It checks out that this sauce has a mascot of it’s own on the label. If any sauce was deserving of personification, it would be this funky sauce from Down To Ferment.
As the name implies, this sauce is made with roasted shishito peppers- a common appetizer, but certainly less of a frequent occurrer in hot sauces. The label claims that this was DTF’s first “truly mild sauce”. In an industry that seems hellbent on maxing out the Scoville scale, it sounds like an admirable goal. However, a quick peek at the label shows that shishito is not our only performer; it wouldn’t be a green hotsauce without jalapeno now, would it. The addition of jalapenos make me think that a purely shishito sauce might have been less “hotsauce”, and more “sauce”.
While shishitos are the namesake ingredient, they arguably are one of the least interesting in this bottle of funkyness. Most eye-catching is “kombucha culture (sencha/oolong blend)”. After seeing that, the funk slowly starts to crawl to the forefront of my tongue. Kombucha is fermented, hotsauce and salsa are commonly fermented, so I guess it makes sense to mix the two? This fermentation is different though- giving levels of oomph that you certainly dont get in a run-of-the-mill tomato salsa. It’s also likely some of that is coming from the rest of our ingredients.
Rounding out the bill are ginger, shiitake, miso, soy sauce, sesame oil, black garlic, and yuzu. Now reader, a clever consumer like yourself might be able to pick up on the pattern here- even if the label didn’t hint to the flag, the ingredients certainly pin this flavor profile to Japan. While it certainly checks out, I’m not sure that I would call this sauce a good fit on any Japanese food I’ve eaten before.
The flavor is incredibly rich. Nothing was diluted with vinegar, or watered down during the making of this sauce. Hints of smoke come from the roasted peppers, while the ginger and yuzu cut through with a spicy twang. The miso, shiitake, and kombucha culture all harmonize into a umami punch. Tying everything up is the salt provided via the soy sauce, which really is a great finisher. The sauce certainly has a lot going on, almost to the point of me being fine just eating the sauce by itself, but maybe I’m just crazy.
I don’t really know what I would eat this on. While the ingredient list is impressive, and the flavor tastes like it’s own meal, which doesn’t correlate well to versatility. I think this sauce would shine on foods that are somewhat straightforward taste wise- think grilled cheese, maybe pizza? The less ingredients the better, as I think this sauce could very easily overpower any dishes with more complicated flavor dynamics. Overall, I like the sauce, but have a feeling that the bottle might slowly be pushed further and further into the depths of my fridge, fading into obscurity. If I had to a single sauce onto a remote desert island, I don’t think it would be this one.
Overall: 71/100