Secret Aardvark Habanero Hot Sauce
A-4.0 / 5 BASED ON 7 REVIEWS
Maker:
Secret Aardvark Trading Co. LLC
Portland, OR, United States
Pepper(s):
Habanero
Ingredients:
Tomatoes(Tomatoes And Fire Roasted Tomatoes, Tomato Juice, Citric Acid, Calcium Chloride), White Wine Vinegar, Carrots, Water, Yellow Onion, Habanero Chili Pepper(Habanero Chili Peppers, Water, Salt, Citric Acid), Mustard(Distilled Vinegar, Water, Mustard Seed, Salt, Turmeric, Spices), Organic Cane Sugar, Salt, Modified Food Starch, Garlic, Sunflower Oil, Herbs And Spices
Description:
Official: "The flavor that kicks in your mouth. Not your usual hot sauce! A unique Caribbean/Tex-Mex hybrid made with flavorful Habanero peppers and roasted tomatoes."User Reviews
The opinions expressed in these reviews are soley those of their author.
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A4.3
Reviewed by noisebloom on January 26th, 2022
Label:
Love the packaging; it's simple and unique.
Looks:
This one looks rather appetizing, with a creamy thickness to it akin to a salsa.
Aroma:
Can't complain about the sweet, habanero-like aroma that emanates from the sauce.
Taste:
Wow. I really love the flavor of this sauce. It has a nuanced, garlicky sweetness to it that is positively delicious.
Heat:
This sauce is only moderately hot, spicy enough to give any food a good kick, but it doesn't even have me reaching for a glass of water. It's really a good balance, to be honest.
Overall:
This is a really fantastic sauce, from the creamy thickness to the sweet, delicious flavor.
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A-4.1
Reviewed by andwich on November 4th, 2020
Label:
Cute, simple, straightforward labeling, unique and eye catching, while not gimmicky. Although, I'd prefer some actual pairing suggestions rather than the obligatory "use it on everything" line.
Looks:
This is a bright fresh looking sauce, medium thick consistency, with very fine chunkiness.
Aroma:
The aroma is bright, acidic and fruity. Predominantly pepper, tomato and vinegar, kind of a cross between a ketchup and taco sauce aroma.
Taste:
Heat:
Pretty intense back of the throat burn catches me by surprise
Overall:
Really unique and intriguing taste of habanero balanced with a smokey vegetable flavor with bright acidity, very tomato forward. Very good, but not one of my favorites.
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A+5.0
Reviewed by Dario on July 7th, 2020
Label:
Labels don't matter much to me. This one is fine and clever: blue aardvark with it's mouth in a bottle.
Looks:
Reddish. Other people are writing that it's orange. Much more rust colored to me than orange. Consistency is a thick sauce. Not chunky at all, but fairly thick liquid.
Aroma:
It smells great to me. Vinegar/citrus smell, with tomato, onion, garlic, and black pepper.
Taste:
Can't tell you why, but I love this stuff. It's clearly a tomato based sauce, and is acidic when it first hits your mouth. Some sweetness from the carrot comes through as well. The heat goes to the back of my mouth almost immediately. I also get black peppercorn as the lingering flavor. That could be the habanero plus the roasted tomato? Been eating it for about 10 years and love the taste. I'll eat it straight as a salsa with chips. It goes on beans, rice, chili, almost anything where I want a sauce for some flavor and heat.
Heat:
Moderate heat for hot sauce lovers. Very hot for non-hot sauce lovers. I don't like very hot stuff - I'm not in it for the pain. The heat with this sauce builds as you eat it and can get hot over time. It dissipates quickly. I can easily eat 1/2 bottle with a meal and have it not be too hot. (I have a problem with the scale for heat. Because it's one of 5 scores for a hot sauce that means 20% of the score will be based on the amount of heat. This means the hotter sauces have an advantage over the better tasting sauces. I would suggest that the heat rating should be about the quality of the heat, not the hotness.)
