The Last Dab Apollo Review – Hot Pepper Lift Off

Once again, Hot Ones has graced us with an all new Last Dab hot sauce. This one has been deemed The Last Dab Apollo, owing to the all new pepper variety used in the sauce.

The Apollo pepper is an illusive and mysterious new pepper variety bred by, you guessed it, Smokin’ Ed Currie. Ed has been involved with several of the recent Last Dab sauces and is as famous as they come in the hot pepper community.

Currie is known for creating the Carolina Reaper pepper, the world’s hottest (officially recognized) pepper, though there is some controversy about it.

He also created the Pepper X pepper, the primary heat source for the previous Last Dab Triple X hot sauce. That sauce was seriously hot, but not as violently spicy as the original Reaper edition.

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Watch Us Taste Apollo Hot Sauce:

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Sean Evans made a comment that, in testing, they thought Apollo might actually be too spicy for the celebrities on Hot Ones to endure. Naturally, this got us excited to try the sauce as soon as possible.

We tried the sauce hours after it arrived and, well, we had some thoughts…

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Last Dab Apollo Review and Flavor

First off, The Last Dab Apollo takes a major departure from previous Last Dab sauces. This hot sauce is made up of 2 major ingredients, peppers, and vinegar. There are technically 4 ingredients, but 3 of them are derived from the Apollo pepper.

The result, a relatively flat flavor with explosive heat and not much else. This isn’t necessarily bad, since some people use hot sauce to add heat to meals without changing the flavor. However, my recommendation to them would be to grow fresh peppers and use those instead – much more rewarding.

With that said, the sauce has an interesting aroma. It smells savory with a slight hint of carrots, almost like a savory vegetable stew. Given the limited ingredients, we can really only attribute this to the Apollo pepper itself.

The Apollo Pepper Distillate listed in the ingredients is made using CO2 extraction. This process is similar to how they produce high-end essential oils. We’re not sure if this can be considered an ‘extract,’ though (let us know in the comments if you have insight on this).

If you need a savory, fiery pepper sauce that doesn’t mess around with herbs and spices, this might be it. As long as you enjoy your food wickedly hot.

More About The Apollo Pepper…

Smokin’ Ed is constantly experimenting with new pepper crosses, so naturally, the Apollo pepper was born from this practice.

The Apollo pepper reportedly comes from cross breeding the Carolina Reaper and Pepper X pepper plants.

These are both intensely spicy varieties, though no one has really been able to taste the Pepper X in raw pepper form.

The name presumably comes from the Greek god Apollo, known as the god of sun and light. The sun is hot, the pepper is hot, voila. It could also have to do with the Apollo NASA missions. This sauce could secretly be rocket-powered, who knows.

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The Last Dab Apollo Scoville Rating

Seeing as the Carolina Reaper and Pepper X peppers are the Apollo pepper’s parents, this sauce is ferociously spicy. However, the exact Scoville rating is still TBA. For now, we’ll give our best guess based on previous Last Dab Scoville ratings and the Apollo pepper’s origin. Check back for updates here as we learn more from official sources.

Simply put, Last Dab Apollo likely has a Scoville rating of 2.5 million+ SHUs, though an official rating has yet to be announced. After tasting, I wouldn’t be surprised by a Scoville rating in this territory. However, the Pepper Geeks both agreed that The Constrictor hot sauce, made of reapers, was hotter.

See where some other superhot sauces stack up on the Scoville scale.

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Last Dab Apollo Consistency

Like former Last Dabs, Apollo is thick and chunky. The fresh peppers are almost chewable and the vinegar is kept at a relatively low concentration. This means the sauce pours nice and slowly, as you’d want with this much fire power.

The color is a deep red, hinting that the Apollo pepper may have a darker color than the original Reaper. Some red pepper varieties are bright red while others can have a deeper, more burgundy look when full ripe. Time will tell!

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Where To Buy Last Dab Apollo

The Last Dab Apollo can be found exclusively on Heatonist, currently priced at $22 (plus shipping). This is the most expensive Last Dab thus far, though the bottle should last most people a long, long time.

This would be a great gift for anyone you know who loves super-spicy food. The price makes sense, given that each bottle likely requires a couple dozen peppers to produce. Also, the pepper itself is highly exclusive to Smokin’ Ed’s reserves.

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Overall, we were blown away by the heat of Apollo. The sauce comes up short in value due to the extreme price tag and the relatively standard flavor. It is really more of a party trick than a great hot sauce. We’ll continue to use the former Last Dab varieties for their more interesting flavor.

Have you tried The Last Dab Apollo? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.

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