I used to watch the UFC pretty regularly.. and when Bruce Buffer steps in for the last match and bellows: “it’s TIME”.. he brings the energy up a notch. Had the same feeling when our buddy Doug came back from a Columbus, OH trip. He talked very favorably of the Flavor & Fire crew and brought with him one hell of a sampler.
Let’s start by giving them the credit they deserve: https://flavorandfire.com/ . Hover over that “Hot Sauces” link, click on “All Hot Sauces” and scroll and scroll and scroll. So many flavors, so much promise. We’re a tough crowd with many different taste buds. Half of us can deal with the heat, but all of us like chicken wings.
Eleven sauces. At least forty-four wings. Now, this comment comes up all the time: “They aren’t all wing sauces”. We know. But we like chicken wings and it’s a blank canvas for us to work with. Much better, and tastier, than a potato chip. With my last few 4N6BBQ Presents posts – I usually acquire the sauces and I’ll come back and hit ’em a second time with different base food. Doug’s buy, so I didn’t get a chance to do a round 2. I tried to take notes while we tried them – but as you can imagine.. the hotter we went, the shorter the notes got. Stick around for the action shots!
I straight up stole the pictures below from Flavor & Fire. As always, I give them a heads up that we’re posting as a courtesy in case they don’t want us to for whatever reason. If they’re reading this and have a problem with the stolen label images – let me know and I’ll take ’em down ?. Purple text is the description as written on their site – Black is our review. Let’s go!
Columbus Chipotle Hot Sauce (F&F): Savory, smokey chipotle along with brown sugar gives this sauce a mild, sweet delicious flavor that everyone we know just loves. A great way to tastefully brighten up every meal, this is one of our most popular mild sauces, and a must have for any table!
Columbus Chipotle Review: This one gave us BBQ sauce vibes. Throws on a thick flavor, has very little heat. Probably a good one for the kids. Would be good on some pork ribs. Overall, this one was good – had a sweet, smoky flavor that we all enjoyed.
North Market Hot Sauce (F&F): You like Mexican food, you like North Market Hot Sauce! A savory blend of Jalapeno, Cayenne, Cumin and Chili Powder, this mild sauce is perfect for any table, any time, anywhere. A must have in the cupboard!
North Market Review: This one sided heavily with the Flavor side of their name, not so much the fire. All thought this was an awesome blend, great coating on the mouth. Not hot, but great taste. It says “Medium” and we’re starting easy. But damn, are we starting flavorful as well.
Columbus Cayenne (F&F): Columbus Cayenne is another traditional Cayenne style sauce… but with a touch of zesty spice to give it a flavor that you wont be able to live without. Add this to your collection of “Columbus” hot sauces from Flavor & Fire… you will glad you did!
Columbus Cayenne Review: This was exactly what it says – a cayenne sauce. It’s not bad a thing, and it’s definitely not false advertising. This one started off soft, but had some good back heat. An overall decent flavor and left us wanting more. I’d like to put this up against those commercial products we all know – and of course my homemade blend to see where it lands
CBus Hot Sauce (F&F): A traditional Cayenne hot sauce with extraordinary flavor… this sauce is a great compliment to any food from salads, pasta or rice… tofu seafood, beef and poultry. A must have in every cupboard in every home!
CBus Review: Our takeaway from this one was that it should be a mainstay in our pantry. It’s a good standard hot sauce. Everyone enjoyed it, but it didn’t stand out. It was basic enough for us to enjoy, just didn’t jump out with anything crazy. It was at this point we’re loving life. Awesome sauces, good friends, cold beer… we knew the heat was coming, so let’s just sit back and enjoy these easy-going ones while we can.
Columbus Black Garlic Hot Sauce (F&F): Columbus Black Garlic checks all of the boxes. With Black Garlic, Molasses, Brown Sugar and our special spice blend, there is flavor a plenty to rock your senses! Habanero and Jalapeno peppers gives you just enough heat to melt your heart that you will want to last forever!
Columbus Black Garlic Review: So as I said in the last one, we were feeling good. We knew the heat was growing.. and then we got to this one. The heat didn’t get there until the end. We called it a “great post-chew burn”. This one got us burning.. but more importantly, it was a damn good sauce. Two of us thought this was the best yet.. Doug himself quoted that this was “everything I want”. Zach was quoted as “it’s hot”. Get ready.
Taco Cat Hot Sauce (F&F): You want HOT on your Mexican food or tacos? This Ghost Pepper sauce is one hot tamale when it comes to spicing up your favorite Mexican dishes! It is our most popular Taco Sauce and will be yours too!
Taco Cat Review: This one blew us away. My favorite of all we tried. Not because I married a crazy cat lady who has an obsession with black cats, but because it was so very good. Got the cumin hit right away, feeling that Mexican vibe. My on-the-spot reviews mentioned “delicious” 3 times, so it must be true.
