This will be the third sauce I’ve tried from them following their Sicilian Scorpion, of which I wasn’t a fan, and their Red Habanero and Black Coffee which I loved. This one was apparently a limited edition summer sauce, though I do still see it available in various places online.
While serrano chiles are quite common the manzano is one many may not be familiar with. A member of Capsicum Pubescens (so named because of their hairy leaves) the manzano is native to the Andes mountains. The name means apple in Spanish and the pepper does have an apple-like shape. With a low-medium heat (generally 10K-30K SHU) it’s a pepper known for having a surprisingly big citrussy and fruity flavor without having a ton of heat. Breaking a bit from the typical aromatics we see in most sauces this has celery (and I do love celery in hot sauces), ginger, and shallots. Shallots, a member of the onion family, are known to have a flavor that combines that of onions and garlic. This sauce uses both vinegar and lemon juice for the acidity. Oftentimes using a citrus juice in conjunction with vinegar can be a great way to tame a vinegar’s harshness. Other than that the sauce has extra virgin olive oil and some spices. Texturally this isn’t close to emulsified like Haico’s Madame, but there is a certain silkiness from the olive oil. While mostly smooth there are some small bits inside. The aroma is fresh with the ginger in particular coming through.
According to Queen Majesty this sauce was supposed to be summery and citrusy and to my tastebuds they achieved that goal. The sauce presents as very fresh in flavor and I do pick up some of the citrus and fruity notes of the manzano peppers, though I assume the lemon juice is also adding quite a bit of that citrus flavor. The ginger that came through so much in the aroma also comes through in the flavor, and though I’m normally an “a little goes a long way” guy when it comes to ginger I actually like it in this sauce. That could well be because it’s balanced nicely against the earthier and more vegetal flavors from the shallots and the celery which also provide some great contrast to those fruity manzano peppers. The olive oil does make it taste a little bit richer without making it creamy or greasy. Even with the olive oil this sauce is quite tangy and that lemon juice vinegar combo is well balanced so that it’s not too vinegar-forward no too puckering. Manzano Serrano is quite mild, and with two milder peppers plus yellow bell peppers higher on the ingredients list than either of them that’s to be expected but it does bring flavor that’s quite a bit larger than the heat level.
Queen Majesty suggests that this sauce is great for seafood so I decided to try this with some grilled shrimp kebabs first. After Florida’s two-week experiment with winter I was happy to get the grill going again and this sauce does pair very well with shrimp. I also very much enjoyed this with a turkey and cheese sandwich, there’s enough acidity that it can cut through the bread, meat, and cheese to really liven things up. It also added the perfect level of zing to enliven a very underwhelming canned chicken soup.
Queen Majesty Manzano Serrano earns my recommendation. It’s fresh, it’s pepper-fruity, it’s zingy, and the flavor profile does work very well with seafood for those who are looking for a great sauce for that purpose. This sauce is also all natural with no artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, or thickeners.
by MagnusAlbusPater
1 Comment
Salty: ⭐⭐✰✰✰
Sour/Tangy: ⭐⭐⭐✰✰
Sweet: ⭐⭐✰✰✰
Umami: ⭐✰✰✰✰
Heat: ⭐✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰
Quick Flavor Notes: Fruity, citrusy, tangy, ginger
Recommended: Yes
Texture: Medium-thin with some small bits
Ingredients: White vinegar, lemon juice, yellow bell peppers, manzano peppers, serrano peppers, celery, shallots, ginger root, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, salt & spices
Queen Majesty Hot Sauce, founded by reggae-DJ and graphic artist Erica Diehl, has been a favorite of the hot sauce community for quite a while. This will be the third sauce I’ve tried from them following their Sicilian Scorpion, of which I wasn’t a fan, and their Red Habanero and Black Coffee which I loved. This one was apparently a limited edition summer sauce, though I do still see it available in various places online.
While serrano chiles are quite common the manzano is one many may not be familiar with. A member of Capsicum Pubescens (so named because of their hairy leaves) the manzano is native to the Andes mountains. The name means apple in Spanish and the pepper does have an apple-like shape. With a low-medium heat (generally 10K-30K SHU) it’s a pepper known for having a surprisingly big citrussy and fruity flavor without having a ton of heat. Breaking a bit from the typical aromatics we see in most sauces this has celery (and I do love celery in hot sauces), ginger, and shallots. Shallots, a member of the onion family, are known to have a flavor that combines that of onions and garlic. This sauce uses both vinegar and lemon juice for the acidity. Oftentimes using a citrus juice in conjunction with vinegar can be a great way to tame a vinegar’s harshness. Other than that the sauce has extra virgin olive oil and some spices. Texturally this isn’t close to emulsified like Haico’s Madame, but there is a certain silkiness from the olive oil. While mostly smooth there are some small bits inside. The aroma is fresh with the ginger in particular coming through.
According to Queen Majesty this sauce was supposed to be summery and citrusy and to my tastebuds they achieved that goal. The sauce presents as very fresh in flavor and I do pick up some of the citrus and fruity notes of the manzano peppers, though I assume the lemon juice is also adding quite a bit of that citrus flavor. The ginger that came through so much in the aroma also comes through in the flavor, and though I’m normally an “a little goes a long way” guy when it comes to ginger I actually like it in this sauce. That could well be because it’s balanced nicely against the earthier and more vegetal flavors from the shallots and the celery which also provide some great contrast to those fruity manzano peppers. The olive oil does make it taste a little bit richer without making it creamy or greasy. Even with the olive oil this sauce is quite tangy and that lemon juice vinegar combo is well balanced so that it’s not too vinegar-forward no too puckering. Manzano Serrano is quite mild, and with two milder peppers plus yellow bell peppers higher on the ingredients list than either of them that’s to be expected but it does bring flavor that’s quite a bit larger than the heat level.
Queen Majesty suggests that this sauce is great for seafood so I decided to try this with some grilled shrimp kebabs first. After Florida’s two-week experiment with winter I was happy to get the grill going again and this sauce does pair very well with shrimp. I also very much enjoyed this with a turkey and cheese sandwich, there’s enough acidity that it can cut through the bread, meat, and cheese to really liven things up. It also added the perfect level of zing to enliven a very underwhelming canned chicken soup.
Queen Majesty Manzano Serrano earns my recommendation. It’s fresh, it’s pepper-fruity, it’s zingy, and the flavor profile does work very well with seafood for those who are looking for a great sauce for that purpose. This sauce is also all natural with no artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, or thickeners.