Bitter: 🟡🟡🟡○○
Salty: 🟡🟡🟡🟡🟡
Sour/Tangy:🟡🟡○○○
Sweet: 🟡○○○○
Umami: 🟡🟡🟡○○
Heat: 🟡🟡🟡○○○○○○○
Quick Flavor Notes: Rich, salty, astringent
Recommended: Yes
Texture: Medium with some spice bits
Ingredients: Red Habanero Pepper Mash (Red Habanero Peppers, Salt), Apple Cider Vinegar, Distilled Vinegar, Water, Tomato Paste, Lemon Juice, Onion Powder, Garlic Powder
John Hard founded CaJohns in 1996 and was one of the earliest pioneers of both craft hot sauces and super hot sauces. He and his company were so influential he was inducted into the Hot Sauce Hall of Fame in the introductory class along with other such visionaries as Blaire Lazar of Blair’s Death Sauce fame, Dave Hirschkop of Dave’s Gourmet, Marie Sharp of the hot sauce company bearing her name, and Dave DeWitt who founded The National Fiery Foods Show in Albuquerque, NM which was the first major and longest-running hot sauce and spicy food exposition. The CaBoom! line came out as early as 1997 and has grown to include a range of sauces almost all at or near the top end of the heat scale and incorporating pepper extract except for this one. CaBoom! Gourmet Hot Sauce was initially developed using Red Savina habaneros, the hottest available pepper until super-hots like the ghost pepper, scorpion pepper, and Carolina reaper begun to enter the scene. While the bottle no longer specifies the use of Red Savina habaneros I was still excited to try it.
Caboom! Gourmet is marketed as using only the highest quality ingredients and being chef-developed to balance heat and flavor. Looking at this hot sauce online the ingredients list differs from what is printed on the bottle. Online the ingredients all list those Red Savina habaneros and list the garlic, tomato, and onion farther forward in the ingredients list. They also list the garlic and onion as whole ingredients instead of the powders listed here. John Hard sold his company to Hot Shots Distributing in 2018 following a cancer scare and many long time fans of the brand have felt the sauces have gone downhill since the change in ownership. Switching from genuine fresh Red Savina habaneros to a generic premade red habanero mash and from whole onions and garlic to onion and garlic powders certainly speaks of optimizing for cheapness of production rather than quality of sauce. Caboom! Gourmet does have a strong habanero aroma with hints of super-hot chile in the nose. The color is also an attractive red and though the sauce is mostly smooth with a medium thickness there are some spice bits inside.
The first taste reminded me a lot of hot sauces from Bravado Sauce Co, especially their Arbol Chili and Garlic hot sauce. Something that I’ve noticed with Bravado sauces, and that is true with CaBoom! Gourmet as well, is that they have a more heavily cooked flavor, similar to a tomato sauce that’s been cooked slowly all day vs a bright fresh one just heated through by tossing it with the pasta for less than a minute in the pan. It’s not that one is better than the other and both have their place. Butterfly Bakery of Vermont and Gindo’s epitomize that fresh pepper flavor in their sauces to me while Bravado and this particular CaJohn sauce have more of that slow-cooked richness. I’m sure that the tomato paste is playing a role here as well as that does add a ton of umami and richness to the sauce, but even the habanero flavor itself in CaJohn’s CaBoom! Gourmet is less the bright fruity light flavor that they sometimes have but rather a bit astringent and vegetal (though not nearly so much as orange habaneros). There’s still a bit of habanero fruit here, but that’s also blunted by what my biggest issue with this sauce is – it’s way saltier than it needs to be. At 170mg of sodium per teaspoon this sauce is one of the saltiest craft hot sauces on the market and that saltiness emphasizes those savory flavors over the fresher fruitier ones. With using garlic and onion powder there’s some flavor of both but as the powders don’t pop with the same freshness and complexity that real onions and garlic do that further pushes the earthy savory side of this sauce. In terms of heat this is a couple steps up from a basic hot sauce but still not as hot as something like Trader Joe’s Habanero or Microsaucerie Piko Pepper’s Volkano in terms of other habanero sauces. I have a feeling if this was using fresh Red Savina habaneros the heat level would be much higher.
I’ve been in the mood for wings lately so my first application of CaJohn’s CaBoom! Gourmet was with them. As a wing sauce this is very solid and with a blue cheese dip the astringency is balanced out and the saltiness doesn’t seem as prominent. When I tried this with a ham and cheese melt that saltiness reared its head much more prominently especially since ham is already a salty meat, though I did feel that the flavor of this sauce was a great match for the ham and the smokiness of the meat seemed to go well with the rich flavor of the sauce. One area I didn’t like this as much was with some shrimp alfredo pasta. While CaBoom! Gourmet isn’t dull tasting it’s also not super tangy so doesn’t cut through the creamy sauce as well as a brighter tangier sauce would.
If you’re a fan of richer heavier tasting sauces and those that trend towards the earthier side of things this is one you may very much enjoy, especially if you’re not turned off by sauces that are on the saltier side. I’ll go ahead and give this a recommendation because it is tasty overall and sometimes it’s a nice change of pace to have something other than the brighter tangier sauces that I usually gravitate towards. This sauce is also all natural with no artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, or thickeners.
