Flavor Profile
From That Boutique-y Gin Company and Few Spirits comes Hot Sauce Gin.
So here’s the story. Few made a bourbon. They put it into a barrel. But that barrel was on its third life already: first as a bourbon barrel. Then as a hot sauce barrel.
Okay so the bourbon came out of the barrel, and then was re-distilled with two kinds of pepper, and juniper. Thereby making a gin.
From a bourbon in a hot sauce barrel that formerly held bourbon.
The journey and story is a new one by me.
Tasting Notes
Grain and dark green vegetable on the nose. I’m getting hints of hot pepper jam, beer schnapps, and pickled jalapeno.
The palate has some nice notes of garden picked peppers. Especially at first Hot Sauce Gin almost reads as sweet pepper before the heat kicks in a bit later towards the finish.
Cherry tomato, red bell pepper and de-seeded Jalapeno early. Mid-palate Hot Sauce Gin has a light sweet orange rind note along with some usual Few Gin maltiness. Juniper more on mid-to-late palate with a pleasant pine character to it. Towards the finish, a bit of capasicin like heat suggested by the juxtaposition of the spirit’s heat and the pepper flavor.
Cocktails
Hot Sauce Gin seems custom designed to replace the vodka in your next Bloody Mary— make it a Red Snapper. But other than that, Hot Sauce Gin comes across a bit unusual in other cocktails. While it was intriguing combined with lime in a Gimlet, it was less compatible with even Dry Vermouth and Tonic Water. Hot Sauce Gin is a difficult gin to consider mixing with.
Overall
Hot Sauce Gin reads more as an experiment of necessity than a product that was conceived of from beginning to end. Cocktails aside, Hot Sauce Gin has a muddled confusing palate. Notes don’t seem to mix together, pepper dominates in unusual ways and I don’t think the base spirit really works here.
Overall, I’m just really disappointed in Hot Sauce Gin. I’ve always thought it would be brilliant if someone made a gin using the ingredients that are part of a hot sauce; but ultimately, it just doesn’t work for me.