Trader Joe's Jalapeño Pepper Hot Sauce
Many popular and delicious hot sauces are notable for their complexity of ingredients, components of a signature recipe added for a variety of reasons; whether it is tomato paste to sweeten the sauce and diffuse the heat, pepper extracts to amplify the scorch quotient, the addition of garlic, onions, or sugar and spices to enhance the flavor, or even an infusion of fruit and vegetable juices for unique flavor characteristics…the world of hot sauce is diverse.
But some of the most successful and recognizable hot sauces are comprised of a deceptively simple list of ingredients, typically only 3 or 4 items; Chile peppers, water or vinegar (or both), and salt. The factors that make these sauces particularly distinctive include the types of peppers used, the method of pepper preparation, and the ratios of individual ingredient quantities. While it may seem that the limitations of such a simple recipe would only result in an average sauce suitable for the average consumer (which holds true for some brands) some manufacturers seem to take it as a challenge to focus this simplicity into producing a simply great sauce that even an avowed hot sauce aficionado would enjoy. Such is the case with Trader Joe's Jalapeño Pepper Hot Sauce.
Trader Joe's is a mid-sized, U.S. based chain of retail stores specializing in fresh, organic groceries. Despite my having long been extremely satisfied with the quality of Trader Joe's self-branded food products, I admit harboring low expectations for their Jalapeño Pepper Hot Sauce when it was first recommended to me. My sense was that as a general grocery producer rather than a dedicated hot sauce manufacturer they would design the sauce to be appealing to the most broad range of consumer, perhaps making it sweeter or saltier than I prefer, and with a thoroughly unremarkable heat factor.
I am very pleased to report that my expectations were unfounded. The recommendation was sound, and emphatically so. Trader Joe's Jalapeño Pepper Hot Sauce is an excellent find, and a solid contender in the hot sauce arena.
Sticking to a minimalist baseline list of ingredients of peppers, vinegar, and salt, Trader Joe's has blended this sauce to allow the heat and the flavor of the red ripened jalapeño to take center stage. It makes for a perfectly balanced blend that lets the ripened jalapeño's tangy sweetness carry the sauce without being dominated by the pungency of too much vinegar. And because of the versatility of the jalapeño pepper this sauce is right at home on just about any dish that could stand for a modest flavor boost, including tacos, burgers, pizza, eggs, salads, sandwiches, chips, pastas, ...and the list goes on. This sauce works, and it works well.
As far as the heat, Trader Joe's Jalapeño Pepper Hot Sauce boasts a pleasant but present spiciness, sitting squarely in the "mild" heat category, perhaps around the mid-way point between the very mild "Frank's Red Hot" and the slightly hotter "Tabasco Original Red Sauce", but with a zesty, fresh pepper richness that makes Trader Joe's hot sauce somewhat more appealing and satisfying, in my opinion. While chile-heads looking for an endorphin rush and long lasting burn won't find it here, the delicious flavor itself is enough to keep just about any hot sauce lover coming back for more.
If you're looking for a simple but brilliant hot sauce with mild heat but tons of delicious flavor, you can't go wrong with Trader Joe's Jalapeño Pepper Hot Sauce. I'm sure you'll love it as much as I do.
To learn more about Trader Joe's, or to find a Trader Joe's store near you, look for them online at www.traderjoes.com. And if you don't have a Trader Joe's store nearby you can purchase this hot sauce online by clicking here, or via the Amazon Affiliate link below.
