I’ve tried that one. It’s great, but you need to measure out milligram portions of it unless you really like chili.
Ghost chilis and their close relatives are surprisingly flavourful. I grow the nai miris type and make chili sauce with them.
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I agree. Ghost peppers are very aromatic, but damned if they are edible! Way too hot for me. My go to is habanero for still hot as hell nd flavorful, but not instant bathroom visit like ghost! Capsicum frutiscens and its hybrids can all be amazingly yummy, unlike the more boring types that are more commercially available!
@PeiHua-Connie yes, they are in taitung, but can mail order 
as im not a super spicy addicted fiend, i usually go for their pinapple sauce.
Habaneros are definitely on my top three list for flavour too. Only problem I have is that they’re mercilessly attacked by fruit flies. Which is bizarre, because all the other varieties are problem-free.
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Plenty of Tabasco at Costco! You should be totally set.
My step mom had a habit of putting a ton of Serrano pepper into her dish and then got mad when I spit them out. I told her it was way too hot for me to handle.
Absolutely agree. Not just flies, but ither pests, fungi etc all eat the crap out of habanero. They grow awesome in dry climates but in taiwan they require far more planning than most other peppers. They also yeild so heavily and have such weak laterals that staking is actually mandatory…annoying, but acceptable.
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Yeah, they do tend to flop over and need tying up. On the bright side they appear to be true perennials. Mine have been going strong for about 5 years.
Totally. In fact mnay species of Capsicum are perennial. C. annuum seems to be ge lease so, but to be fair when plants are bombarded with fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides their whole life it would be unfain to expect nothin else but a necrotic cancerous mess.
I dont have a pic unfortunately, and wont disclose the location. But up a river in Pingdong there is a roughly 60 year old Capsicum frutescens (Siling labuyo/小米椒) girth of a thigh. They are quite resilient, but its the same with trees, root veg etc. Fertilize them alot and their cells grow too fast and are wide open to infection. It made my heart warm when i finally talked with enough chili farmers that heyball understand this concept. Have met numerous farmers that also grow their chilis for a few years, commercially. But they balance the fertilizers.
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I like Tabasco (I like Taiwan local ones too but not fan of the real sweet ones). Quite interesting to see its aged like 3 years like a fine wine. Its nice to see its easy to buy in Taiwan at reasonable prices. (I also searched and found out chiles are from Mexico and spead its seed around the world, to what it is now)
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Ya, lots of people like it. Its cbeap, mass produced and available in so many countries. Like Heineken. Consistent and common.
The entire genus of peppers are certainly new world plants. I think we had a discussion about Capsicum oriins somewhere here. Its really quite fascinating, and the variety is astonishing. South americans were by far the most advanced botanists way back when!
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Okay fellow lasses, lads and non-binary Forumosans. I had a craving for some hot sauce and brought the Ghost Pepper Maqaw sauce from Empress. It’s currently at the 7-11 and I’ll pick it up tomorrow. If there’s any interest I’ll give it a review here.
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It was nice knowing you.
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What I don’t like about Western style hot sauces is just how sour and acidic a lot of them are. I didn’t like the Anita’s sauces very much for that reason.
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When I discovered the decades old Willie’s Deli (Willie’s Deli (G&G) in Tianmu) , I also found they had Black Mamba spicy sauce. I first found Black Mamba being sold on a weekend outside of a department store 2 years ago, and then I hadn’t seen it again since. The sauce isn’t very spicy even if you buy the hottest one, but it does have some very good flavor and is far better than the sugar-water that most Taiwanese hot-sauces seem to be.
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Picked it up today along some KFC. The sauce is viscous and has a nice fruity smell and colour.
Amongst other ingredients listed on the label are: Lime juice, Grapefruit juice, sweet potatoes, onions, vinegar and ghost peppers along with the Maqaw pepper for the punch.
Taste: The fruitiness continues on the palate. The vinegar is there but not overwhelming. Well balanced and it goes well with the fried chicken.
Hotness: It has a punch, but that punch is neither particularly strong nor long lasting. I had hotter. If you’re ok with sriracha, mala hotpot or Korean spicy noodles (the one with the fire-spitting goblin on it),then this sauce won’t be a challenge for you.
Verdict: Very tasty and versatile sauce. The spiciness or the lack thereof makes it a great sauce for everyone who wants to step up their hot sauce game from Tabasco and it’s a great gift if you don’t want to bring back something that’s made in Taiwan and not a pineapple cake.
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Ya, thats pretty true. I like the acidity personally so its good. But i like flavor, so tobasco type sauces, pass.
Empress made a real thick sauce with sweet potato (or yam?) Or something like that and it was THICK, smooth thick. W as amazing, that bottle lasted a couple weeks whereas usually a hot sau bottle w can have for nearly a year in the fridge haha. Its probably on their website. I give that one a 9.5/10
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Update on my hotsauce: It’s empty. I used it on almost everything: On fried stuff, noodles, burgers, in soups. Now I’ll have to order more. That sauce is addictive.
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Haha. Thats how you judge how good the hot sauce is…how fast is the bottle finished. I had the same thing happen with that sauce
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Good that you like it and thanks for your report
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