I once drank a glass of Frank’s Red Hot for $20 when I was at Deerfield. It burned for a couple of minutes going down, but otherwise there were no ill effects.
“Okay, that was ballsy,” said a dude named Rob-o who begrudgingly handed me my winnings, and only then after Professor Corkum threatened to cut off his nose if he didn’t.
Then there were the weekly battles at various wing joints with “Volcano” sauce, “Vesuvius” sauce, “Thermonuclear” sauce, and “Hindenberg” sauce to name a few. We’d all sit there eating, not saying a word to one another, just fighting to finish the plate…then we’d wipe our brow and revel in how tough a fight it was.
So who better than me, a tried and true connoisseur, to review the baddest, boldest, and best new hot sauce in America – it’s JB’s Best.
John Byrwa used to be a golf writer, and a damn good one. In fact, he was an editor of mine at PGA.com for years, but he left to chase his dream: hot sauce!
“I like him already!” said one of my co-workers as we sat around the conference room table passing the bottle around. Yes, we have some veterans of hot sauce wars in the firm, Big Ray most prominent among them. He and I took particular delight in analyzing not just the flavor of JB’s Best, but its color, its bouquet, and its texture.
By the end of the meal, we were nodding at each other – this is the real deal. Wings, pizza, sandwiches, salads, rolls, salmon, sushi, even fingertips – with each passing bite our salivary glands exploded with its savory flavor.
Two minutes after we were done, every bottle of Sriracha in the place got tossed into the trash.
I was amazed at the complexity of flavors. Yes, there’s heat, but the spices are the showstoppers, followed by the sauce’s richness. It was closer to barbecue sauce’s texture than your run of the mill wing sauce.
“It’s got quite a nice kick with lots of herbs and spices. There’s a pleasant afterburn on this sauce, with slight vinegar and cayenne overtones,” opined Big Ray, visibly impressed.
“It’s like there’s a party my mouth, and everyone got lucky!” joked AWITP correspondent Rodney Zilla, at another taste-test conducted later that evening. He may have traded hyperbole for enthusiasm for that moment, but you knew he was genuine when he slathered it on his grilled salmon, then poured it all over a dinner roll and ate that!
“Seriously, this is so thick and rich, it’s practically it’s own food group,” Zilla added. “I don’t think I’ve had a hot sauce that had this good a mix of savory flavor and heat, but was as thick as this is. Tell your friend he should make a bloody mary mix next!”
Rod, he’s way ahead of you. It’s tremendous in a bloody mary…or better still a bloody MARIA…made with 100% blue agave tequila!
Anyway, nothing says Christmas like topping out the Scofield Heat Index! So buy a few bottles for stocking-stuffers – it will keep you warm on a cold winter’s night. JB’s Best! When it says JB’s, it’s the best!
