Seventh Hot Sauce Tasting, La Pimenterie Hot Sauces (August 22nd, 2024)
This was our 7th “Hot Sauce” Tasting. We had 11 participants, I’m going to stop saying how many last minute cancellations we had. We sampled La Pimenterie from Montreal, QC. I chose them since I’d seen them in the grocery store, many a time, and when researching them, on the web, I was truly impressed with the selection of sauces on their website. The selection on their website, had many unique sauces I had not seen in the store. They seem to have 3 different categories of sauces, Classic, Special, Extra Hot, Grand Reserve and Good Heat. The Grand Reserve line is aged in Bourbon or Rum barrels for 18 months, this creates a very deep flavour. The ‘extra hot’ line, are versions of their regular sauces, with the heat turned up a notch. Realize the heat is relative, ie Vertigo ‘extra hot’ is only going to be a 3/10 for heat, since their regular Vertigo is a 1/10 for heat. The “Special” sauces are usually done with a partner. The bottles in question were ;
| Name | Taste | Heat | Price (CAD$) | Where |
| Bon Matin | 6.92 | 1.75 | $12.00 | website |
| Calypso | 7.00 | 2.33 | $12.00 | website |
| Vertigo Extra Hot | 6.08 | 3.17 | $12.00 | website |
| San Pasilla | 7.17 | 2.25 | $13.00 | website |
| Fogo | 6.08 | 2.25 | $12.00 | website |
| Grande Reserve | 5.50 | 4.92 | $20.00 | website |
| Le Temps des Cerise – GR | 5.75 | 1.50 | $20.00 | website |
| Royal Bourbon | 7.00 | 5.33 | $12.00 | IGA |
| Royal Bourbon – GR | 7.25 | 4.58 | $20.00 | website |
| Newton Extra Hot | 5.64 | 6.00 | $12.00 | website |
| Bollywood Extra Hot | 7.36 | 6.09 | $13.00 | website |
| Bonus | ||||
| Forbidden Fruit | 4.36 | 7.82 | $14.00 | website |
| Forbidden Fruit – EH | 3.67 | 8.11 | $15.00 | website |
| Post Mortem | 2.88 | 7.75 | $15.00 | website |
I bought too many again, it was hard to remove ones from this line, due to the unique flavours. I removed the Colonel – Extra Hot, which was a mustard sauce, I removed the Special Hop, which was a beer flavoured hot sauce. I also removed the Royal Bourbon – Extra Hot, due to already having 2 Royal Bourbons in the tasting, and found the EH version, not as interesting, as the other 2. I regret removing the Colonel sauce from the line-up, it was between that and the temps de cerises – GR. La Pimenterie uses the standard 5oz glass bottles.
We did the tasting inside, due to the weather being questionable, and with 11, although tight, everyone fits into the tasting room. All the hot sauces were served on chicken wings. I also served home made ice cream between some of the hotter tasting rounds. The favorite ice cream flavours were Coffee, followed by a tie, for 2nd with Chocolate, and Coconut. I served pizza to start, some said they didn’t finish all 14 of the tastings, due to the amount of food, not the heat. Ah well..
Bonus Round Bottles (not included in picture above)
Thanks to Tim for helping out with the chicken wings etc.
The Winners!
1st Place “Taste” (7.4 $13)
1st Place “Heat” (8.1 $14)
Overall Winner (7.4 T/6.1 H)
The next hot sauce tasting is Friday Sept 13th, and will be “Capsaicin Cartel” Hot Sauces, from Hemmingford, QC.
Let me know, if you’re in!
The Survey Results
| Taste | Luis | Adam | Tess | Emilio | Martin | Rox | Mike A | Bob S | Kirk | Teneille | Daniel | Neil | Ttl | Average |
| Bon Matin | 9 | 6 | 4 | 8 | 8 | 5 | 8 | 5 | 6 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 83 | 6.92 |
| Calypso | 8 | 7 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 5 | 7 | 4 | 5 | 10 | 7 | 7 | 84 | 7.00 |
| Vertigo Extra Hot | 5 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 8 | 5 | 4 | 9 | 7 | 4 | 73 | 6.08 |
| San Pasilla | 9 | 8 | 3 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 6 | 7 | 10 | 8 | 7 | 86 | 7.17 |
| Fogo | 3 | 7 | 4 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 8 | 7 | 73 | 6.08 |
| Grande Reserve | 3 | 7 | 5 | 8 | 6 | 3 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 66 | 5.50 |
| Le Temps de Cerise – GR | 9 | 6 | 3 | 6 | 8 | 2 | 7 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 7 | 3 | 69 | 5.75 |
| Royal Bourbon | 8 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 2 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 84 | 7.00 |
| Royal Bouron – GR | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 3 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 9 | 7 | 9 | 87 | 7.25 |
| Newton Extra Hot | 7 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 2 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 62 | 5.64 | |
| Bollywood Extra Hot | 10 | 10 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 10 | 8 | 8 | 81 | 7.36 | |
| Bonus Rd | ||||||||||||||
| Forbidden Fruit | 6 | 7 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 48 | 4.36 | |
| Forbidden Fruit – Extra Hot | 6 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 33 | 3.67 | |||
| Post Mortem | 2 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 23 | 2.88 |
| Heat | Luis | Adam | Tess | Emilio | Martin | Rox | Mike A | Bob S | Kirk | Teneille | Daniel | Neil | Ttl | Average |
| Bon Matin | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 21 | 1.75 |
| Calypso | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 28 | 2.33 |
| Vertigo Extra Hot | 5 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 38 | 3.17 |
| San Pasilla | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 27 | 2.25 |
| Fogo | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 27 | 2.25 |
| Grande Reserve | 7 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 59 | 4.92 |
| Le Temps de Cerise – GR | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 18 | 1.50 |
| Royal Bourbon | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 64 | 5.33 |
| Royal Bouron – GR | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 55 | 4.58 |
| Newton Extra Hot | 6 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 66 | 6.00 | |
| Bollywood Extra Hot | 5 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 9 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 7 | 67 | 6.09 | |
| Bonus Rd | ||||||||||||||
| Forbidden Fruit | 8 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 10 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 86 | 7.82 | |
| Forbidden Fruit – Extra Hot | 8 | 8 | 9 | 8 | 10 | 7 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 73 | 8.11 | |||
| Post Mortem | 7 | 7 | 9 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 62 | 7.75 |
