Yellowbird is a small-batch artisanal hot sauce brand out of Austin, TX. I’ve talked some smack about their habanero sauce before.
Well, today I swung by the local hot sauce shop, as I was out of the spice, and needed some more. I chatted up the clerk and we were talking Yellowbird, how the serrano sauce tasted so good, and how the habanero one was second-rate. I asked him about the ghost pepper variety, and he told me to try a sample. So I did. And I liked what I tasted!
This is not the spiciest sauce in the world. But very few non-extract hot sauces are killer. And, unlike extract sauces, Yellowbird ghost pepper sauce doesn’t taste artificial or metallic. Real hot sauces have complex flavors. Though not as spicy as something like Dave’s Insanity, this will leave most civilians sweating.
But there’s more than spice! Yellowbird ghost pepper sauce has a rich and nuanced flavor profile despite the powerful spice level, with a strong sour punch that hits you in the face before you even realize how hot it is. The savor is pretty flat from the beginning to end, but I tend to get a sweet kick at the end. I’m not a big fan of sweetness in hot sauces, but it isn’t pervasive and overwhelming and serves as a nice accent before you start to get the sweat on as capsicum binds to your receptors.