Mad Dog 357 Hot Sauce Review

We’ll cut to the chase: Mad Dog 357 Hot Sauce is a habanero and cayenne pepper concoction that you should fear. It’s the kind of hot that goes straight to the back of your throat and lingers for a long while. Unless that is, you use too much, and then it’ll just feel like it’s burning a hole inside of your soul. It does have a flavor…unapologetically hot AF. Let’s see why Mad Dog 357 comes with five warning points on the actual label and also reads, “This sauce will blow your mind”.

Flavor:

The ingredients list of Mad Dog 357 Hot Sauce gives you a good first hint that there’s a lot of heat underneath the hood: Vinegar, chile extract, evaporated cane juice, habanero peppers, garlic, onion, 160,000 Scoville cayenne peppers, spices, and xanthan gum.

You can actually smell the sweetness of the habanero peppers upon opening, but when tasted alone that sweetness is quickly dissolved with its 357,000 Scoville heat units (obviously nodded to on the label and more on that big Scoville number below).

I can’t say that this is a vinegar-forward sauce because the only thing I tasted was heat. But you can smell the vinegar in the mix with the peppers. When you actually place a couple of drops of this into a large bowl of queso, it’s the life of the party. It’s totally spicy just with a couple of drops. This isn’t a sauce to mess around with beyond a few drops at a time unless your one serious extreme eater.

Heat Balance:

You know this hot sauce is going to be crazy hot when you see that the cayenne peppers used (160,000 Scoville heat units) just obliterate the heat of common cayennes (30,000 to 50,000 SHU).

And while their label doesn’t mention the color of the habaneros used in the sauce, their marketing copy does. They use red habaneros, not the common orange variety. Red habaneros could mean many things, but as a whole, they are often spicier than the common orange hab. For instance, Caribbean red habaneros have a median heat of 372,500 Scoville heat units (SHU) – well above than of the median of a typical orange habanero (225,000 SHU).

And BEFORE either of those ingredients are the words “Chile extract” and that delivers a heat well beyond even this. It all adds up to a sauce that claims 357,000 Scoville heat units on the label. That’s crazy heat for a hot sauce. I’d label this a REAL KICK IN THE A%$ kind of heat.

This sauce gives you control over lives, which is why I can’t say the words, “Use With Caution!” enough. This isn’t a heat balance, it’s a heat statement.

Usability:

Anywhere you just want a dash of heat, you can use this sauce. The name of the game here is to use a drop or two in a couple of cups of sauce/food of your choice and you’ll be happy. You can build off of one toothpick drop and find your perfect amount of kick. Overall, I think most people won’t go past two toothpick drops of this, otherwise, the heat takes over and shines a little too harshly.

Collectibility:

For those that say “I’ve tried it all and nothing is hot enough”, Mad Dog 357 is one sauce you want to have around to remember that there very well may be a mercy point for you. The heat alone makes this sauce collectible.

The label features bullet holes all around, and I’d say that’s pretty accurate – this sauce can feel that dangerous if you use too much. Just having Mad Dog 357 around labels you as an extreme eater among extreme eaters. One that will take “Bond, James Bond” level risks with their food and that, my friends, is worth space in any extreme hot sauce lover’s collection.

The Score:

If you want an extreme heat statement from your hot sauce, Mad Dog 357 delivers that in spades. This is big-time heat, but with that comes tradeoffs in flavor and usability. The branding is fun and fits the experience. Very collectible. (Amazon)