Hotlanta Hot Sauce: Original Sweet Southern Heat

It seemed totally appropriate for me to review Hotlanta Hot Sauce Original Sweet Southern Heat for two reasons.  First, it just won a Scovie Award and second, they cook it up right here in Atlanta, GA.  I've kept a bottle of this stuff around since I first tasted it and it's a sauce that will continue to stay in my "arsenal" indefinitely.

This sauce was placed in the medium category during it's competitive run at the Scovie Awards this year so it's no secret that it's one of the milder sauces I eat on a regular basis.  This vinegar based sauce gets it's heat from habaneros, arbol and cayenne chiles.  The arbol and cayenne chiles also give it a deep red color which is really appealing.

The name "Sweet Southern Heat" implies that it's a sweet sauce and although it contains both peaches and a "pinch" of sugar it doesn't taste like candy.  The sweetness is fruity and subtle.  The sweetness of the peaches and the tart vinegar are the first flavors that I noticed.  The heat follows but it's not the type of heat that your feel on your tongue.  Rather, it's the type of burn that you feel once you swallow the sauce.  It leaves a mild and short lived burn on the back of throat.  The onion and garlic are pretty obvious in this sauce.

The consistency of the sauce is very nice.  For a sauce this mild it's great that it's not thicker.  It's thin enough to be easily pourable which is allows the hot sauce to drizzle rather than come out in drops.  It's a bit thicker than Tabasco Sauce since it contains more pepper particles but I wouldn't go so far as to call it thick.

The Bottom Line:
This sauce is pretty damned close to perfect.  My only gripe is that I'm pretty sure the garlic is powdered.  There's a flavor in the sauce that lingers at the finish that gives it away.  If the garlic isn't powdered I'd be really surprised.  It's a delicious blend of mild heat, sweet and tang in this Atlanta made sauce.  I'd recommend Hotlanta Hot Sauce Original Sweet Southern Heat any day.