Bitter: ⭐✰✰✰✰
Salty: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Sour/Tangy: ⭐⭐⭐✰✰
Sweet: ⭐⭐⭐✰✰
Umami: ⭐✰✰✰✰
Heat: ⭐✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰
Quick Flavor Notes: Salty, fresh, earthy, tangy, sweet
Recommended: Conditional
Texture: Medium with tiny bits
Ingredients: Water, Peppers (Jalapeno & Poblano), Salt, Sugar, Acetic Acid, Garlic Powder, Jalapeno Powder, Xanthan Gum (Thickener), Green Bell Pepper, Onion Powder, & Spices
While Cholula has only been in the American market since 1989 the company actually dates back several generations in Jalisco Mexico. I usually very much enjoy Mexican style hot sauces but my experience with the Cholula’s Original flavor left me disappointed and unimpressed. Having heard good things about their Green Pepper hot sauce however I decided to give this a go next.
Like Cholula Original the Green Pepper variety is based on a two pepper blend but this time instead of pequin and chile de arbol the chiles used are green jalapenos and poblanos. The sauce also contains some jalapeno powder in order to amp up that jalapeno flavor. In addition to the peppers you have a salt, sugar, onion and garlic powders plus green bell peppers, possibly to aid in color or to just bulk up the sauce. Like the original Cholula the first ingredient of this sauce is water but Mexican hot sauces do tend to list water and acetic acid separately on their labels – combining the two gives you vinegar. Cholula Green Pepper also uses xanthan gum as a stabilizer and thickener, something I’m not personally a fan of as it can create a somewhat plasticky texture that has artificially high surface tension and that’s the case here as well. I will give Cholula credit for not using any artificial dyes in their sauce however and the color, while green, is the natural green of peppers. The sauce is smooth and of medium thickness though there are some tiny bits of pepper matter visible suspended in it. The peppers and vinegar dominate the aroma.
Jalapenos and poblanos are a good duo as they each hit where the other misses. Green jalapenos are fresh and grassy while poblanos have a more earthy flavor and this sauce manages to hit those fresh upper notes and the fulfilling earthy base so that it doesn’t taste one dimensional. The garlic and onion powder provide more depth to the pepper flavors so while pepper-forward there’s still more going on. Green Pepper hot sauce also solves the major gripe I had with the Original Cholula – the acidity level in this sauce is actually very nice, it has a good tang, and the vinegar comes much more forward than it does in the original, which always tastes dead and flat to me. The first, and the more minor of the two, is the sugar. This sauce is too sweet for what I prefer in a verde sauce. A green sauce should be fresh, vibrant, tangy, and bright. The unexpected sweetness here, and it is very noticeable, adds a new flavor that doesn’t work for me. The bigger issue is the sodium level in this sauce. It’s not only incredibly high on the label at 190mg of sodium per teaspoon serving, it tastes incredibly salty too. When most craft hot sauces seem to hover around 50mg per serving throwing in four times that amount of salt is not only unnecessary it’s a major detriment to the flavor of this sauce. Heat level is low as expected from the mild peppers used.
Since this is a Mexican sauce I tried this with some tacos first. I picked up some shrimp and carne asada tacos from a local taco truck and this does work well, especially with the shrimp tacos (I prefer a red sauce on beef). I also tried this with a frozen microwave pasta meal but found that the high sodium content of the frozen dinner combined with the high sodium content of this sauce just made it all way too salty. I finally tried this with some sliders and it’s an OK hot sauce for burgers, but somehow they also made that sweetness come out more which isn’t something I liked.
