Dave’s Insanity Hot Sauce Review

Dave’s Insanity hot sauce is no doubt a HOT sauce! I made the mistake of pouring about a tablespoon onto one bite of my burrito when trying this out for the first time. And…my mouth felt like it was sent to hell to burn forever. It took about 20 minutes for it to cool down. It’s obviously hot, which we will talk about more below, but how well does Dave’s Insanity Sauce’s flavor, usability, and collectibility set it further apart from the pack? Let’s see!

Flavor:

Dave was probably insane while creating this because it’s rated at 180,000 Scoville units, compared with 2,500-5,000 for Tabasco sauce. The sauce is equal in heat to a common orange habanero, so let that sink in. This is like just taking a big ole bite from a hab. Habaneros range on average about 42 times hotter than a jalapeño pepper. This is big bite here.

Let’s turn to the ingredients. Inside there are hot peppers, tomato paste, hot pepper extract, salt, onions, cane vinegar, garlic, citric acid, xanthan gum, and spices. This is a thick tomato-based sauce, not vinegary, with a peppery flavor that kicks you right from the start of the eating experience.

As said, Dave’s Insanity is a HOT sauce. So, if you’re normal, you use one to two drops of this with your food to give it that kick we all crave. The peppery flavor of fresh chilies is there, but the star of this sauce is the pure heat it delivers, That likely comes primarily from the pepper extract which adds a ton of heat without any additional flavor nuance.

Since it’s just a drop or two you’d use, it doesn’t alter the taste of your food, it just brings the heat. Though, there is a subtle garlic flavor here, and that’s a nice addition. It’s more tasty than many super-hot sauces that lean into the pepper extract at the sake of all other flavor.

Heat Balance:

As the name implies, Dave’s Insanity is meant to be be an extremely hot sauce, so in that way the balance is spot on. Heat is the defining factor of the eating experience. While there is flavor here, because of the amount you’d typically use Dave’s Insanity doesn’t compete with the flavor profile of your food. There is no sneaky aftertaste (beyond that touch of garlic). It’s just straight-up hot with a good blend of tomato freshness, pepperiness, and a touch of pungency from garlic.

Usability:

Dave’s Insanity comes in a glass bottle with a pencil eraser sized spout. It could pour fast with that. But luckily the sauce is so thick that it doesn’t come out quickly, it just drops out nicely. And when used in drops there are a ton of ways to use this sauce since it’s all about the heat.

A drop of this in your soup will give you that addictive pepper type burn, without ruining the experience. A drop on your burrito spread across the top will add just enough hot kick to give you that fun endorphin release. This can be used in small amounts on almost anything where you’re craving a pepper kick. It’s spreadable and mixes well with other sauces because of the thickness.

Collectibility:

The Dave’s Insanity bottle is thick glass with a very cool brand logo of a pepper just chilling on the beach. Oh, the irony because this is not a “CHILL” sauce whatsoever. Their branding and label make it look like a fun, inviting hot sauce. But it’s also is a total life lesson – reminding us that sometimes INSANITY comes when (and from where) you least expect it. That’s a nice little fun twist – maybe unintentional, maybe not. Either way, it adds to its collectibility.

The Score:

A super-hot sauce, Dave’s Insanity still brings a nice bit of flavor to the table. Though this is still a sauce you’ll want to use in drops, if you’re not an extreme eater. The label design is fun and ironic; (Amazon)