Today we review the Lucky Dog – Year of the Dog Thai Chile Pineapple hot sauce. This sauce has been in heavy rotation since we received it and I won’t be surprised when it’s all gone. This is a fantastic sauce with a mid-range spice level and a strong sweetness. One of our favorite sauces of the year for sure.

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Sauce Score

Smell

The first whiff of the Lucky Dog Year of the Dog Thai Chile Pineapple hot sauce is exactly the same smell as cheap duck sauce. The same sauce that comes in those little packets with your eggrolls and wonton soup. There is so much more hiding underneath that initial Chinese takeout scent. Roasted garlic comes through strong as does the smell of onion and dried chiles. The smell of this sauce is super inviting and doesn’t have any of the pungency that some hot sauces tend to have.

Taste

God damn this sauce is good. I love garlic and I tend to favor sauces that are heavy in non-chile components. That doesn’t mean I’m shying away from heat level, it just means that I like my sauces to go well with lots of foods and don’t just burn your palate off. The initial flavor of this sauce is sweet with a HUGE hit of roasted garlic. The sweetness shines brightly and doesn’t taste like it’s just an addition of sugar into the mash but some sweetener with a little more nuance, and more mouthfeel associated with it. Taking a look at the label that sweetness is coming from agave and lime juice. Often hot sauce makers try to balance out heat with overwhelming flavors, sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn’t. One of the great things about milder sauces is that the flavors don’t have to be super punchy to make their way through. Cumin, ginger, and raw garlic are frequently the only flavors to be noticed other than spice on the super hot sauces. This sauce is anything but one dimensional. Sweet, tangy, a little fruity (but not as much as you might think with pineapple in the name), and just the right amount of kick. 

Eat It With

Lucky Dog – Year of the Dog Thai Chile Pineapple hot sauce would go great with any fried foods. I’m talking calamari, eggrolls, samosas, empanadas…anything that’s taken an oil bath would do well with the sweetness of this. Plainly seasoned meats like a burger or steak, definitely a pork chop would be awesome. I would stay away from chile and more central american flavors, the cumin wouldn’t work with this sauce. I haven’t tried it yet, but I have a sneaky suspicion that this sauce would be great on vanilla ice cream. If you try that, comment below and let me know how it was!