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Ingredients: Strawberries, hot peppers (Trinidad Scorpion & habanero type peppers), apple juice, sugar, sweet onion, vanilla, citric acid, corn starch.
And now for one of the most creative hot sauces out there: Strawberry Scorpion Sting, made by Red Hawk Premium Peppers.
Red Hawk is a company out of Spring Mills, PA, that’s making some really unique hot sauces and other chili products, combining unexpected ingredients in innovative ways. The company was founded by a guy who had been growing his own chilies for a decade and decided that it was time to start selling some. They’re also committed to environmental sustainability, using small-scale, organic agriculture to produce all-natural and wholesome products. So, I was excited to get my hands on a bottle of Strawberry Scorpion Sting.
The sauce definitely lived up to my expectations – in perhaps unexpected ways.
I mean, did you see the ingredient list above? Pretty cool, right? Notably, even though there’s no vinegar in there, the pH of the sauce is actually lower than most vinegar-based sauces due to all of the citric acid.
The packaging is very basic. And although the graphic design on the label could use some work, I like the idea of the scorpion with a strawberry for a tail.
The texture is very thin, almost watery at room temperature, with strawberry seeds and very fine bits of flesh from the berries and chilies adding just a little bit of body. It thickens up a bit and gets a little more syrupy when refrigerated, which I preferred. It has a better mouth-feel and a better pour that way. So even though the sauce has a low pH and should be shelf-stable for a good while when opened – and even though I hate refrigerating hot sauces in general – I recommend refrigerating this one for best results.
The sauce has a very distinctive aroma. And it caught me a bit off guard in what turned out to be a good way, after a few sniffs. It smells like strawberries and caramelized sweet onions with a hint of unidentifiable chilies. I think the scent of onion is what surprised me the most.
The sauce isn’t as hot as I expected to be. I think this is for two reasons: 1. the amount of sweet/sugary ingredients, which tend to zap a lot of heat, and 2. those Trinidad Scorpions must not be a high percentage of the “hot peppers” here. I had a spoonful but didn’t get the hiccups – nor any sweat, drool, snot, or tears. That’s not to say that the sauce is mild. It’s definitely pretty warm, but the heat peaks quickly, after 30 seconds or so, and subsides into a smooth burn that lasts for a few minutes. While it’s probably hotter than average folks may be used to, I think they’d find it to be quite usable.
I can’t say enough good things about the flavor of this sauce. The flavor is very complex and takes about 10 seconds to fully develop. Again, there’s a caramelized onion undertone, and there’s a hint of vanilla. But at base, it tastes like someone juiced the chilies and mixed that juice with fresh strawberry puree. The flavor was so good, I took another spoonful.
The sauce is also much more versatile than I thought it would be. The ingredients might lead you to believe that this is a dessert sauce, and indeed I think it would be nice drizzled over vanilla ice cream, but it works with savory dishes as well. I had it with several meals in the days after I recorded the video review, and it was great with the majority of applications. Notably, I had it with a tofu, seitan and spinach quiche, and I would definitely recommend it with any kind of savory pie. A warm, flaky crust benefits greatly from this sauce.
Finally, I’ll note that Red Hawk’s products are very reasonably priced, this sauce included.
Bottom line: Strawberry Scorpion Sting is a creative sauce that I highly recommend. There’s enough piquancy to satisfy chiliheads and other heat-seekers, but that’s not at all the focus of this sauce. This is a sauce with a complex flavor: dominated by strawberries, sweet onions, and habanero-type chilies. Delicious in its own right, it works well as a dessert sauce (as a spicy strawberry syrup) and as a complement to a surprising array of savory dishes.
CHILIPHILE 