So I won’t normally do a straight “vendor” post – but I’ve gotten a couple dynamite shipments this year. And this is one of them. Welcome to the first in the “ForensicBBQ presents” series!
I hope y’all know by now that I enjoy most anything hot sauce. Love it so much I make my own. I came across the Way Hot Sauce Company – and was delighted to support local. But I’ve never had any of the sauces to know which is best.
And like a moth to a flame, I found the TEN 1oz bottle Sampler pack and couldn’t order it fast enough. The only way to do it justice was to get some friends together and smoke up some wings. And this post is special because Wolf took the helm on his bullet. I was just bringing the sauce. (and the Jiminicks.)
Which one came out on top? I’m a spice enthusiast – was the hottest the best? Was the outlandish just weird enough to take top prize? Let’s go!
Note: Different format today. The usual PrepTable-Process-Result has been suspended. Wolf did the work – I’m trying to get him to contribute to the site… guy does a fantastic job. Plus that unmistaken taste I’m not getting from pellets – there’s a market, my friend – join the 4n6 family!
** This post is not sponsored in any way whatsoever. I paid for the sauce – that was the only money or promise given. I did send WayHot a message when I knew I wanted to post this and the response was – and I quote – “Absolutely roll it!”. That’s someone that’s confident in their sauce – I appreciate that!**
Way Hot Sauce Company – Hot Sauce, Spices, Award Winning – https://www.getwayhot.com
The Smoke
My boy Wolf does it right. Smoked up some venison and steak for the pre-game, get that appetite going for the chicken wing show. I brought my pup along for the cookout and it was a stupid hot day (nearing 100 degrees) – and old boy wasn’t faring well. So I had to drive him back and missed the fresh off-the-grates meat. But he’s my boy, been with me through it all.
But enough about him. We had some wings to get cooking, and some hot sauce to try. Like I’ve said, when ForensicBBQ goes brick-and-mortar, Wolf will be tending to the pits like a man possessed. If he pokes a commercial pit like he does the Weber, success only follows.
Like I said, this guy does a bang up job with the smokes. Be it pour-over chili or Pork Butt or that delicious salmon – it’s dynamite. When I post the salmon – it’ll be his recipe for sure. Have no problem giving credit where due.
Both Zach and Wolf (and families) were along for the ride, so we needed to enough wings to work. I commend Wolf on the Wing trim – because it drives me crazy that people won’t trim off that bullshit piece on the flat. At least SHOW US you did some work before throwing it on the fire. I’m looking at you whole wing restaurants – Chinese food places – the old Toby Keith’s place that closed down.. probably for this reason.
I’m kind of flying through these, because this is all about the sauce on this post. The smoke and high-temp finish is the go-to for wings.
After we crisped that skin up, it was time to go. We split the wholes into halves and passed ’em around. Got them mini WayHot jars out and were ready to get going. I thought Wolf would make it to TEN (the hottest), I had great doubts Zach would – I’ll say he did better than expected though.
The Sauces
Going into this taste test of all taste tests, I was guessing my top three would be: Go Ahead and Scream, Love At First Sting, and Habanero In Your Head. I’m not usually big into the sweet and heat, but the Ghost/Cherry was particularly intriguing. I had a good guess that the Jalapeno In Your Head would be a great everyday go to.. but for this is for Chicken Wings.
I’ll give you what WayHot has to say about their sauce, and then what Zach, Wolf, and I have to say (MrsZach was also tasting these as we went). When we got to those hot ass last three, we kinda powered through and didn’t do them justice. You’ll see I went back (twice) and gave them their due:
? Jalapeno In Your Head Sauce “Jalapeno Verde Sauce“
WayHot: This special, limited, handmade sauce was crafted with the “not so hot” sauce lover in mind. Jalapeño In Your Head Sauce combines the “not so hot” heat of the 8000 Scoville Unit jalapeño pepper with that of health robust garlic and the flavor of fresh yellow bell peppers. Use this sauce to add zip to your favorite dishes. Use it on breakfast burritos, nachos, any kind of burger or a loaded baked potato. Jalapeño In Your Head Sauce won an award at the 13th annual Hot Pepper Awards!
Consensus: Great everyday, spicy enough, clean fresh flavor. All three of us loved this sauce. Had such an absolutely great flavor, and a unique freshness. We thought this would be best on Mexican food… say a burrito, chimichanga, but this one is great for everyone. I’ll definitely be keeping this one in the cupboard.
