Ingredients: White Sugar, Chili Peppers, Water, Garlic, Glacial Acetic Acid, Salt, Sodium Benzoate
This is a bottle of hot sauce that I picked up from a Chinese supermarket in Manila’s Binondo district, the world’s oldest Chinatown, at some point last year. As the label is all in Chinese I’ve relied on some machine translation and Googling to try to get some details and from what I can tell the brand is known as Gaota Gaozai or Tower Brand and this is a chili sauce in the Minnan style which is popular in the coastal regions of China’s Fujian province. I was drawn to this sauce because of the pretty red color and the unique bottle shape, plus the fact that I had no idea what it contained. I felt it was about time to finally open it up.
Minnan style sauces are typically sweet-savory with a mild heat and include ingredients like garlic and sometimes ginger in addition to the chiles and sugar. They’re popular as a dipping sauce for fried foods such as fried seafood and eggrolls or with steamed dumplings. If some of those sound like American Chinese food you wouldn’t be wrong as Fujian has a strong connection to American Chinese food as starting in the early 1980s a huge wave of Fujianese immigrants came to the USA and opened Chinese restaurants. This particular sauce is from Jinjiang City in Quanzhou Fujian. The ingredients are fairly simple in sugar, chile peppers, garlic, vinegar, salt, and sodium benzoate (which I don’t particularly like to see but which is very common in many shelf-stable Asian products, they do love their artificial preservatives over there). The brilliantly red color comes naturally with no artificial colors or food dyes. Texturally this sauce is extremely sticky and syrupy and on the thicker side of medium – sugar is the first ingredient after all. The aroma is sweet and garlicky and the consistency is mostly smooth but there is a sugary grittiness.
The flavor of Gaota Gaozai Chili Sauce initially reminded me a lot of sriracha. There’s that sweetness, the strong garlic flavor, and the mild chili heat. The more I tasted it however the more the differences made themselves clear. This doesn’t have that hint of fermented funk that Huy Fong has in their sriracha and this is a step or two sweeter. In fact I’d say it’s close to a mix between a sriracha and a Thai style sweet chili sauce. A previous sauce I’d purchased in Manila, the UFC Spicier Blend Hot Sauce, had a similar dual nature going on for it though that was half-Louisiana half-Thai chili sauce while this one doesn’t have much in the way of a strong vinegar hit. The sugar content is so high in this that as I mentioned it has an almost gritty crunchy texture to it where you can taste the sugar crystals in the sauce. The garlic does offset some of the sweetness but this sauce does still taste as one of the sweetest I’ve had, close to a dessert sauce if it weren’t for that garlic. The actual chile pepper flavor is fairly neutral and the bottle doesn’t go into detail about what kinds are used. China uses a variety of capsicum annuum peppers throughout so it’s likely a mild chile such as an er jing tao that has a bright color but little heat.
Given the origin and flavor of this sauce I thought it was a perfect chance to order some Chinese takeout. I’m normally a hot mustard guy when it comes to egg rolls but this sauce works well with them. It’s even better with sweet and sour pork, working similarly to the neon red sauce that usually comes with it but tasting more natural and with that garlic flavor really enhancing it. Outside of Chinese food I also enjoyed this on a waffle instead of syrup. It’s sweet enough to work in that context but also has those savory notes that help tie it in with the side of eggs and sausage.
While this isn’t a sauce that’s easy to find (or that I’ve ever seen) in the USA, if you do stumble upon a bottle it’s worth picking up if you like sweet garlicky sauces. If you’re a fan of srirachas I think you’ll especially enjoy it.
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Bitter: 🟡○○○○
Salty: 🟡🟡○○○
Sour/Tangy: 🟡🟡○○○
Sweet: 🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡
Umami: 🟡○○○○
Heat: 🟡○○○○○○○○○
Quick Flavor Notes: Sweet, garlic, chili
Recommended: Yes
Texture: Medium and syrupy
Ingredients: White Sugar, Chili Peppers, Water, Garlic, Glacial Acetic Acid, Salt, Sodium Benzoate
This is a bottle of hot sauce that I picked up from a Chinese supermarket in Manila’s Binondo district, the world’s oldest Chinatown, at some point last year. As the label is all in Chinese I’ve relied on some machine translation and Googling to try to get some details and from what I can tell the brand is known as Gaota Gaozai or Tower Brand and this is a chili sauce in the Minnan style which is popular in the coastal regions of China’s Fujian province. I was drawn to this sauce because of the pretty red color and the unique bottle shape, plus the fact that I had no idea what it contained. I felt it was about time to finally open it up.
Minnan style sauces are typically sweet-savory with a mild heat and include ingredients like garlic and sometimes ginger in addition to the chiles and sugar. They’re popular as a dipping sauce for fried foods such as fried seafood and eggrolls or with steamed dumplings. If some of those sound like American Chinese food you wouldn’t be wrong as Fujian has a strong connection to American Chinese food as starting in the early 1980s a huge wave of Fujianese immigrants came to the USA and opened Chinese restaurants. This particular sauce is from Jinjiang City in Quanzhou Fujian. The ingredients are fairly simple in sugar, chile peppers, garlic, vinegar, salt, and sodium benzoate (which I don’t particularly like to see but which is very common in many shelf-stable Asian products, they do love their artificial preservatives over there). The brilliantly red color comes naturally with no artificial colors or food dyes. Texturally this sauce is extremely sticky and syrupy and on the thicker side of medium – sugar is the first ingredient after all. The aroma is sweet and garlicky and the consistency is mostly smooth but there is a sugary grittiness.
The flavor of Gaota Gaozai Chili Sauce initially reminded me a lot of sriracha. There’s that sweetness, the strong garlic flavor, and the mild chili heat. The more I tasted it however the more the differences made themselves clear. This doesn’t have that hint of fermented funk that Huy Fong has in their sriracha and this is a step or two sweeter. In fact I’d say it’s close to a mix between a sriracha and a Thai style sweet chili sauce. A previous sauce I’d purchased in Manila, the UFC Spicier Blend Hot Sauce, had a similar dual nature going on for it though that was half-Louisiana half-Thai chili sauce while this one doesn’t have much in the way of a strong vinegar hit. The sugar content is so high in this that as I mentioned it has an almost gritty crunchy texture to it where you can taste the sugar crystals in the sauce. The garlic does offset some of the sweetness but this sauce does still taste as one of the sweetest I’ve had, close to a dessert sauce if it weren’t for that garlic. The actual chile pepper flavor is fairly neutral and the bottle doesn’t go into detail about what kinds are used. China uses a variety of capsicum annuum peppers throughout so it’s likely a mild chile such as an er jing tao that has a bright color but little heat.
Given the origin and flavor of this sauce I thought it was a perfect chance to order some Chinese takeout. I’m normally a hot mustard guy when it comes to egg rolls but this sauce works well with them. It’s even better with sweet and sour pork, working similarly to the neon red sauce that usually comes with it but tasting more natural and with that garlic flavor really enhancing it. Outside of Chinese food I also enjoyed this on a waffle instead of syrup. It’s sweet enough to work in that context but also has those savory notes that help tie it in with the side of eggs and sausage.
While this isn’t a sauce that’s easy to find (or that I’ve ever seen) in the USA, if you do stumble upon a bottle it’s worth picking up if you like sweet garlicky sauces. If you’re a fan of srirachas I think you’ll especially enjoy it.