Palo Alto Firefighters Pepper Sauce Review

The second Palo Alto Firefighters Pepper Sauce hit my lips, I thought, “This tastes very familiar, and I love it!” I later figured out, after my weekly drive through Taco Bell (no judgement), that Palo Alto firefighters found a way to make something that tastes something like a higher-quality Taco Bell sauce — without all the junk and with all fresh ingredients. It’s super tasty, but how well-balanced is it in the heat department and how usable is it in the kitchen? Let’s dive in.

Flavor

Now don’t get me wrong, this doesn’t taste exactly like Taco Bell sauce. It’s obviously way better. But it also has many similarities. The ingredients are: Red jalapeño peppers, water, distilled vinegar, sugar, paprika, spice, and xanthan gum.

Palo Alto Firefighters Pepper Sauce features fresh red jalapeño peppers in a really delicious way, and that’s without any ingredient-listed salt. Instead, the sugar sweetness seems to pull out the flavor from these naturally sweeter red jalapeños. The second it hits your tongue you’ll be able to taste the fresh peppery flavor of those red jalapeño peppers mixed in with a bit more sugar than you taste in most other sauces.

The sugar balance between the peppers and the vinegar is perfect. Palo Alto Firefighters Sauce has a slight tang to it, but you’ll notice the sweetness more before the vinegar tang hits. You get more of that paprika warmth on the back end, and those fresh-tasting peppery red jalapeños — with their natural sweetness — take the journey the full way through.

This sauce is all about a sweet peppery flavor and if you’re looking for something where vinegar stars, this is not it.

A wonderful part about this sauce is that there is no sodium at all — zero, nada, zilch. So anyone watching their sodium intake, this is the sauce you’ll want to buy a gallon of this no-sodium hot sauce.

Heat Balance

This sauce has a mild medium kick to it. Some reports online list Palo Alto Firefighters Pepper Sauce at 100 to 600 Scoville heat units — which would put it more in the mild range. But I think there may be a bit more heat than that here. Red jalapeños are the first ingredient listed, and as they’re mature they tend to be at the upper end of their potential heat (2,500 to 8,000 SHU.) There’s reason to think there’s a bit more than that 100 to 600 Scoville heat units in the bottle.

As a guess, our bottle felt more around the 1,000 SHU range — akin to eating a fresh poblano pepper (1,000 to 1,500 SHU). Poblanos are a milder pepper, but in the world of hot sauces, 1,000 SHU is on the milder end of medium heat.

But the heat is gone after 30 seconds and the only lingering warmth is more like a warm hug for your tastebuds. This is definitely a hot sauce that everyone can enjoy, as you can completely taste the heat upon your first bite and even if you build it, it never pushes into a zone of discomfort. It’s balanced, but Palo Alto Firefighters Pepper Sauce tastes like it could handle even more heat (and they have that in sauces in their line.)

This is the kind of sauce that you’ll take one bite of and try to figure out why you like it so much. Then you’ll go in for a second bite and after a minute of enjoying the flavor and warmth, your entire plate will be covered in this sauce without a lot of thought.

Usability

Taco night? Get a bottle of Palo Alto Firefighters Pepper Sauce at the ready. This stuff will be popular.

It’s also great as just a chip dip and a really amazing topping to all kinds of pizza.

And the sweeter side of Palo Alto Firefighters Pepper Sauce actually makes it a creative ketchup substitute. And this is coming from a huge ketchup lover. Outside hot sauce, it’s my condiment go-to. There’s something about this sauce that’s similar enough to ketchup to let it cross over as a true alternative.

I tried it with French fries — delicious. I tried it with meatloaf — loved it. Palo Alto Firefighters Pepper Sauce obviously has a spicy kick and there is no doubt a different type of flavor compared to ketchup. But there’s something about the flavor balance and hot sauce consistency here that makes this just work. This hot sauce has a medium thickness to it, so it stays where you put it, and it’s easily spreadable — a lot more like ketchup than a thin, vinegary hot sauce like Tabasco Original Red Sauce.

Collectibility

If you want to give back, while also having one of the most delicious hot sauces in your cabinet, then buy Palo Alto Firefighters Pepper Sauce. There’s a cool backstory here (made first for Palo Alto firefighters), as well as a ton of charitableness. All of this hot sauce’s profits go to the Palo Alto Firefighters Charitable Fund. Yeah, that’s right, every single penny. It’s also won multiple Scovie Awards over its years.

The label fits the bill, too, highlighting red jalapeño peppers in the middle of a firefighter’s logo. It reminds you that this sauce is brought to you by the firefighters who provide a service, through courage. This isn’t just a tasty sauce made by firefighters, it is a sauce that stands for much more.

The Score

Palo Alto Firefighters Pepper Sauce delivers delicious, fresh flavor — sweet and peppery — with a mild to medium heat and no sodium at all. 100% of its profits go to charity, so it’s a hot sauce purchase with meaning beyond the plate!