My second Buffalo Hot Sauce is from Bristol's Ginger Beard. This one is sharper and less unctuous than the Guzzalo. More peppery, less buttery. In fact, it’s almost 50% peppers, according to the label, with 41% ‘red chilli’ and 5% ‘aged habanero’. It does taste really peppery, with a slightly bitter aftertaste, mellowed a touch by the butter. What’s quite pleasant about this one is that although the heat feels robust from the beginning it doesn’t especially build, so you can eat a good deal of it before you start to think maybe you should slow down. The afterheat and taste is on the side of the tongue for me. And it is hanging around there a while. Ooh, actually, it really is hanging on to the tongue. I’ve eaten too much again.
It’s odd how different peppers and different sauces seem to hit different parts of the mouth. Some sting on the surface while others have a ‘fuller’ heat. The surface sting might cause just as much pain but it’s of a different nature. Some heats build as you wait, others hit immediately and leave quickly. I understand it’s due to the different kinds of capsaicinoids there are. Different peppers have different concentrations and mixes of the various capsaicinoids - the stuff that makes your brain tell you you’re burning, even though you aren’t really - and they each behave slightly differently, binding and attaching to our receptors in different ways. I wonder if anyone’s ever done a map of the mouth with these things capsaicinoids.
I like this style of sauce and would probably want to make something a bit more like this when I give it a shot in the autumn.
£4.99 per 150ml / £33.23 per litre
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