Alrighty guys and gals, got an interesting sauce for you today – Chocolate Plague from the PuckerButt. This sauce features some wacky mad science pepper combination straight out of the dark recesses of the pepper world. The Chocolate Bhutlah pepper is a hybrid between Ghost Pepper and Chocolate Douglah, which means it’s spicy…really spicy…like top three spiciest peppers in the world spicy. I do LOVE me some ghost pepper (a.k.a. Bhut Jolokia) though, Culley’s Bhut Jolokia sauce was a favorite for a while a couple of years ago.
It felt fitting to review this sauce in the wake of finishing up the reviews for the new Hot Ones sauces. Switching from two well known names in the hot sauce world (Heatonist and Hot Ones), over to possibly a even more well known name ‘PuckerButt’. With that name recognition comes higher expectations though, and this is no different. The ingredients leave a little to be desired, overall sauce score is based on flavor, not just heat level and the ingredient list here is a little lacking…but mayyyybe the flavor of the pepper will be enough to get this sauce an excellent score.
“Brought to you by PuckerButt Pepper Comany & Steven Mclauren. Grower, harvester and producer of all-natural pepper, and USDA Organic pepper products. Home of the World’s Hottest Pepper.”
Ingredients: Chocolate Bhutlah Pepper Mash (Chocolate Bhutlah Peppers, and Vinegar), Distilled Vinegar, Pepper Powder.
Not a lot of creativity there, but I gotta say it’s a relief to not see the words “Carolina Reaper Pepper” on this bottle anywhere. Anyway, kind of high expectations here, this is a new pepper for me, and it seems to be a combination of two of my favorites, Bhut Jolokia and Trinidad Scorpion. Also, the Grim Reaper is on the label, so ya know, I guess I should be scared or something??
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Smell
Well, it certainly smells spicy. It has a lot of Ghost Pepper on the nose and a hint of earthiness. The chocolate in the name is going to be a total mind fuck, if you take a real deep smell there’s a hint of candy store. Just a touch of sugar that’s been left out to cool, or a freshly made bar of super sweet fudge. It’s there, just hiding behind a curtain of death spice. I’m not getting much vinegar at all, which is a good thing, that might help the flavor of the pepper shine through a little more. Judging from the smell, I’m expecting a lot of pepper flavor here, a lot of heat, and maybe just a couple seconds of flavor before the heat overwhelms.
Taste
Ok ok ok. Not really a hint at all of chocolate but definitely a more complex flavor from the pepper mash than usual. It hits pretty hard right away and builds for 30 seconds or so, then the ghost pepper style heat creeps up and builds and lingers. There are deeper notes of roasted peppers and raisins but they’re really hidden back there on the palette. Chocolate Plague has a real lovely level of heat, it’s not blow the lid off the motherfucker hot, but it’s also definitely not something I would casually start tossing my wings in. It’s not as spicy as straight scorpion pepper sauces, but brings a little more sting than a standard ghost pepper sauce. It’s a really tasty super clean sauce.
This sauce is a great blank canvas. It’s an excellent example of a new(ish) pepper, and the flavor that it brings to the table. I’m excited to see what PuclerButt and others use this pepper for in the future, but in the meantime I’ll use up this bottle. It’s a really pleasant sauce, nothing toooooo crazy but definitely spicy still. If you’re a fan of hots sauce, if you’re a collector of the spicy things in life, I would recommend this sauce. I’ll definitely be tossing it on some grilled chicken and veggies this summer!
