Cholula Hot Sauce Review

I’ve experienced an interesting evolution when it comes to hot sauces (spicy food, salsas, etc.). Up until 8 years ago I wouldn't touch the stuff. I absolutely hated it. Mostly I think that was because I had acid reflux so bad that it just meant days of added misery if I tried it. Now thanks to Nexium I don’t have that problem anymore. I instantly jumped into eating salsa by the gallons, adding Jalapenos to everything, and exploring the delights of various hot sauces. Having said that I was never so damn dumb as to try something called Mad Dog 357 Silver Hot Sauces as one of my colleagues here recently did but I was definitely stepping outside of my comfort zone.

I finally settled on good old fashion Tabasco sauce with the occasional variant of Tabasco Jalapeno Green

Sauce. I had decided that this was the cat’s meow; the be-all and end-all of hot sauces and proceeded to liberally douse everything I consumed in it. There was one problem though. Consuming Tabasco sauce is like being on a boat with Pamela Anderson. Oh it’s spicy and it’s good, I dare say down-right delicious, but your left thinking the whole time (in the back of your head) that this is probably doing some long-term damage to my body.

With this in mind, I was on the market to try different hot sauces. The opportunity came one day at Denny’s when I asked for Tabasco and they informed me they were all out. They gave me Cholula Hot Sauce instead. I was skeptical but I tried some anyway. Honestly I thought it was going to be hotter and way too unpleasant for my liking but I was amazed and pleasantly surprised by it. It was definitely not as spicy as Tabasco (in fact most hot sauce fans might say it’s a woman’s hot sauce or a girly-man hot sauce). But I like it. Nay, I love it.

Cholula Hot Sauce is more like sitting in the back seat of your dad’s ’78 Ford LTD with your high school sweetheart Levi-loving. It’s all good and if you make sure you do your own laundry that weekend (instead of your mom) there are no negative long-term consequences. Cholula is just good old fashion deliciousness.

There are four varieties and I have tried them all. The Original is perfect on any breakfast item. It’s good on about anything but breakfast is where it really shines. Chipotle flavor is the perfect compliment to anything with beef in it. I have a favorite steak and potato burrito from a local place that I can’t get enough of, but I don’t care for the salsa’s they serve at this place. I was about to stop eating there until I tried Chipotle Cholula sauce on it. Absolute bliss. I’ve tried it since on steaks, hamburgers and a variety of beef-based casseroles and it’s fandamntastic!

The other two varieties are Chili Lime and Chili Garlic. Chili Lime is suppose to go well with Mexican food and I’ve tried it several times and just can’t stand it. It’s gross. Chili Garlic is suppose to be good on Italian type foods, pastas and such, and although I’m a huge garlic fan, this stuff is bad. The smell alone is stomach turning. I’m not sure what happened with these two varieties. Perhaps they got greedy and over-reached. Perhaps it’s just me, I don’t know.

I was also pleasantly please to discover that Cholula has joined forces with Jack Link’s Beef Jerky. This stuff is fantastic (and a perfect high protein snack for us diabetics). Only problem with these is I’m yet to get home from the store with any left.

So with the exception of the Garlic and Lime I fully endorse the Cholula brand. They make a quality product that I enjoy immensely. Each bottle comes with a wood, screw-top cap (a different color for each flavor) which in my mind gives it some old-world class, and the 4 bottles lined up on my book shelf looks pretty nice. (I’ve gone through 3 of the Original, on my 2nd Chipotle and will never get finished with the first bottles of the Lime and Garlic varieties). All and all I give them 4 stars. Sorry Pam, I mean Tobasco, you were a nice fantasy, but I can’t risk stuff falling off, I’m going with the Cholula chick from now on!