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What do people want: a sauce that is hot or liquid heat?

turbo

turbo

This is a topic that frustrates me.  I've been making hot sauce for myself for about 5 years.  I love heat and I love great flavor, and I'm always trying to find the right balance of a good level of heat with wonderful flavor.

My friends and family are always asking to try my sauces.  But when they try one I always get one of two responses. First, "wow, that was too hot for me".  This is understandable...if its too hot, its too hot...no big deal.  The second response is the one that bugs me, "that wasn't all that hot, I could have taken more".  To which I always follow up with, "yea, but how did it taste?"  And the answer is always, "Oh, I don't know.  I was just looking for heat."

Hot sauce seems to have this machismo "how much heat can I take" mentality to it, even (or maybe especially) among people who aren't pepper heads.  People seem to just use it for heat alone, and are oblivious to the flavors that a good sauce can bring about in the food they are eating.

If all you are looking for is heat, just toss some bhuts in a blender with salt and vinegar and bam, you got yourself some pretty friggin hot sauce.  It doesn't taste all that good, but who cares?  They aren't looking for flavor anyway, right?

Either way, I'll keep making sauces that I love, for me. Its just that I've gotten to the point where I almost cringe when people ask if they can try one of my sauces.
 
Anyone else feel this way?  Or am I just being a whiny b1tc#?  :violin:
 
you know what you do to these people bragging about heat ? make a small batch of liquid lava  (like reaper or moruga sauce ) or buy one that is massively hot like pexpeppers singularity.
 
Then watch they cry in the fire of mordor 
 
I'm with you all the way! I also think many of the commercial sauce makers suffer from this same mentality... dumping more capsaicin extract doesn't make a better sauce, just a hotter one. There's a wonderful fine line where it's hot enough you're not sure if you want to continue but it's so damn tasty you're compelled to! Next time I'm in the states I'd love to try your sauce!
 
Ive run thru all of the johnwaynepepperheros in my world
If you can handle more heat then props to you,I didnt do "this sauce" to test your cap limits
If you would like to be "tested" I can help with that :hell: :party: :party: :party:
Now all I get is referencing the "flavor" and no further "superhero" BS
Sadly I have knocked 3 out of ever heating anything hot as long as they live,I believe the word is "TRAUMATIZED" ;)
 
Its all about the flavor,save the XXextreme heat for limited occasions.
 
TNKS said:
Ive run thru all of the johnwaynepepperheros in my world
If you can handle more heat then props to you,I didnt do "this sauce" to test your cap limits
If you would like to be "tested" I can help with that :hell: :party: :party: :party:
Now all I get is referencing the "flavor" and no further "superhero" BS
Sadly I have knocked 3 out of ever heating anything hot as long as they live,I believe the word is "TRAUMATIZED" ;)
 
Its all about the flavor,save the XXextreme heat for limited occasions.
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Yeah, I have indirectly traumatized a few people myself because they were just looking to see how much heat they can handle. A buddy of mine who worked his way up to match me in eating orange habaneros recently went to visit family in Texas and went to a party where a chili was being served that had whole chocolate habs mixed in. The poor guy didn't realize that a chocolate hab can be several times hotter than the orange habs and casually popped a whole one in his mouth. He said he tried to maintain composure but failed miserably and spent the rest of the evening in the fetal position wrapped around a milk jug. It'd been over a month and he still won't go near anything spicy yet. 
 
that's why you have atleast a few sauces on hand.
 
A mild jalapeno sauce, your lemon sauce, traditional vinegary red/cayenne one, smoked one, and a super hot mash for those superheros. Or Just keep some halfed dried reapers / scorps in small plastic baggies to hand out to the superhero.
 
I'm more of a the hotter the better but also want a great tasting flavor with it, and it can be done cuz I have tried a bunch of sauces that were really hot and tasted GREAT!
 
Sounds like you are trying to please everyone. Not gonna happen for the reasons you stated. Instead of a "hot" or medium sauce, how bout a mild, and an extreme. Or all 4.
 
I have experienced what you mentioned THP. Now I have my death sauce for such people, and my more milder version for those who don't pretend. Sometimes when I get a big mouth, I set em up. Give a medium heat sauce to them, in order to see if they think they are a big shot. When the bragging come out, out comes my real heat right away. Then its time for a nice fresh hearty slice of humble pie. Enjoy there buddy.
 
