I got this Panola sauce as part of a gift pack which came with a total of four sauces, and was surprisingly quite cheap for imported sauces (£4.99). Panola Cajun Hot Sauce Salsa Picante seems to be the ‘Original’ variety in the gift pack so I thought I would review it first.
The sauce comes in a 177ml plastic bottle, and has a liquid/splash consistency to it. The colour of the sauce is blood red, and imparts strong colouring on most foods you add it to, however the sauce is 100% natural. Just four ingredients make up this sauce, the key being the ‘Aged Pepper Mash’ which is used in sauces such Frank’s Red Hot and Tabasco. Combine the pepper mash with vinegar and you have a straightforward Louisiana Hot Sauce.
The sauce has great depth of flavour from the aged peppers, with a rich backbone and a floral finish. I’m a big fan of vinegar sauces, but this has a slight unpleasant acidity to it which I can’t put my finger on. On foods the flavour tends to get a little lost, so I’d perhaps keep this sauce for adding to blander items such as nachos and eggs.
Not bad, I’d imagine this sauce sits on a lot of Louisiana cafe/diner tables, but it’s not one I’d bother with having at home.
Rating: 2/5
