Palo Alto Firefighters XX Habanero Pepper Sauce review

Originally created to find a way to deal with an overgrowth of peppers in the firehouse garden after a long vacation firefighter Lee Taylor created the recipe for his original pepper sauce in just an hour and received rave reviews from his fellows at the firehouse. The sauce evolved as Taylor replaced a charitable biking event he’d organized with crafting and selling his sauce, eventually growing to the point where the garden at his firehouse couldn’t keep up. While the sauce is now produced commercially nearby and the peppers are grown off-site the proceeds all still go to charity. Palo Alto Firefighters makes three versions of their sauce – the original which is jalapeno based, the XX Habanero, the subject of this review, and a XXX Ghost Pepper.

The ingredients list for this sauce is nice and clean with no artificial preservatives though there is xanthan gum which results in a texture that’s a little bit thicker than medium. The sauce is very smooth with few to no discernible bits of peppers inside. The aroma is very savory and a little bit smoky with some cumin coming through as well. While not listed explicitly on the ingredients label (just as “spice”) the cumin element is obvious in this sauce. The use of ripe red jalapenos results in a fuller richer flavor with some sweetness compared to green jalapenos. The bottle claims that this sauce has 0mg of sodium, and salt doesn’t show up in the ingredients list, however I believe this to be incorrect.

If you’ve ever had Wendy’s chili with the addition of one of those little chili seasoning packets you’ll have a good idea of the flavor of Palo Alto Firefighters XX Habanero Pepper Sauce. It’s intensely savory with the paprika and cumin adding a smoky element. Despite peppers being the first two ingredients there isn’t much of a bright pepper flavor to this, rather it’s earthy and smooth with a subtle sweetness that blends with the smoky notes. I don’t taste the habanero or jalapeno as distinct in this sauce. The vinegar is not very prominent but the overall acidity level is well balanced so that that it doesn’t taste dull and lifeless as some low vinegar sauces can. Despite the cumin element it doesn’t taste like a typical Mexican style sauce, though it does work with that cuisine, but rather a more savory southwestern style. I’ve had sauces with zero sodium in the past and the commonality between all of them is that they tasted dull with muted flavors until salt was added. That’s not the case here, and I can absolutely taste salt in this sauce. It’s not overly salty by any means, but the label is incorrect.

With the savory smooth flavor profile I found this sauce works very well as a general purpose table sauce. It works in tacos and on burritos, it’s great on turkey and cheese sandwiches, it pairs well with Cuban croquetas, and even added a very tasty extra dimension to some pork lo mein. It’s also an excellent replacement for steak sauce. I found very few places where this sauce didn’t go well, the only real example being some pork and shrimp dumplings, but otherwise this sauce has excellent flexibility. The heat level is also quite low despite the XX designation, so this is easy to slather on foods without having to worry about blowing your mouth out. I’d rank it as only slightly spicier than your basic Louisiana style sauce like Crystal or Texas Pete.

I’m happy to recommend Palo Alto Firefighter’s XX Habanero Pepper Sauce. Not only is it delicious, it’s for a good cause with the proceeds going to charity. It’s very flexible and also a very good value as it comes in a larger than average 8.5 fl oz bottle as compared to the 5 fl oz bottles most hot sauces come in.