El Tejano has a hot sauce ...not a salsa!

I got an advance bottle of the new El Tejano Hotsauce at Drinking Liberally last Monday ...and I´m crazy about it.  That night we only sampled it on tortilla chips but I´ve had a week to try it on my favorite grub ...and it´s a winner!  I have a lot of hot sauces from both the US and Mexico in my home arsenal and I´m ready to say that El Tejano is my favorite of them all.

This is no mild sauce and it´s not a dipping sauce either.  It´s hot enough to rock your world.

Like all the other El Tejano salsas, it´s complex and dense with flavors.  You can really tell that this is not a mishmash of hot stuff but a blend that is trying to get to a particular destination, trying to make a point.  And it succeeds.

I´m not privy to the ingredients but it´s obvious to me that the the locoto pepper is well represented.  That´s a good move, in my opinion.  The locoto (or rocoto) is one of my favorites.  It´s really hot but revs-up slower than most.  That´ll give you a couple two three seconds to mull over the rest of the ingredients.  There´s a wide jalapeño flavor and, who knows, maybe even another pepper to round out that great burn.

Although the sauce tastes like it could have 50 ingredients, the flavors are so balanced and harmonious that it´s really hard to pick out any one that dominates.  The texture is hearty rather than tabasco-thin.  The color is a beautiful vibrant speckled red. The acidity is high and sparkly without the pronounced vinegar flavor of a tabasco-type.  There´s nothing salty or garlicy or herbal about it ...although, I´m sure all those components are part of the secret blend.  This sauce is all about the peppas!  The rest is just the Cadillac they rode in on!

It´s addictive, too ...and shelf stable so you can leave it right on your kitchen table if you want.  No preservatives and no artificial ingredients.

I´ll let you know when it goes into production.  Sheesh.  Argentina now makes one of the best hot sauces I´ve ever tasted!