? Rockin’ Red Sauce “Red Jalapeno Sauce“
WayHot: This special, limited, handmade sauce was crafted with the hot sauce enthusiast in mind. Rockin’ Red sauce combines the easy-going heat of the 8000 Scoville Unit red jalapeño pepper with that of healthy, robust garlic and the flavor of fresh red bell peppers. Use this sauce to add a kick to your favorite dishes. Add it to tacos, burritos, chip dips, meatloaf, pizza…even popcorn!
Consensus: Right on par with the first one. Complement to the green – for those that don’t prefer a green based sauce. Same description: Fresh, a little hint of heat. Zach took to this one over the green, but MrsZach and I preferred the green because we overall prefer a verde sauce. Again, outstanding flavor.
? Manzano Pepper Crashes the Papaya Party “Manzano Pepper and Papaya Sauce“
WayHot: This special, limited, handmade sauce was crafted with the hot sauce connoisseur in mind. Manzano Pepper Crashes The Papaya Party combines the moderate heat of the 20,000 Scoville Unit, rare, Manzano pepper with that of healthy robust garlic, the flavor of fresh orange bell peppers and tropical papayas. Use this sauce to add a pop to your favorite dishes. Add it to BBQ ribs, a grilled grouper fillet, or black beans and rice.
Consensus: This one was an interesting sauce. There wasn’t any kind of heat that we picked up, and I don’t think the chicken wings did it any justice. We thought this would be best on a fish tacos. It was good, wasn’t our favorite – wasn’t bold enough one way or the other
? ? Habanero In Your Head Sauce “Traditional Habanero Sauce“
WayHot: This special, limited, handmade sauce was crafted with the true hot sauce lover in mind. Habanero In Your Head Sauce combines the fiery heat of the 300,000 Scoville Unit habanero pepper with that of healthy, robust garlic and the flavor of fresh red bell peppers. Use this sauce to add a punch to your favorite dishes. Use it on a quesadilla, corned beef hash, a chicken potpie, in your spaghetti sauce or a bloody mary!
Consensus: So we tried it, MrsZach read the description and we couldn’t have agreed more with the write-up. Definitely perfect for a corned beef hash and a Bloody Mary. This one was sweet in front with a good back heat – one of my favorites as the habaneros really shine (hangs around with you for a bit.. delicious!)
? ? Smokey’s Sauce “Chipotle Sauce“
WayHot: Smokey’s Sauce combines chipotle jalapeño peppers with healthy, robust garlic with the flavor of fresh red bell peppers. This sauce is a dedication to our dad, Dick “Smokey” Richards. In the early days of making hot sauce, he was always right there with us. We miss him every day and know he would have loved this sauce. It brings some heat, but has lots of great flavor. We knew Smokey was smiling down on us when his namesake sauce won an award at the 2020 Fiery Food Challenge in Irving, Texas.
Consensus: All of us loved this one. I tried to take notes as we went along – but as they got hotter, we were more concerned with not burning up than we were with notes. But we said “Excellent. Good substitute for a BBQ sauce for the spice lovers. Exactly as described. Robust.” Be proud Smokey, this one is a winner!
? ? ? Island Fever “Yellow Scotch Bonnet Pepper and Pineapple Sauce“
WayHot: This special, limited, handmade sauce was crafted with the hot sauce worshipper in mind. Island Fever combines the tenacious heat of the 300,000 Scoville Unit yellow Scotch Bonnet pepper with that of healthy, robust garlic, the flavor of fresh yellow bell peppers, together with tropical pineapple. Use this sauce to add a tropical burn to your favorite dishes. Add it to your spiral sliced ham, Hawaiian pizza, Baja grilled chicken, or island style pulled pork tacos. Island Fever was an award winner at the 13th Annual Hot Pepper Awards!
Consensus: Things were obviously getting hotter because my notes for this one said “Good.” I had to get back to trying this one because “Good ” wasn’t going to cut it. This was a fun sauce. I didn’t get an overly hot flavor, just one that made me want drinks on the beach somewhere. Great tasting sauce, I wouldn’t mind this on any Caribbean, Cuban, or island fare. Great job – really took to this one after multiple taste tests.
