El Yucateco - Kutbil-Ik
A4.6 / 5 BASED ON 7 REVIEWS
Maker:
El Yucateco
Mexico
Pepper(s):
Habanero
SHU :
11,600
Ingredients:
Habanero Pepper, Vinegar, Tomato, Salt, Spices, 0.1 Percent Sodium Benzoate As Preservative
Description:
Official: "“Kutbil-Ik” Mayan word meaning “crushed chili”. This special edition sauce was awarded in the U.S.A. by the “Fiery Foods Magazine”. Add a few drops of this hot sauce to your favorite meal to experience its explosive taste and eXXXtra heat"User Reviews
The opinions expressed in these reviews are soley those of their author.
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A+5.0
Reviewed by ano1 on April 15th, 2023
Label:
the standard El Yucateco labeling.
Looks:
looks like what you'd expect crushed fireroasted habanero to look like. it looks like a fairly thick mash but still pours easily. it's a brownish-green and looks like delicious homemade sauce.
Aroma:
no overpowering vinegar smells. you can smell the seasonings and the habanero, and has a light smokey smell.
Taste:
easily my favorite mass produced hot sauce. all the seasonings with the light smokey roasted habanero come together well. it goes well with everything, from fried eggs to fajitas, chilis, chicken, etc.
Heat:
some peoplefind this sauce to be extremely hot. it has some heat but nothing outrageous. it's not one of those "hot for the sake of being hot" sauces and actually has ample flavor to go along with it.
Overall:
it's a very well balanced hot sauce and i use it very often. it is the best of the yucateco line. there's really nothing about this sauce that I can fault. my wife keeps a bottle in her purse for me when we go out to eat.
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A+5.0
Reviewed by Jwill on September 6th, 2018
Label:
The label is sufficient and provides all of the information needed. This isn’t at all an important category to me.
Looks:
The color is a grainy greenish brown and the sauce is more viscous than most. Many may see this as a negative and I assume this is why Yucateca’s two most popular sauces are more common sauce colors. I’m giving it a 5 here because I prefer not to unnecessarily consume coloring. The natural color of the ingredients is fine with me. For some people the look may be offputting
Aroma:
The sauce has a very nice smell. It’s not overly caustic but the smell of the spices and habeneros together is really nice
Taste:
The sauce is smoky and not at all sweet. The spices and habenero stand out very well. This is one of those sauces that tastes predominately like habeneros. And not just raw habeneros but delicious fire roasted ones. I love it. This is my favorite Mexican hot sauce. I generally prefer every variation of El Yucateca over every single other commercial Mexican hot sauce I’ve ever had. This particular variant is the absolute best and one of my two favorite all time commercial hot sauces. I almost predominately eat yucateca on Mexican food and use American sauces for other purposes. It’s awesome on tacos. I like to frequently pan sear boneless chicken and throw it in a flour tortilla with a big wad of baby spinach, some sharp cheddar and a strong drizzle of this stuff on top of the spinach. This stuff is great on raw leafy Greenspan. There is potential to make some kind of vinaigrette it’s so amazing it’s so amazing
Heat:
It is hot but it’s not unreasonable. It’s on the high end of the spectrum in terms of things significant amounts of people generally consume. It doesn’t enter into that level of capsaicin extract horribleness. This is a very hot but not unreasonable everyday sauce for people who enjoy very hot food.
Overall:
I enjoy it so much that outside of home made sauces this is the only Mexican hot sauce I would buy. Yucateca makes all of the best Mexican hot sauces. It’s not the same or even a similar style as Cholula, Valentina or Tapatio. It’s it’s own unique style of sauce and is absolutely and totally superior to all other commercial Mexican sauces for every single imaginable context. I would likely throw or give away a bottle of any other commercial Mexican sauce if it were a variety I’ve tried before, and I’ve gotten pretty good coverage. I know Mexicans who prefer Valentina or Cholula but it’s becausem they have mild palettes and prefer the taste of vinegar over wonderfully roasted and seasoned habeneros
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A+4.7
Reviewed by TrvlAnimal on October 15th, 2017
Label:
This how sauce is made by large business. It carries a no nonsense label intended to be sold nationwide, potentially globally, and to a large audience.
Looks:
The consistent color is light brown with black flecks. It pours from the bottle with a few shakes but does not readily run. The texture is somewhere between a liquid and a ketchup. The liquid and solids do not separate in storage.
Aroma:
The aroma is heavenly with mild smoky goodness and vinegar.
Taste:
This is a well-crafted sauce. It has depth including smokiness, acid (vinegar), salt, habaneros, and tomatoes. It is especially tasty given the amount of heat that comes with the taste. The sauce is not sweet.
Heat:
I rate a sauce at 5.0 for ghost pepper or similar sauces. This is a habanero sauce and it shows. Very hot. The tingle/burn on my tongue and lips can last for minutes.
Overall:
This is a well-crafted sauce as all El Yucateco sauces I have tested are. It provides a lot of taste and heat. My wife and I have stocked it in our pantry continuously since we found it several years ago. We stock other El Yacateco sauces too. This sauce is not for everyday use, but there are times when nothing else will fit the bill. It has more of a "Mexican" taste than a lot of sauces labeled as Mexican. It has a somewhat unique taste. It can be found in large Latino markets in Los Angeles. I have not looked for it elsewhere in the country.
