Upon looking at the label on a bottle of Louisiana Hot Sauce, with its reds, yellows and oranges, you may well be fooled into thinking that it is of Asian descent: a picture of a red sun fills the label, with the product name composed of a blocky font. But, open the bottle up and take a whiff, and you’ll smell that this sauce isn’t anything you’d find in the Asian section of your local supermarket.
I first heard about Louisiana Hot Sauce a few years ago. A friend of mine (also an avid hot sauce enthusiast) emailed me a link to a list of the ‘Top 10 Hot Sauces from the USA’. So, we agreed that we’d try to work our way down that list and see for ourselves if there was anything to rant and rave about. When it came to trying Louisiana Hot Sauce, I ordered myself a bottle from Amazon, invited my friend over, cooked up some French fries and let the taste test begin!
The first thing I like to do when trying a new hot sauce is to smell it: sounds a bit weird, I know, but you can tell a lot about a sauce just by the smell. Is it too vinegary? Too sweet? Are there subtle tones of fruit in there? All these can be answered by smell (and taste too, obviously!) The smell of Louisiana Hot Sauce is quite generic for a hot sauce: there’s the scent of cayenne peppers and vinegar. I guess one of the things that Louisiana Hot Sauce prides itself on is its simplicity: consisting of three ingredients, there’s not much room for quirky and interesting flavours or smells. Interestingly enough, the smell did remind me a little of olives, but that might just be the combination of pickled peppers and vinegar!
The taste of Louisiana Hot Sauce is almost as ‘generic’ as the smell. Not in a bad way, not at all, but rather in a more ‘does what it says on the tin’ way. It’s a hot sauce. It smells like a hot sauce. It tastes like a hot sauce. You can taste the peppers’; you can taste the vinegar; and, you can taste the heat. If you’re looking for a ‘no nonsense’ hot sauce, then Louisiana. Hot Sauce may very well be the one for you.
Now, on to the heat. Louisiana Hot Sauce’s heat is in line with the taste and the smell: it’s pretty standard. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a ‘hot’ sauce, but it’s not a ‘hot hot’ sauce. The label tagline claims that ‘One Drop Is Enough’, but unfortunately, I believe they are mistaken. We had this with French fries, and we were totally happy to slather on a load of this sauce and not feel like our faces were on fire. If you’re looking for a comparison, in terms of heat, I would say that Louisiana Hot Sauce is about the same level of heat intensity as that of Tabasco. So if you can handle Tabasco, you’ll be absolutely fine with Louisiana Hot Sauce.
I must admit, I did feel a little underwhelmed with Louisiana Hot Sauce. Not because it’s a bad product, but I think I have been spoilt with all the rich interesting flavours from other sauces, that when I encounter a ‘traditional’ hot sauce, I think to myself ‘Where are the exciting flavours?’ But if you’re looking for a dependable hot sauce that isn’t too hot, and will go well with most foods (I’d recommend it as a marinade), then why not try Louisiana Hot Sauce!