While I was up in Missouri chasing the eclipse I met up with a long-time reader of this weblog. He was kind enough to gift me with several hot sauces. So I took the Pain 100% Hot Sauce into the office, and the verdict is that this is a very spicy sauce indeed (grown men running to the fridge!).
It’s somewhat curious, because the label says that it has habanero pepper. Not some crazy scorpion or bhut jolokia. Going by the ingredient label list there’s no way that Pain 100% should be as hot as Rapture, but it is.
How can this be? I’d say it has to do with simplicity. The Rapture has a relatively subtle and complex flavor profile. It’s a ninja, silent and deadly. In contrast Pain 100% comes at you straight-up like a samurai; a strong kick of salt quickly fades, and the simple but potent spicy builds up within a minute and starts pounding at your palette..
Pain 100% is very spicy and simple. It’s the meat & potatoes of hot sauce. You know what you’re going to get, and you can describe the taste in a few sentences.