Tabasco Green Pepper Sauce Review

There’s a reason they sell Tabasco Green Pepper Sauce by the gallon. It’s tangy and mild, and you can put this bad boy on everything! Everyone from your grandma to your kids can try this and will be happy with the added flavor it brings. But is the flavor truly a standout, and is the heat well-balanced? Let’s break down Tabasco Green Pepper Sauce to see how it compares.

Video Review

Overall Flavor

Just like other Tabasco products, the ingredients list is short. But, it’s not quite as straightforward as Tabasco Original Red Sauce (review): Distilled vinegar, jalapeño pepper, water, salt, cornstarch, xanthan gum, and ascorbic acid. That’s a little longer than the “vinegar, red pepper, salt” three-some in the red. The label mentions ascorbic acid is “to preserve flavor,” and the other two (cornstarch, xantham gum) are thickeners and/or stabilizers. Nothing crazy here, but not quite as pure as the traditional.

That said, Tabasco Green Pepper Sauce has that classic (and delicious) fresh and bright jalapeño pepper flavor. And that’s met and well-matched with the salt and vinegar, as you’d expect from Tabasco’s Lousiana-style hot sauce line-up. It’s tangy and fun to eat. Seriously, it’s the kind of sauce that “once you pop the top, you can’t stop!” I feel like that phrase rings more true to this sauce than it does to Pringles, which happens to be my favorite thing to eat with this sauce. I’ll get into that a little more later. Don’t judge.

Now let’s talk about that salt for a minute. Tabasco Green Pepper Sauce is a significant increase over its original red sauce. It has 150mg of salt per serving (6% of the daily allowance), while the classic red sits at 35mg (1%). That’s heavy on the salt, so for those looking for a low-salt hot sauce, this isn’t the bottle for you. It doesn’t taste that heavier on the salt, but it’s there nonetheless.

Heat Balance

You don’t get the kick here that you do with Tabasco red, and that’s to be expected based on the peppers used in each. Tabasco Original Red uses tabasco peppers (30,000 to 50,000 Scoville heat units), landing the red sauce in the 2,000 to 5,000 SHU range. Tabasco Green Pepper Sauce uses jalapeños (2,500 to 8,000 SHU), and that dilutes the spiciness down to 600 to 1,200 SHU.

So the heat is mild, no more than eating a fresh poblano pepper. It will only warm your tongue slightly, never reaching the roof of your mouth because it dissipates quickly. You have to have at least 9-10 tablespoons before you get a little run in your nose. You can go strong with this hot sauce all day long versus the red, where most would find a stopping point.

Perhaps the best part of the milder heat is the fact that you do get some of that grassy bright green jalapeño pepper to shine through here. The pepper is a bit more of the star of this sauce compared to the classic red.

Usability

Cutting to the chase here: Tabasco Green Pepper Sauce disappears much quicker than its Original Red in my house.

I am the type of person who loves a good green sauce on my enchiladas (and other Mexican food), so when Tabasco came out with this green sauce, I was in heaven! It seriously can be used on just about anything and served to anyone – giving it just a little bigger audience than the red.

Case in point (again, no judging): my salt and vinegar Pringles. We all know I’m a salt addict, so don’t try this combo if you’re watching your sodium. But Tabasco Green Pepper sauce atop Pringles is a total food adventure and (in my opinion) the best chips and dip ever.

Don’t get me started that you shouldn’t eat any soup without a little of this sauce in it. And your eggs will shine with this milder green sauce, more so than with the red. If you douse your pepperoni pizza in this, you may never look at red chili flakes again.

Collectibility

This isn’t so much a collectible as an everyday must-have. For me, it’s a daily driver, even more so than the red. That said, having a bottle on the table may raise a few eyebrows (in a good way) since it isn’t as well-known as its famous cousin. And once someone tastes it, they’re likely to become immediate fans.

If you love the red stuff, you’ll undoubtedly fall in love with the green. You may even be like me and choose the green sauce over the red any day. It adds a flavorful tang that highlights the crisp taste of green jalapenos in such a classic way that you simply can’t go wrong.

The Score

Tabasco Green Pepper Sauce is mild and filled with flavor – tangy and bright. It’s a definite win for those who prefer green sauces over red and a must with Mexican food.

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• Tabasco Scorpion Pepper Sauce Review: Tabasco’s take on an extra-hot sauce. How does it stack up?
• Melinda’s Green Sauce Review: Tomatillo and cilantro here – see how it all comes together.
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