Spicefreak

Today, everyone, I have another fruity red sauce for you but, even so, it’s nothing like the one that you saw last week. No, what we’re going to be looking at this time is another of the sauces I got from Saucey Lady and one that, as a specifically UK-based reviewer, I couldn’t pass up.

You see, this sauce, known as their “Fireman’s Watch”, is primarily a blend of scotch bonnets and the one fruit that yorkshire is really known for: Rhubarb.

And it’s a combination that works, too. One that creates a deep, red, fruity and yet also rather savoury base for today’s product. One in which the tartness of the rhubarb counteracts any small sweetness from the bonnets and even most of that from the sugar which has been added to them.

Plus, if the first ingredient, “sweet chillies”, isn’t simply (mis)using the word “sweet” as the opposite of hot, then the fruit is taming them as well. To me, however, they have the same minorly acidic taste as serenades, the only variety that I’ve found sweeter when green.

All these ingredients, in unison, create a delicious sauce with a low

3/10

Heat

that really lingers in the back of the throat. Medium but near the top end thereof.

It’s a great combination but I don’t find that the rhubarb stands out quite as much as I’d hoped. If anything, it blends with the chillies a tad too well and it seems like Saucey Lady have also realised. That it needed a tiny something extra to make it special.

Unfortunately, though, that’s where I think Saucey Lady have messed up.

They’ve added pineapple and coconut juice for an actually sweet, piña colada-like element that doesn’t really blend with the body of the sauce. It’s just jarring.

Unless, of course, you’re pouring it on meats. Specifically those with a hint of sweetness about them like beef, duck and pork.

It does, after all, have a rather thinner consistency than the last sauce that I got from this company and lends its self quite well to drizzling over things. Hopefully my spoon shot helps get that across:

But the real reason to pour this sauce over meat isn’t just because you can. It’s because that minor sweetness paired with such rich, savoury umami body works with the similar savoury and sweet sides of this sauce, bringing them together in a way that the Fireman’s Watch sorely needs.

For this very reason, the sauce is excellent on burgers and probably ham sandwiches, too, but it doesn’t go with very much else. The two contrasting sides limit its usage no end.

It’s such a fundamentally british sauce so I really wanted to like it but today’s item simply isn’t quite there, despite the merit that its concept holds. Which is all I really have to say about the product, since I already covered its appearance in my overview of the company.

So, now that everything that needed saying has been said, I’ll leave you with this. Its ingredients list:

Sweet chillies, rhubarb, scotch bonnet chillies, cider vinegar, sugar, pineapple & coconut juice