Bitter: ⭐⭐⭐✰✰
Salty: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✰
Sour/Tangy: ⭐⭐✰✰✰
Sweet: ⭐✰✰✰✰
Umami: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✰
Heat: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐✰✰✰
Quick Flavor Notes: Earthy, umami, rich, fruity
Texture: Thin and smooth
Recommended: Yes
Ingredients: Red Ghost Pepper Puree (Red Ghost Chili Peppers, Salt, Acetic Acid), Rice Vinegar, Carolina Reaper Pepper Puree (Carolina Reaper Peppers, Salt, Acetic Acid), Miso Paste (Organic Soybeans, Organic Rice Koji (Organic Rice, Koji Spores [Aspergillus Oryzae]), Sea Salt, Water), Tamari Sauce (Water, Soybeans, Salt, Alcohol (to preserve freshness)), Pure Sesame Oil, Japanese Seven Spice (Spices, sesame seeds, orange peel, salt, nori (seaweed))
Bravado Spice Co out of Houston, TX was founded on the idea that a culinarily driven hot sauce company combined with slick marketing and label design was what the industry needed. I won’t deny that their black labels with shiny foil logos and their availability at Buc-cees, the Texas-based mega gas station has certainly been a key to their success, but we all know it’s what’s inside the bottle that matters most. After having previously enjoyed their umami-rich Black Garlic Carolina Reaper hot sauce I decided to try another super hot umami bomb from them – their Aka Miso Ghost-Reaper.
Perhaps it’s because I’ve watched too much of Netflix’s Jessica Jones but every time I’ve seen this sauce I’ve read the label as “AKA Miso” as in “also known as” instead of “Aka Miso” which is what I discovered it actually is. Aka Miso, or red miso, is a variety of the Japanese fermented soybean paste that’s been allowed to ferment for one to three years and thus develop a stronger flavor. I’ve previously tried hot sauces that use white miso, which is fermented for only two to three weeks, such as Butterfly Bakery of Vermont’s Sweet Chili Miso and the Heatonist #5 sauce by Marhsall’s Haute Sauce. Using this stronger miso in this sauce makes sense as there are a lot of big flavors, and big heat, in play. Aka Miso Ghost-Reaper starts out with ghost pepper mash and follows up with Carolina Reaper pepper mash. The Asian-inspired flavor profile continues with the inclusion of tamari, which is a Japanese condiment similar to soy sauce that’s created as a by-product of the miso making process and is usually made entirely of soybeans instead of a mix of soybeans and wheat so usually has a stronger flavor than Japanese soy sauce. Sesame oil and togarashi round out the sauce. Togarashi, also known as Japanese 7-Spice powder is a blend of chiles, citrus zest, seaweed, and aromatics.
Pour some Bravado Aka Miso Ghost-Reaper into a spoon and you will be able to see the the sesame oil. The sauce itself is an ultra-deep blood red color with a thin and smooth texture and the sesame oil creates a little carmine halo around the sauce. Giving it a sniff the aromas of super hot chiles drift up as well as a salty soy aroma. On the first taste the sauce is deep and earthy. The earthy and smoky profile of ghost peppers combined with the miso and soy are at the forefront, the tamari especially coming through and making it a bit salty initially, as well as a satisfying and deep umami flavor. What it isn’t at first, however, is very hot. After that initial earthy, salty, umami impression fades the sweet fruity Carolina Reaper notes come out from hiding, blossoming the flavor of this sauce into something more complex, possibly with some of those citrus togarashi notes as well. With the fruitiness of the reapers also comes the heat. In many ways the big heat delay reminds me of Primo’s Peppers Swampadelic, which while considerably hotter, has that big delay in the onset of the heat. I don’t taste the sesame oil in the per se, but I’ve long held that the use of oils in hot sauce can have big effects on both the heat and the flavor by providing a carrier for the fat-soluble flavor elements and capsaicinoids in the pepper. This is also a great sauce for those who are averse to vinegar-forward sauces. While vinegar is the second ingredient by volume this sauce reads much more pepper-forward and rich than it does vinegar-forward.
While Aka Miso Ghost-Reaper does have a number of very Asian ingredients I found the flavor profile to work with a wide variety of foods and not to be limited to Asian cuisine. The one challenge however, is the heat level. While not as hot as some other sauce’s I’ve tried this sauce is certainly in the upper echelon and straddles the line right between very hot and super-hot. Unless you’re a masochist or have a ridiculous tolerance I wouldn’t toss wings in this straight, for instance (though I did use it to dip some chicken tenders in and it’s delicious with chicken). Adding a glug to a bowl of instant beef ramen added depth of flavor, extra umami, a ton of heat, and created some type of chemical reaction with the hot ramen that gave me stomach cramps several minutes after. I also enjoyed adding some of this to some Cajun black eyed peas that I whipped up. This sauce is salty at 150mg of sodium per teaspoon, but a little goes a long way both in flavor in heat.
