More flavor than heat, but definitely a treat
Over the past couple of years bands have begun throwing their names on some really random foodstuffs. From coffee to the more obvious beer and, for some reason, hot sauces. I don’t know how someone landed on hot sauces but, you know what? I ain’t gonna complain. I love hot sauces. Enough so that several years ago after moving back to the States I began growing my own chilies in the back garden primarily to make hot sauces and salsas.
So when Bathroom of the Future announced a signature hot sauce, Scientific Peppers, I wasn’t going to give them any shit for it, but I also didn’t have high hopes of ever getting to sample it. Then I saw that it was subtitled as a Rootbeer Chipotle Sauce. Now, if there’s one thing I love more than chilies and hot sauces, it’s root beer. Seriously, I’ll shank a mutha if they try to take my root beer. So out of an extreme sense of hopefulness, I messaged the Bathroom boys and ask if they could set aside a bottle for me (which came with the added onerous request to hold on to it a bit until I moved, so they could send it to me at my new place) and, you know what? They said yes! Now a couple of months later I’m in a my new(ish… temp housing) place, and I’ve got some Scientific Peppers to try out.
The bottle comes sealed plus a foil sticker on the top, which means it is fancy. The label has a clear backing, a nice touch, but only has the graphic for the hot sauce. No ingredients or other information is included, and it is not obvious that this is a BotF signature product.
I sampled the sauce on the following:
– Spoon test (dab a bit on a spoon and put it into the mouth)
– Tortilla chip test (dab a bit on a tortilla chip)
– Egg and cheese wrap
– Al pastor super burrito (from La Perla Nueva, South San Francisco)
The sauce itself is of the thicker persuasion. The bottle comes with a dripper fitting orifice reducer in place (that little plastic tab that goes over the top and has a smaller hole in it to limit large amounts of sauce coming out when pouring), but this is more hindrance than help as you need to really whap the bottom of the bottle to get the sauce to come out. It is that thick. I quickly removed the dripper fitting orifice reducer so that I could have better flow.
The taste is sweet at first, and then lends to a bit of a tanginess as the sauce coats your taste buds. Shortly after a slight sting developed on the foliate papillae on the sides of the tongue at the back. The sauce is not particularly hot, and the sting is mild, which allows the more casual and hot sauce-curious to sample without fear of overwhelming heat. I couldn’t taste root beer specifically, but am willing to entertain the possibility that the blending of root beer flavor with other ingredients lands on this particular result.
Overall, the sauce is quite tasty, enough so that my wife, not a big fan of hot sauces, requested the bottle be nearby for her burrito. The child, who still has difficulty differentiating between “spiced and flavorful” vs. “spicy hot” didn’t complain too much. As mentioned before, it isn’t very hot, but it does pack a nice amount of flavor that is strong enough to enjoy, while not being too overpowering. It went will with everything I’ve served it with so far and, if I was a frugal person, I’d ration the remaining half bottle. However, I am not a frugal person, and will likely burn through the rest of it in the next week or so.
If I recall, the sauce is available at the merch table at Bathroom of the Future gigs. I don’t know how much remains in stock, and I don’t know if they are currently selling it online, or have plans to do so. If they do, be sure to grab a bottle. You’ll probably like it. I hope if they run out, they’ll do another run.
I give it NINE CHILIES out of TEN LIBERTY SPIKES.
(also in the top photo is a boxed SD Nu Gundam model kit sent along with the hot sauce, and was picked up by Tim during his recent trip to Japan. The gift in no way sways my review of their hot sauce, but it was awfully kind of him to send it to me)
the white drew carey (aka – Jeff Sorley) is the founder and head editor of TGEFM. He’s lived (outside of) Chicago, Madison WI, (ugh) Penn State, Lyon FR, Oxford UK, central New Jersey, and now within earshot of SFO in the Bay Area. When not scouring the web for more great bands and labels to post about, he also spends time drawing (mostly) silly sci-fi and anime stuff under the name Asplenia Studios.
