The Worst Firehouse Subs Hot Sauce Is Sadly Overwhelming

Hot sauce is the fiery savior you need on your plate, adding layers of heat, smokiness, sweetness, and tang. That said, sometimes a sauce fails to meet up to the hype and that's the problem we have with Hot N Saucy's Carrot N Chipotle. The unique match of chipotle and carrot had some promise but unfortunately, it failed to meet the mark in more ways than one.

It's not every day you find a Chipotle N carrot hot sauce, and that's exactly why we were intrigued. Usually hot sauces are either anchored by vinegar or various peppers.  With this sauce, however, we have carrots being the star ingredient. Going by the ingredient list, the second most prominent ingredients are carrots right after distilled vinegar. This unique base had us excited by the idea of a veggie-forward, sweet sauce that's different from the usual peppery sauce base.

But then we encounter the chipotle peppers in Adobo sauce — the one miss that sets everything ablaze. While chipotle peppers are delicious on their own, the intensity of the smokey flavor isn't a great fit for the fresh vibrant carrot base. What should have been an intricate balance of sweet and smokey flavors takes a turn and all that is left is the overwhelming Adobo sauce. It can only be described as sitting down for a veggie stir-fry and being served a charred BBQ brisket instead. 

We'll admit it, we love it when a hot sauce brand comes out with a surprise flavor combination. There is a joy that comes with discovering something new, a sauce that makes you pause and say, "Whoa what is that?" But, this only works when there isn't one flavor completely overpowering the mix, becoming distracting rather than delightful.

Even with the bright orange hue, the flavor of the carrot is completely overshadowed. The carrot is there, but good luck tasting it under the thick smokey chipotle flavor. It's disappointing because the earthiness and natural sweetness of carrots would have been a nice contrast to the pepper in the sauce.

The Carrot N Chipotle is a stunner virtually. The color is bright and inviting and it strikes a good balance with its consistency. It's not too thick and not too runny. You would think it'll make a great drizzle over a Firehouse Sub, just looking at it. But looks can be deceiving. The flavor just doesn't do any justice and it's unfortunately one that you'll try once and push to the back of your fridge.

Our final verdict is that Hot N Saucy's Carrot N Chipotle is far from balanced. While the attempt to go beyond the boundaries of hot sauce creativity is appreciated, This one just doesn't work. We apologize Carrot N Chipotle, but you are at the bottom of our lineup of Firehouse Subs sauces.