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A+4.8
Reviewed by Kopachris on October 9th, 2017
Label:
Straightforward and to the point. Says it's an ancient Mayan recipe, very hot. Gives you a little idea of what you're getting into. Wish it listed the scoville rating (but we all know those aren't very precise anyway).
Looks:
Some people might not like the rustic look and texture of the sauce. It's kind of green-gray-brown, slightly less than a smooth puree. It's thick, but runs just fine as long as you don't refrigerate it. As others have mentioned, speckles of char and seasonings are visible. It's rustic, but you can tell that it's quality ingredients and quality preparation.
Aroma:
Spicy, slightly smoky. You can definitely smell the habanero, it has a distinctly floral scent. It's not very acidic, so you can actually take a good, deep whiff without irritating your nostrils.
Taste:
Easily the best tasting habanero sauce I've had. It's spicy, yes, but all the ingredients stand out really well and bring wonderful flavors to the sauce. The smokiness, the seasonings, and especially the habanero. If you like the taste of habanero for more than its heat, you'll love this sauce. There's nothing sweet offsetting it, but it really doesn't need it because it stands out so well on its own without being overpowered by the heat. Main flavors: habanero, smoke, onion.
Heat:
It's a good burn. It hits pretty immediately, but not too strong, and it tapers off quickly (as long as you didn't use way too much!) leaving you with a gentle slow burn. The sauce is spicy enough that all you need is a few drops.
Overall:
This is my go-to sauce when I'm cooking. It's best used as an ingredient, rather than as the main deal. I probably wouldn't put it on wings, but definitely put it on microwave burritos, add it to soups, other sauces, and even a few drops into the salsa for my chips. The smoky but floral taste will perfectly accentuate any dish you want to add some heat to--chili, curry, adobo, you name it.
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A+4.8
Reviewed by intenseparty on April 7th, 2017
Label:
Labels don't matter too much to me. I mark this down from a 5 to a 4 because it doesn't really describe what is different about this compared to their similar Chili Habanero sauces
Looks:
The mix of green and red plus black specs of char let you know the sauce is going to be different than the normal mexican/caribbean hot sauces.
Aroma:
I love the way this smells. Not to vinegared, slightly smoky, you can smell the peppers. Lets you know it is going to taste good too.
Taste:
Easily one of my favorite hot sauces taste wise. Very balanced with sour/salt/sweet/smoke. I believe it is made with charred habaneros which gives it the slightly smoked flavor but nowhere near as smoky as a chipotle chili sauce or similar. Just a little bit of smoke. Other than the smoke, you really get the flavor of the chilis and it is all well seasoned
Heat:
A perfect amount of heat for me. Hot enough to be hot, but no extracts and I am able to put a drop on every bite of a burrito I eat. A touch under the most extreme pure chili sauces but just a touch.
Overall:
I'm pretty into it. Favorite sauce status. Definitely the best of the El Yucateco line. I try to find an excuse to eat this on something every day. If I can't find an excuse I just eat a little in a spoon. Taste is subjective, but I am a big big fan.
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C+2.8
Reviewed by chiligeorge on November 16th, 2015
Label:
As seen on any label from this hot sauce series, its pretty much all the same. Its colourful and to the point. It also states that its a Mayan recipe on the front. I guess this has a little bit of history to it.
Looks:
A shade of brown that is similar to sun-dried mud. You can see little individual spots of spices in the sauce also. It pours pretty easily from the bottle and it is of semi-chunky consistency.
Aroma:
It smells like something is burnt in the sauce. It seems like there is garlic in this sauce by the smell, but it doesnt say on the bottle. Maybe its the onion with the spices that make such a smokey smell. Faint capsicum smell.
Taste:
I can sort of taste the onion in this straight away. The garlicy spices are quite overpowering. A very distinct taste that can only work with a few foods well, perhaps pork, beans, maybe rice.
Heat:
The heat is actually quite hot for a commercial brand which im happy about. The heat to flavour ratio is decent. How the bottle drops is quite up to you how much you want to put in your food. Dont put too much because of the flavour and the heat, but it wont ruin the food if you only put a little bit in. Its a small bottle made to last.
Overall:
Not the greatest sauce. I dont particularly like it, but it will do for fancy bbq's and stir fry.
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A+4.8
Reviewed by Onfirebabies on March 13th, 2013
Label:
El Yucateco's labels are more or less all the same. Straightforward and to the point. Nothing really stands out here.
Looks:
Light brown speckled sauce. Not the prettiest I have seen.
Aroma:
A delicious smelling little bottle of smoke and Habaneros.
Taste:
An excellent tasting sauce. No one ingredient overpowers the others. All ingredients come together to create an excellent sauce.
Heat:
This sauce is not playing games folks. I expected the burn of Yucatecos other sauces, which I am very familiar with. Be warned...this one pulls no punches. The burn comes on quick and sticks with you...Fantastic!
Overall:
Definitely one of my favorites thus far. In my opinion it stands atop the Yucateco line of hot sauces.