Bravado Spice Co Aka Miso Ghost-Reaper gets my recommendation. It’s a great blend of pepper flavor, heat, deep umami richness, earthy flavors and fruity ones. Even though it’s a very Asian inspired sauce it goes well with western foods as well. It is also all natural with no artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, or thickeners.
by MagnusAlbusPater
5 Comments
Bitter: ⭐⭐⭐✰✰
Salty: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✰
Sour/Tangy: ⭐⭐✰✰✰
Sweet: ⭐✰✰✰✰
Umami: ⭐⭐⭐⭐✰
Heat: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐✰✰✰
Quick Flavor Notes: Earthy, umami, rich, fruity
Texture: Thin and smooth
Recommended: Yes
Ingredients: Red Ghost Pepper Puree (Red Ghost Chili Peppers, Salt, Acetic Acid), Rice Vinegar, Carolina Reaper Pepper Puree (Carolina Reaper Peppers, Salt, Acetic Acid), Miso Paste (Organic Soybeans, Organic Rice Koji (Organic Rice, Koji Spores [Aspergillus Oryzae]), Sea Salt, Water), Tamari Sauce (Water, Soybeans, Salt, Alcohol (to preserve freshness)), Pure Sesame Oil, Japanese Seven Spice (Spices, sesame seeds, orange peel, salt, nori (seaweed))
Bravado Spice Co out of Houston, TX was founded on the idea that a culinarily driven hot sauce company combined with slick marketing and label design was what the industry needed. I won’t deny that their black labels with shiny foil logos and their availability at Buc-cees, the Texas-based mega gas station has certainly been a key to their success, but we all know it’s what’s inside the bottle that matters most. After having previously enjoyed their umami-rich Black Garlic Carolina Reaper hot sauce I decided to try another super hot umami bomb from them – their Aka Miso Ghost-Reaper.
Perhaps it’s because I’ve watched too much of Netflix’s Jessica Jones but every time I’ve seen this sauce I’ve read the label as “AKA Miso” as in “also known as” instead of “Aka Miso” which is what I discovered it actually is. Aka Miso, or red miso, is a variety of the Japanese fermented soybean paste that’s been allowed to ferment for one to three years and thus develop a stronger flavor. I’ve previously tried hot sauces that use white miso, which is fermented for only two to three weeks, such as Butterfly Bakery of Vermont’s Sweet Chili Miso and the Heatonist #5 sauce by Marhsall’s Haute Sauce. Using this stronger miso in this sauce makes sense as there are a lot of big flavors, and big heat, in play. Aka Miso Ghost-Reaper starts out with ghost pepper mash and follows up with Carolina Reaper pepper mash. The Asian-inspired flavor profile continues with the inclusion of tamari, which is a Japanese condiment similar to soy sauce that’s created as a by-product of the miso making process and is usually made entirely of soybeans instead of a mix of soybeans and wheat so usually has a stronger flavor than Japanese soy sauce. Sesame oil and togarashi round out the sauce. Togarashi, also known as Japanese 7-Spice powder is a blend of chiles, citrus zest, seaweed, and aromatics.
Pour some Bravado Aka Miso Ghost-Reaper into a spoon and you will be able to see the the sesame oil. The sauce itself is an ultra-deep blood red color with a thin and smooth texture and the sesame oil creates a little carmine halo around the sauce. Giving it a sniff the aromas of super hot chiles drift up as well as a salty soy aroma. On the first taste the sauce is deep and earthy. The earthy and smoky profile of ghost peppers combined with the miso and soy are at the forefront, the tamari especially coming through and making it a bit salty initially, as well as a satisfying and deep umami flavor. What it isn’t at first, however, is very hot. After that initial earthy, salty, umami impression fades the sweet fruity Carolina Reaper notes come out from hiding, blossoming the flavor of this sauce into something more complex, possibly with some of those citrus togarashi notes as well. With the fruitiness of the reapers also comes the heat. In many ways the big heat delay reminds me of Primo’s Peppers Swampadelic, which while considerably hotter, has that big delay in the onset of the heat. I don’t taste the sesame oil in the per se, but I’ve long held that the use of oils in hot sauce can have big effects on both the heat and the flavor by providing a carrier for the fat-soluble flavor elements and capsaicinoids in the pepper. This is also a great sauce for those who are averse to vinegar-forward sauces. While vinegar is the second ingredient by volume this sauce reads much more pepper-forward and rich than it does vinegar-forward.
While Aka Miso Ghost-Reaper does have a number of very Asian ingredients I found the flavor profile to work with a wide variety of foods and not to be limited to Asian cuisine. The one challenge however, is the heat level. While not as hot as some other sauce’s I’ve tried this sauce is certainly in the upper echelon and straddles the line right between very hot and super-hot. Unless you’re a masochist or have a ridiculous tolerance I wouldn’t toss wings in this straight, for instance (though I did use it to dip some chicken tenders in and it’s delicious with chicken). Adding a glug to a bowl of instant beef ramen added depth of flavor, extra umami, a ton of heat, and created some type of chemical reaction with the hot ramen that gave me stomach cramps several minutes after. I also enjoyed adding some of this to some Cajun black eyed peas that I whipped up. This sauce is salty at 150mg of sodium per teaspoon, but a little goes a long way both in flavor in heat.
Bravado Spice Co Aka Miso Ghost-Reaper gets my recommendation. It’s a great blend of pepper flavor, heat, deep umami richness, earthy flavors and fruity ones. Even though it’s a very Asian inspired sauce it goes well with western foods as well. It is also all natural with no artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, or thickeners.
Thank you for clearing up the aka part lol…this is a great sauce I have been using on Asian foods exclusively so I guess it’s time I open it up to other cuisines. I have found this sauce to be a bit sweeter than you have noted.
Great review as always, thanks!
Thank you for the great write-up.
This is one of my favorite sauces. Its definitely a “super hot” in my book, right there with Garlic Reaper
Good read.
Your reviews are my favorite posts on this sub.