Overall:
This is my go to sauce for most things. Not so much for cooking, but for using as a condiment. Flavor, heat, texture are all about perfect for me. I've been eating hot sauce for 35+ years have tired hundreds in 20+ different countries. I can't say this is the best sauce I've ever had, but it's got to be in the top 3-4 out of all those.
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A-4.0
Reviewed by SpicyHashbrowns on August 7th, 2018
Label:
The aardvark is cute. The bottle isn’t the best itself, it’s meant to be a squeeze bottle but you can’t really squeeze it.
Looks:
The texture is great, reminds me of a discontinued local hot sauce in my town. It’s almost like salsa. The color is orange/red. I like that it’s not runny.
Aroma:
I could smell the habanero, good.
Taste:
I like the sweetness with the heat, it’s a salsa crossed with a hot sauce.
Heat:
Slow building burn, then it stacks the more you eat it. It cools off quickly though.
Overall:
This is an everything sauce. I especially like it on poultry, it goes great on burgers too.
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A-4.2
Reviewed by Hotdogger on January 26th, 2018
Label:
I've always been a huge fan of Aardvarks and to see the little guys get their own hot sauce figuratively and literally warms my heart
Looks:
It's a nice chunky sauce that sticks to what I need it to stick to (my food).
Aroma:
Smells pretty good to me. I might use it as cologne.
Taste:
Imagine if Taco Bell made the best tasting sauce in the world. These guys took Taco Bell's formula and perfected it.
Heat:
Not that spicy. I mean sure yeah okay it's got a little something, but there ain't any challenge here.
Overall:
Secret Aardvark is a great "use on everything sauce". You can squirt this bad boy all over pretty much any food to liven it up. Oh, and I will.
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B-3.0
Reviewed by LUNAMAN on January 21st, 2018
Label:
Lanel is fine( I don't really care what the bottle looks like as long as it tastes good). However I did deduct points because the plastic that the bottle is made of makes it tough to squeeze and this sauce is thicker so its a little bit ofwork to get the sauce out
Looks:
A dark orange in color. Small chunks of onion, peppers, tomatos, and carrots.
Aroma:
Not your normal straight hot sauce aroma. More complex, and the mustard and turmeric really come through
Taste:
I know this sauce is really trendy right now but the more i eat it the less I am a fan. Upfront it is a tex mex taste with tomatos and onions and then it finishes with habanero, mustard, garlic, and termeric. The sweetness from the carrots is consistent throughout. I've tried it on many things including homemade Mexican dishes, wings, eggs, and the only thing i thought it went well on was pizza.
Heat:
It's a mild habanero heat level.
Overall:
Again, i was really excited to try this one and was a bit confused about the flavor profile it has going on. Really wanted to like it but sadly it isn't one of my favs.
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B3.3
Reviewed by CzechStokeCityFan on October 18th, 2016
Label:
A masked, smiling blue Aardvark with his nose deep into a red container on a yellow and white field with blue, yellow and black wording all around.
Looks:
A consistent, pale orange color throughout, and quite thick. It will not pour out on it's own...you must squeeze the plastic container and it sort of shoots out in a blotchy fashion(so be careful, or you will be wearing it!). I suppose it is the high proportion of tomatoes that makes it act in this way.
Aroma:
Nothing noteworthy, but no vinegar aroma as well, which is not a bad thing. Very typical habanero hot sauce smell.
Taste:
Perhaps a little sharply acidic only. The tomatoes really contribute to the texture much more than the taste. Again, very middle of the road with a Habanero hot sauce.
Heat:
Hotter than I anticipated. In fact, I used a little too much the first time. It is hot enough to not disappoint those that crave higher levels of heat. Newbies would probably think this one quite hot, or a little too hot for their taste. Veterans might reach for hotter. It falls right in the middle, I think.
Overall:
A visitor to Oregon brought this back for me and added that it was quite popular there. I suppose I can see that, not knowing how the hot sauce market is in that area. Really, it is the thickness and the upper medium heat that carries the day for it. Also, the 8 ounce size is a bonus. Receiving it as I did, I am unaware of the price it commands. It is worth a try...and watch out when squeezing!