About Dragon In The Clouds
Dragon in the Clouds hot sauce is the brainchild of two Goliaths; one in the hot sauce world and one in the marketing world. First We Feast joined forces with 88Rising to create a very unique and bizarre hot sauce.
It comes in a tiny, 4oz bottle, and that’s all you’ll need to get the most out of this hot sauce.
Here, we review Dragon in the Clouds in full, with an overall flavor and PepperGeek value score.
Is Dragon In The Clouds Any Good?
This sauce is certainly not for the faint of heart. Even high spice tolerance folks may struggle with this sauce. The tiny bottle is the first sign that the heat is going to be strong. One look at the ingredients and your suspicions are confirmed: This sauce is very hot.
Flavor
- Intense citrus flavor hits hard (bitter orange)
- Szechuan peppercorns add a tangy, almost medicinal funk
- Ghost peppers are ingredient #1 – just saying
Put It On…
- Fish
- Add to marinades
- Use a dab to add heat to a tamer recipe
We have established that this sauce is spicy, but how about the flavor? Is it usable on actual food, or is it just another gimmick?
Well, the flavor is powerful. Many of the super spicy hot sauces out there will give you all the heat with no flavor. In the case of Dragon in the Clouds, the flavor is strong, but it is also strange…
I’m not sure the flavor will be for everyone, especially if you’re not a fan of citrus. The orange flavor is the most prominent, and when paired with yuzu, the sauce almost becomes an orange concentrate, with some super-hot peppers added in later. The orange flavor is also less sweet, and more bitter, like eating the rind of the orange rather than the juicy inside.
I could barely taste the garlic and mustard, while the szechuan peppercorns did give their signature numbing sensation.
To put it simply, Dragon in the Clouds is extremely spicy, bitter, very
Dragon In The Clouds Scoville & Spiciness
Dragon in the Clouds is very spicy, certainly among the hottest sauces we have reviewed. It is clearly meant to be eaten in small amounts, given the bottle’s small size and powerful flavor.
There is no available Scoville rating for the sauce, however, if we had to guess, it is likely around the 1,000,000 SHU mark. Given that the primary ingredient is Ghost Peppers, this estimate should hold true. It also hits harder on the palate than most, with an almost immediate burn that lasts and lasts.
This Scoville rating is just an estimate, but to keep it simple, the sauce is really hot. If you’re familiar with ghost peppers, you’ll know what we mean.
How Much Does Dragon In The Clouds Cost?
This is not a cheap hot sauce. Especially considering the size of the bottle. However, it is a limited edition sauce that will likely sell out quickly and go for big money on ebay soon. It also uses hard-to-source ingredients that are likely high in cost.
With that being said, Dragon in the Clouds is an unavoidably expensive $25 plus shipping for 4oz of hot sauce. Total cost for our bottle was about $31 shipped. That’s a steep price for a small amount of sauce, though it does offer a new and exotic flavor. You also get some pretty unique packaging and presentation. But at the end of the day, you’re only worried about the contents of the sauce and whether it is truly worth $30+ to you.
Dragon In The Clouds Consistency
Our bottle of Dragon in the Clouds was relatively thin, pouring very easily from the small spout. However, after watching another review of the sauce on YouTube, it seemed much thicker than ours. Perhaps different batches of the sauce varied slightly in thickness.
We can really only speak for the bottle we received, and ours was thin and almost runny, which can make it a bit tough to meter out. Given the tiny size and the high heat, it would benefit from being a bit thicker.
Is Dragon In The Clouds Worth It?
This was a tough one. We have tried and loved many sauces from Hot Ones, from Los Calientes to The Last Dab. We expected great things, but we have to settle on a 2/5 rating due to the high cost and the bizarre, bitter flavor and usability.
Kudos to First We Feast for making something truly unique, and we will continue to try this sauce on different foods going forward. Who knows, maybe it is the perfect sauce for…oysters, or something.
Get Some at 88 NightMarket >
Robert Thone
Friday 23rd of September 2022
It would be nice if 88nightmarket would list the sauce somewhere on the site so you can purchase it. I tried Amazon, but with no success. Any suggestions
Reuben
Tuesday 24th of March 2020
I absolutely cannot handle hot sauce. But I have grown to love this one. I found it to be great on... get ready for it... Top Ramen. The flavor is very unique, but like anything I got used to it and it's fantastic. Cheers
Michael B
Friday 13th of December 2019
I like to taste a dab or two of a sauce on its own to get an initial profile. The flavor of the sauce itself is not good in my opinion. Like you mentioned, almost like diving deep into the rind of an orange. I understand that’s probably the yuzu presence. But, it’s not great on its own. It is not for everyone. And those that actually do like the flavor in itself, more power to you. Really loved how hot it was and getting that numbing sensation from the peppercorns. But, that’s the only redeeming quality I see in the sauce itself.
Perhaps using it sparingly in a dish would make me like it more. Just need to figure out what food or dish that would be.
Diana R. Williams
Thursday 17th of October 2019
It didn't occur to me that the flavor would be such a strange factor for some people, but since you mention it I now realize how unusual it is. Lucky for me I loved every aspect of the unusualness. To me the flavor of this sauce is the best feature, because it's off-the-charts hotter than sauces I normally enjoy. I will never eat a sauce I love this much as slowly as this one (for fear of spontaneously combusting).
Xian
Wednesday 2nd of October 2019
This sauce is absolutely delicious. The yuzu and szechuan mix are unique and add a ton of flavor. 8/10.
peppergeek
Wednesday 2nd of October 2019
Glad you're loving it!