I just sent a bottle of Pax's Singularity to a buddy for his birthday, but I cannot get him to try it yet. He knows better, as he was one of my victims when he decided to brag, and try to compete. I chopped up some red habs in the food one time, and he could barely eat it, so he suspects I am setting him up. I'm trying to play it cool and casual to lower his guard a bit. Now I am resorting to the "this is man sauce and not for boys" trick that seems to be working, although a bit slow, lol. For the record, he is a friend, I would not pull this on just anyone. Just friends and big shots that like to run their mouths. :lol:
 
 
In regards to flavor, I personally think its of equal importance to the heat imo, maybe even more.
 
For me its all about flavor first, then I need just enough heat to keep me from drinking the entire bottle in one sitting. Like that El Yucateco Black Label. Love the flavor but I go through it to fast due to the low heat. On the other hand the Triple X stuff, I like the heat but for me the flavor is lacking. So I settle on the El Yucateco Caribbean where I think I get the best of both worlds. 
 
I, like you, make my own sauces for myself. I also love heat AND great flavor. Like you said, if it's too hot, OK, it's too hot. I'd be willing to bet, however, that there is a third group of people who love your sauces and think you should sell them. The people that want more heat, well, fukm. It's not what YOU like. YOU are the one who knows what he's doing. Don't worry about the idiots...
 
It's common sense to me that there is no one sauce that fits all. No "middleground" perfect sauce for everyone. That would be boring anyway. One beer that is the perfect balance of flavor and alcohol. Not too weak, not too strong. Not too sweet, not too bitter. Just right. Plah! Come on man, we all have different tastes and different heat toleration. Make more than one sauce ya lazy bum. :P
 
You can make one sauce that fits one target audience... like a low heat sauce with flavor. But you can't please all the different palates. 
 
I do not eat extract.

Purees and Ultra hot sauces made with supers have their place. I call em heat hammers.

But for me, I want a sauce that I just can't put down.

I use powders when I want the heat hammer now.
 
Thanks for all the feedback everyone.  I was mostly just ranting here.  
 
THP, your right, you can't please everyone.  But that's not what bugs me.  Its that people treat hot sauce like something that should take them right to the very edge of their tolerance and nothing else.  That the only point of using hot sauce is to find that edge you can handle and prove how much of a man you are.
 
That would be analogous to people only drinking the kind of alcoholic beverage that they can just barely stand.  So if your a light weight you only drink beer and cider, if your a mid-weight you only drink vodka, for heavy weights you only drink whiskey, and for those than can handle the max they only drink Everclear.  That's just stupid.  I drink different things depending on my mood or my meal:  beer, cider, wine, Scotch, Bourbon, Tequila, cocktails...but never Everclear  :crazy:
 
I'm the same with hot sauce.  Sometimes I want a hint of heat with a certain flavor, other times I want enough heat to really make me sweat...and there are many variations in between.  Its not one size fits all thing for me.
 
But then again...I'm a hot sauce guy.  If I wasn't, I wouldn't have 20+ open bottles at any given time.  I'd probably only have just one...that took me right to my edge
 
Is it just my imagination or can you really taste the extracts? A friend gave me a bottle of 100% Pain that was pretty intense. Label said it was made from Habaneros but there was a distinct but faint burnt metallic flavor to it. Other than that the sauce was pretty tasty. I'm not familiar with extracts so don't know what they're supposed to taste like but I think that is it.  
 
Extract sauce mix(s) scream nasty metal tinny garbage,I think Daves Insanity was the epic pioneer
at the wheel for really jackin up peoples taste buds.
There are plenty levels of insane heat available without resulting in using a laboratory to right your rod.
Extracts are for 40yr old Jr High Freshman,hopefully the THP never allows the embrace of that ideology
 
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Defcon DC 1 wing sauce is a very popular habanero extract sauce on this forum.
 
and it taste like an extract sauce mix because it is an extract sauce mix
Yes I do have over a half a jug here and nothing else to do with it ???
Refined taste I guess and to stupid to just throw it away . . . . I dunno . . . .
 
The Hot Pepper said:
Defcon DC 1 wing sauce is a very popular habanero extract sauce on this forum.
Click to expand...
 
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