Jalabáo

This is exactly my kind of hot sauce: flavor forward, and I still get to taste my food underneath it. That's the whole game for me, and Jalabáo nails it. It's built on a Cuban mojo base, so there's citrus and garlic running through a tasty green jalapeño, it lands bright rather than hot.

There's some mild heat here, but it's the kind that never makes me second-guess how much I'm pouring on. This is a put it on anything sauce. The consistency is on the thicker side, which I liked, since it grabs the food and gets a good amount of flavor onto every bite instead of running off the plate.

The maker lists it as a mild-to-medium two out of five, and that reads right to me. Easy to see why this one's won awards. Damn, it's good.