Busha Browne's Pukka Pepper Sauce Review

Busha Browne's Pukka Pepper Sauce Review
Company - Busha Browne's

Online Order - No

Ingredients -
Crushed Scotch Bonnet Pepper Sauce - Water, Scotch Bonnet Peppers, Cane Vinegar, Modified Food Starch, Salt, Approved Spices, Grapefruit Seed Extract, Gluten Free.

Packaging / Labeling
The label is quite slick and professional. The color scheme is fairly low key with only a small graphic element on the front panel and fairly large red and green fonts. In terms of label concept it's obviously pitched at a more mainstream outlet such as any highstreet grocery store, whereas some of the more esoteric sauces/labels would be generally unacceptable in this type of retail outlet.

Aroma -
The first hit to the nose is the vinegar, which is normal for this type of sauce. The pepper fruits aromatic tones are quite subdued by the vinegar, you really have to inhale sharply to detect anything beyond the vinegar. Doing so reveals a slight floral note depicting a hint of sweet behind the acidity. The aroma isn't unpleasant, it just doesn't give you many cues as to the flavor profile.

Consistency -
The Busha Browne's Pukka Pepper Sauce is a fairly viscous hot sauce, not exactly free flowing, but sufficiently liquid to leave the bottle with very little coaxing.
I like this type of consistency, it clings well to food but doesn't leave the bottle in a thick clump. A good shake is needed to distribute the solid particles, which are clearly evident in the bottle. Solids remain nicely in suspension even after periods of storage. Since there are no added solids, other than the scotch bonnet peppers, the only evident particulate matter is pepper pulp and seed.

Color -
The aesthetics of the Pukka sauce are pleasing. The sauce has a bold and bright orange color with shades of red, and nice color accents from the pulp and seeds. It's certainly an attractive color and draws you in rather than repels you, as some of the darker, murkier sauces do.

Taste and Heat
The Busha Browne’s Pukka Hot Pepper Sauce is primarily made from the Jamaican Scotch Bonnet chile pepper and cane vinegar. There are unlisted spices and grapefruit extract, neither of which bring much to the flavor party. So the flavor of the scotch bonnet shines through nicely, impeded only by the cane vinegar.

There's a touch of sourness that hits the palette before the heat and pepper flavor arrive, creating a slight mouth pucker in reaction. The pepper flavor is really very good, despite the prominence of the vinegar.
The heat is on the warm side, allowing the subtly sweet flavor of the scotch bonnet to remain on the palette through all stages of heat development. This warmth envelops the entire mouth including the back of the throat.
The heat rise is sharp, in contrast to many of the hotter/extract sauces available. So within 15 seconds or so the heat has peaked in the mouth. The heat begins to subdue quite quickly, then reaches a point where there's a mild lingering sensation of heat on the back of the throat, the front of the tongue and the lips, which remains for several minutes after consuming the sauce. It's a very pleasing sensation, mild, but apparent enough to remain with you for 10 or so minutes.
So by no means is this a super Hot sauce at least on the relative scale of heat. Scotch bonnet peppers can top the habanero in scoville units, peaking somewhere around the 350,000 plus mark. This sauce is nowhere near that level of heat, it's perhaps in the 4,000 to 5000 SU range, so obviously the pepper is mostly diluted by the water and vinegar. Actually I'm surprised not to see xanthan gum on the label. Since the sauce has such a thick consistency, usually indicative of a high solids content, and since the only solids on the label are the scotch bonnet pepper, I would have expected this to be a much hotter sauce, or to use xanthan gum to firm up the sauce.

Conclusion -
A  very pleasing hot sauce and very versatile too. When I think of something like a Frank's hot sauce I can only think of chicken wings and chicken strips, as a delivery system suited to the sauces flavor profile. With the Pukka Hot Pepper sauce I can't really think of anything that wouldn't be suitable to douse with the sauce. That's a real strong quality in my mind, what's the point of having a sauce sit in the fridge for a couple of years, waiting for you to cook-up the right type of food. So you can apply this easily to hamburgers, pizza, chicken, chili, cold sandwiches and even eggs.

An all around delicious sauce that does nothing terribly wrong.

Ratings -
Packaging 3 from 5
Aroma 2 from 5
Consistency 4 from 5
Color 3.5 from 5
Taste 3.5 from 5
Heat Balance  3 from 5*
[Heat Intensity Scale  1.5 from 5*]

Overall score - 19 from 30
Awarded 3 from 5 stars