Ring Of Fire Habanero Hot Sauce Review

Normally, when you hear habanero you think HOT, but Ring of Fire Habanero Hot Sauce is more like a mellow camp fire…that’s LIT with flavor. Get it? So, what is it about Ring of Fire that makes it so tasty? Does its lower hab spiciness leave it unbalanced in the heat department? And how usable is this sauce day to day? Let’s dig into it!

Flavor

Ring of Fire Habanero Hot Sauce is chock-full of fresh ingredients some which you can see right through the bottle glass. Its ingredient’s list: vinegar, tomatoes, onions, habanero chilies, garlic, serrano peppers, spices, salt and sugar.

While it’s a thin sauce, those visible chunks of pepper, garlic, and seeds preview what’s in store in terms of flavor. First you’re hit with that vinegar tang, then sweetness kicks in from the sugar and the sweet fruity fire from those habaneros.

And after all of that, you still get a flavor burst from all the other amazing, fresh ingredients. The zing of the onion and garlic kicks in, along with the acidic tang of the fresh tomatoes. Those tomatoes add a nice acid balance to help mellow out the pepper bite.

I honestly was swigging this straight from the bottle just to see what fresh chunks I would get with each swig. It’s a sauce that provides you with a nice balance of flavor that would have anyone coming back to the bottle for more.

On the salt in the sauce: The sodium level is 100 mg per teaspoon, so it’s a bit high, but you know how I feel about these sauces. If I don’t have to go searching for salt because I’ve got everything I need in one bottle, then I’m all for it. But if you’re watching your salt intake, keep it in mind.

Heat Balance

Ring of Fire Habanero Hot Sauce contains both habaneros (100,000 to 350,000 Scoville heat units) and serrano peppers (10,000 to 23,000 SHU.) Its pepper pedigree states this should be pretty hot, but both chilies are pretty watered down in this sauce. You can see that by where they sit in the ingredient list.

Ring of Fire doesn’t list the heat units of its hab sauce, but we’d call it a medium heat. And a pretty eatable one at that. The tomato’s acidity mellows out the pepper bite while the fresh ingredients honestly outshine the habs and serranos. You do get a kick, but you can go strong with this sauce without any worries.

So it has some zing, but I was never left with a burning tongue, just warm lips and a nice cozy feeling.

All that said — they do mention habanero in the title of the hot sauce. And with that comes an expectation in terms of heat. Here, it’s a little low to meet the expectation set through calling out the habanero right up front.

Usability

The flavor of Ring of Fire Habanero Sauce makes it an especially usable and versatile sauce.

This is perfect with Mexican food — it’s the type of sauce you can just spread across your burritos and on your tacos and be totally satisfied. I used about five tablespoons of this on one taco and I was in complete heaven.

It also helps make one killer spicy margarita! The vinegar and the freshness of the ingredients all combine to take that cocktail to a new level. And it’s just the right heat.

Ring of Fire Habanero Hot Sauce also makes one fantastic marinade. The watery consistency of the sauce lets it really soak into whatever meat you’re marinating. And I also loved it as a dipper for chicken fingers. It’s a little thin, but those fresh flavors (and eatable heat) really work well here.

Collectibility

I absolutely love the bright, fun label, but the picture of the man turning red and blowing out flames is a bit of an overstatement in my opinion. The label would make you believe you should only try a drop of this and be supervised while doing it. It’ll give you a kick, but the burn won’t be as fierce as the label would make you think.

That said, the label grabs the eye so it stands out among a group of hot sauces. And really the collectibility of this sauce is more about those fresh flavors inside the bottle.

The Score

Ring of Fire Habanero Hot Sauce provides a ton of fresh flavor with an eatable fiery zing. That taste/heat combo makes this a total usability winner. You’ll find yourself reaching for this sauce often.