Trinidog Hot Sauce (F&F): Trinidog bites like a Bitch and leaves you begging for more of that Habanero and Trinidad Moruga Scorpion flavor rich heat… along with our secret enlivening Mojo a plenty, for one howling ride. Every scrap of Trinidog delivers a kick of loyal heat intensity!
Trinidog Review: This was the oddball of all the sauces. None of us could really figure this one out. Reading the ingredients, it could’ve been the agave and/or mango (I’m going to say it was the mustard, because I hate mustard).. this one just didn’t work for us, at least not on chicken wings. Probably didn’t help that the Black Garlic/Taco Cat still had us burning. Would’ve liked to have gone back for a round 2 to untangle this web.
Ohio Hot Sauce (F&F): A great Ghost Pepper sauce, with the addition of special herbs and spices that will make any food a hot flavorful delight of goodness! One of our most popular selling high heat hot sauces!
Ohio Review: Now we’re burning. Had very little notes on this one other than “she hot”. Doug didn’t like this one as much as the others – I still thought it had a good flavor and heat everywhere. Throat, mouth, lips.. everywhere. We thought the heat took precedence over flavor, probably because there was that much heat. Good thing we had three left.
Rise & Die Hot Sauce (F&F): Take finely ground coffee, chile pepper, cinnamon and you have delightful Mexican Coffee… then add Ghost Pepper Puree and 3 million Scoville Pepper Extract… and you have Rise & Die!!! This is extremely hot so use caution when consuming!
Rise & Die Review: My review for this one started off by saying “Fun”. I didn’t really see how my other 3 friends were slathering on their sauces, but I did a coating of the sauce. Not just a “dab”. That being said, this one had a delayed burn.. a bit weak on flavor – thought Ohio had a better overall package. No front burn, all back.
I didn’t believe this was a 3 million scoville sauce.. so I re-sauced for another bite. And this is where I made my mistake. I dunno if I didn’t get that extract hit on the first one, but I got it all on the second. My latter notes.. “Required a significant break. Hard burn.” Can’t really say if the flavor improved or not, I was hurting good.
Laid to Rest Hot Sauce (F&F): A fruit based concentrate Super Ultra Hot with a tantalizing hint of Cinnamon, Sugar, Pineapple and Orange… but with 6 million Scoville extract, sure to kick the heat up for any crazy hot enthusiast! A must have and the sequel to Rise & Die. Get some!!! This is a 6 million Scoville Extract Sauce so use caution when consuming!
Laid to Rest Review: I didn’t think I was going to like this one. I don’t generally like fruity hot sauces, but I also knew I wasn’t going to taste much at this point. When Doug laid these out, mild to hot.. these two were in their own spot. How was the bite? Hot sauce just for hot. My favorite note.. verbatim: “Nobody liked the flavor, but questionable if anyone tasted any flavor at this point.”. I actually thought it was good – but taste buds were also way out of whack.
Cry Baby 6 (F&F): This is an amazing Super Ultra Hot 6 Million Scoville Extract Sauce with an incredible flavor to compliment the crazy Heat! Cry Baby 6 has made some people actually Cry! Are you up for the challenge???
Cry Baby 6 Review: Man, these last two kicked our asses. These bastards are way hot. It was a “300” Spartan level battle fighting through the heat. I wrote that it had a “good taste” (I could taste?), and that it had a hard hitting extract vibe. I used it later in bbq sauce to amplify. Actually did get some strong flavor that was good.. complimentary.
We ate all these in a central location, but the heat caused a few of us to have to walk this one out. Above, you’ll see Zach have to ice his lips and just be by himself. We didn’t want to hear him crying, he didn’t want us to see it.
This picture kind of summed it up. Zach on the left was still doing the ice-cube-lip technique.. which worked for the rest of us so we didn’t have to listen to him. Bryan needed the garden hose to feel again. Just soaked down anything those extract sauces hit, because it was bad. Doug was bent over in pain. A little loose with the garden hose trigger control caused the wet pants – it was not a result of the hot sauce.
I’ll leave you with this commentary which I don’t remember typing out, but it had to have been after the Cry Baby 6:
“Whole mouth region is on fire. Hurting bad. Good 10-15 minute constant burn nose to chin. We’re out. Significant demeanor change. Friendships altered. Distrust growing amongst group. Betrayal being talked about. ”
-ForensicBBQ
Again, head on over to flavorandfire.com and pick up some of them sauces. My favorite was the Taco Cat as it balanced the flavor and the fire to perfection. Will be ordering up at least a bottle of that one, and probably some new ones that we didn’t try. BIG THANKS to the crew over there for putting out quality products.. this was fun!