On the bright side Cholula Green Pepper is absolutely an improvement on Cholula Original. At the same time the weird sweetness and the very high sodium levels made this one not for me. I’ll give it a conditional recommendation depending on your salt tolerance and how you feel about sweetness in a Mexican verde sauce. Personally I’d suggest picking up De La Viuda Green Pepper Sauce instead. The flavor is better, it has 60% less sodium, and it’s just as cheap if not cheaper than Cholula.
by MagnusAlbusPater
2 Comments
Bitter: ⭐✰✰✰✰
Salty: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Sour/Tangy: ⭐⭐⭐✰✰
Sweet: ⭐⭐⭐✰✰
Umami: ⭐✰✰✰✰
Heat: ⭐✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰✰
Quick Flavor Notes: Salty, fresh, earthy, tangy, sweet
Recommended: Conditional
Texture: Medium with tiny bits
Ingredients: Water, Peppers (Jalapeno & Poblano), Salt, Sugar, Acetic Acid, Garlic Powder, Jalapeno Powder, Xanthan Gum (Thickener), Green Bell Pepper, Onion Powder, & Spices
While Cholula has only been in the American market since 1989 the company actually dates back several generations in Jalisco Mexico. I usually very much enjoy Mexican style hot sauces but my experience with the Cholula’s Original flavor left me disappointed and unimpressed. Having heard good things about their Green Pepper hot sauce however I decided to give this a go next.
Like Cholula Original the Green Pepper variety is based on a two pepper blend but this time instead of pequin and chile de arbol the chiles used are green jalapenos and poblanos. The sauce also contains some jalapeno powder in order to amp up that jalapeno flavor. In addition to the peppers you have a salt, sugar, onion and garlic powders plus green bell peppers, possibly to aid in color or to just bulk up the sauce. Like the original Cholula the first ingredient of this sauce is water but Mexican hot sauces do tend to list water and acetic acid separately on their labels – combining the two gives you vinegar. Cholula Green Pepper also uses xanthan gum as a stabilizer and thickener, something I’m not personally a fan of as it can create a somewhat plasticky texture that has artificially high surface tension and that’s the case here as well. I will give Cholula credit for not using any artificial dyes in their sauce however and the color, while green, is the natural green of peppers. The sauce is smooth and of medium thickness though there are some tiny bits of pepper matter visible suspended in it. The peppers and vinegar dominate the aroma.
Jalapenos and poblanos are a good duo as they each hit where the other misses. Green jalapenos are fresh and grassy while poblanos have a more earthy flavor and this sauce manages to hit those fresh upper notes and the fulfilling earthy base so that it doesn’t taste one dimensional. The garlic and onion powder provide more depth to the pepper flavors so while pepper-forward there’s still more going on. Green Pepper hot sauce also solves the major gripe I had with the Original Cholula – the acidity level in this sauce is actually very nice, it has a good tang, and the vinegar comes much more forward than it does in the original, which always tastes dead and flat to me. The first, and the more minor of the two, is the sugar. This sauce is too sweet for what I prefer in a verde sauce. A green sauce should be fresh, vibrant, tangy, and bright. The unexpected sweetness here, and it is very noticeable, adds a new flavor that doesn’t work for me. The bigger issue is the sodium level in this sauce. It’s not only incredibly high on the label at 190mg of sodium per teaspoon serving, it tastes incredibly salty too. When most craft hot sauces seem to hover around 50mg per serving throwing in four times that amount of salt is not only unnecessary it’s a major detriment to the flavor of this sauce. Heat level is low as expected from the mild peppers used.
Since this is a Mexican sauce I tried this with some tacos first. I picked up some shrimp and carne asada tacos from a local taco truck and this does work well, especially with the shrimp tacos (I prefer a red sauce on beef). I also tried this with a frozen microwave pasta meal but found that the high sodium content of the frozen dinner combined with the high sodium content of this sauce just made it all way too salty. I finally tried this with some sliders and it’s an OK hot sauce for burgers, but somehow they also made that sweetness come out more which isn’t something I liked.
On the bright side Cholula Green Pepper is absolutely an improvement on Cholula Original. At the same time the weird sweetness and the very high sodium levels made this one not for me. I’ll give it a conditional recommendation depending on your salt tolerance and how you feel about sweetness in a Mexican verde sauce. Personally I’d suggest picking up De La Viuda Green Pepper Sauce instead. The flavor is better, it has 60% less sodium, and it’s just as cheap if not cheaper than Cholula.
“Weird sweetness”. Have you ever thought some people like sweet in their sauces? It’s not weird at all, this sauce is BANGING on all sorts of food, and it wouldn’t be the same without that sweetness.