? ? ? Mango Tango Sauce “Mango Habanero Sauce“
WayHot: This special, limited, handmade sauce was crafted with the hot sauce addict in mind. Mango Tango Sauce combines the raucous heat of the 300,000 Scoville Unit habanero pepper with that of healthy, robust garlic, the flavor of fresh red bell peppers, together with tropical mangos. Use this sauce to add a sweet and savory fire to your favorite dishes. Add it to your grilled mahi-mahi, tequila lime chicken, cocktail meatballs or tropical spring rolls. We’re proud as heck to say that Mango Tango won first place in the New York Hot Sauce Expo’s Screaming Mimi Awards for a fruit hot sauce. Try it. You won’t be disappointed.
Consensus: This one caught us hard on the back heat. I mentioned before, there’s a hype behind these sweet-heat sauces that I haven’t really gotten into – but this one was damn good. I’m definitely a habanero fan, and those cut through the mango. The mango wasn’t overpowering, which was welcome for me. I could see putting this next to some shrimp cocktail, even though I love the harsh horseradish cocktail sauce.
? ? ? ? Go Ahead and Scream Sauce “Ghost Pepper and Michigan Cherry Sauce“
WayHot: Combining the terrorizing heat of fresh ghost peppers with sweet Michigan Cherries, this one is a fan favorite. We’ve beaten back the 1 million Scoville Unit heat of the ghost peppers to add another dimension of flavor to this unique sauce. It looks like blood and tastes like fire.
Consensus: Reading the label, the name of it reminds me of a song – and It’s driving me crazy that I can’t place it. So we didn’t get to taking notes on this one – we kinda powered through the last three. I went back the next day and made some marinated diced chicken and had some tacos – one of each for the last three. This one is a definite favorite. Such a great, deep flavor. It was hot, definitely not for the faint of heart, but the cherries were a beautiful touch. Well done, sir! (Went back for a third taster on some generic chicken product – confirmed the result, absolutely wonderful)
? ? ? ? ? Love At First Sting “Trinidad Moruga Scorpion Sauce“
WayHot: This special, limited, handmade sauce was crafted with the hot sauce maniac in mind. Love At First Sting combines the, over the top, heat of the 1.2M Scoville Unit Trinidad Moruga Scorpion pepper with that of healthy, robust garlic and the flavor of fresh red bell peppers. Use this sauce to add a firestorm to your favorite dishes. Add it to a bowl of chili, chicken wings or an enchilada.
Consensus: This one is for sure hot. Still a good clean flavor. I don’t like the hot sauces that are hot just to be hot (i.e. extracts). This one was hot but still held a heck of a lot of flavor. I really enjoyed this one. If I haven’t convinced you to buy the small batch hot sauces by now, I haven’t done my job. The freshness is remarkable!
? ? ? ? ? Grim Ripper Sauce “Carolina Reaper Sauce“
WayHot: Use this sauce to add a hallucinogenic hellfire to your favorite dishes. It’s a difficult task to tame the hottest pepper in the world. We think we’ve adjusted the dial on this 1.5 million plus Scoville Unit Carolina Reaper pepper sauce, to the point where flavor is still a thing. If you just want to burn your self up, someone else sells that shit. This is a hot one, but it tastes great. Fear The Ripper.
Consensus: This one had more definition of heat vs. flavor. I enjoyed the Scorpion blend more, because it seemed more complex. This one was just brutal hot. For the daring, go for it – but for those that want that heat with a great flavor backing – stay at the scorpion.
The Results
The major thing that stood out for us what how fresh everything tasted. I mentioned the words “fresh” and “clean” many times, and when that’s one of the things you key in on – you know it’s a small batch, made-with-care kind of sauce. Thank you to WayHot for this delicious medley of not just heat – but more importantly – flavor.
Top Three:
Smokey’s Sauce, Go Ahead and Scream, Jalapeno in your Head. Love at First Sting is a close 4th but consensus vote – too hot for some, one didn’t try it. That Habanero one though – that might be 4th place.. that was so good.
Thanks again to Way Hot for the delicious sauces. When you order a few from them, drop a note saying ForensicBBQ sent you (I don’t know if people ever really do that – unless promised a discount – but whatever!). This was a fun change from the usual – someone else did the cooking, someone else made the sauce – I’m just writing about it. Probably ain’t gonna be many of these, so we’ll get back to the cooking on the next one I’m sure!