While looking for additional brands of hot sauce to evaluate, I discovered this very mild-flavored Tapatio Hot Sauce at Walmart, and decided to bring home a 10-ounce bottle for review. Well, I liked the overall taste, thicker consistency, glass bottling, and decently-low price of this hot sauce from Tapatio Foods. Indeed, this is yet another of many companies that make hot sauce currently, due to its highly popular, spicy flavor and orange color. Apparently many folks like me, like that signature hot sauce kick, as hot sauce is the primary flavoring in the ever-so-popular Buffalo wings, spicy burgers, and chicken entrees.
I’ve applied hot sauce to my favorite fish dishes for years. This Tapatio brand is tied only with Louisiana Brand as the mildest hot sauce I’ve ever sampled. Yet it still has a gentle sting when applied directly to the tongue. Here are my detailed ideas on this hot sauce.
Benefits, Pros, Advantages, and Features
- The mild, warm flavor of Tapatio improves the taste of fish- and poultry-based dishes without stinging or numbing the tongue excessively. It can hide the “fishiness” of fish and the “fowlness” of chicken near-completely if that is the goal.
- It’s a thicker sauce (about like wing sauce or maple syrup), and opaque (like whole milk or paint). The thickness derives comes from xanthan gum, and the opacity results from the peppers and gum.
- Lower sodium, at 110 milligrams per 1-teaspoon serving. But if sodium is your thing, then try Louisiana Brand Hot Sauce. It has 240 milligrams of sodium per serving.
- This gentle, peppery flavor offers a subtle peppery, salty warmth. But there’s not much zing here, as the primary flavor of this hot sauce appears to come from a multitude of unspecified spices rather than red peppers.
- This product need not be refrigerated after opening. Just store it in a cool, dry, and dark place for maximum original-flavor retention.
- There’s no sweet taste to become addicted to here, which is awesome. I’m so sick of looking for foods without a sweet taste. Tapatio Brand Hot Sauce is therefore one flavor that I’ve been seeking. So at least for hot sauce, I’ve concluded my search.
- This hot sauce with its mild-level hotness, adds an interesting yet different-from-usual hot sauce flavor to any dish, but virtually no calories or carbs. I prefer it most on fish strips and chicken breasts.
- I’d describe this hot sauce as very mild. This makes it acceptable to wide variety of guests at the dining room table even if abundantly dumped.
- I love the glass bottle, that is much preferred to plastic for maximum original flavor preservation.
- The sodium here is fairly low at 110 milligrams per teaspoon, it contains almost no calories, carbs, fat, or added sugars. So unless you’re hypertensive, this hot sauce you can drench over your foods without too many overuse worries.
Disadvantages, Cons, Problems, and Concerns
- I wish they’d have provided some recipes in which this product could be used. New ideas for hot sauce right on the bottle are always a joy to find.
- This product contains the sodium benzoate preservative. So this places it behind most of the other hot sauces I’ve reviewed in the all-natural column, since most other hot sauces contain no preservatives. But the preservative may be required to protect the flavors of unnamed spices in this product, mentioned next.
- Tapatio’s hot sauce also has a more complex flavor than the hot sauces that contain only red peppers as their flavoring agents. It also had garlic and unnamed added spices. So while there’s still some of the heat in the taste that other hot sauce products have, this one differs significantly and uniquely from the plain-pepper hot sauces. I haven’t decided yet how much I like this flavor. So far, I’m lukewarm. Perhaps a hint of barbecue? Not sure.
- Locating this product can be laborious, except in the larger grocery store chains.
Ingredients
Water, red peppers, salt, spices, garlic, acetic acid, xanthan gum, sodium benzoate as a preservative.
Nutrition Facts
- Serving size: 1 teaspoon (5 milliliters). Servings per 12-ounce container: 71.
- Calories: 0.
- Total fat: 0 grams, 0% DV.
- Saturated fat: 0 grams, 0 DV.
- Trans fat: 0 grams.
- Sodium: 110 milligrams, 5% DV.
- Total carb: 0 grams, 0% DV.
- Protein: 0 grams, 0% DV.
Product Rating
All-in-all, this mild-flavored hot sauce is okay, though I think its flavor diverges too much from the hot sauces I’ve grown up eating. Still though, it’s a cook’s friend for softly warming foods with spicy flavor that people will enjoy. In moderation, hot sauce is a healthy flavoring, as it contains no added sugars or fats. This sauce gives you some of the essence of hot sauce, but with less kick for those sensitive to more strong-armed spicing. So I recommend Tapatio be included any any chef’s kitchen. I’d rate it at 86 out of 100.
Where To Buy Tapatio Hot Sauce
Look for this pepper sauce in the clear glass bottle (that displays the orange-red hot sauce inside) with the white label that pictures Tapatio himself on the front, at Walmart or many other larger grocery stores.
References
Revision History
- : Moved this piece to the Tom’s Diet Quest blog, added whitespace, tweaked content, and adjusted ad placement and category and tag assignments.
- 2012-05-20 Originally published.