If you are a fan of the Hot Ones YouTube show, you’ve probably heard about the TruTV game show edition of Hot Ones. The show pits random contestants against one another, challenging them with super hot wings and trivia questions.
For the game show, Heatonist and Hot Ones teamed up to create 3 all-new, super-spicy hot sauces. These include Brain Burner, Eye Of The Scorpion and of course, The Constrictor. Today, we will share our thoughts on The Constrictor, its flavor, heat level and whether or not we think you should buy it.
Buy It:
The Constrictor Hot Sauce Review
Hot Ones has a history of working with famous pepper breeder Smokin’ Ed Currie. He is best known for cultivating the Carolina Reaper pepper, the hottest pepper (officially recognized) on Earth.
He still grows and breeds peppers, ever searching for the next hottest pepper out there. For The Constrictor, Smokin’ Ed found a way to basically use nothing but Carolina Reapers and vinegar as ingredients.
The result is shockingly raw and vicious. We think the name is extremely fitting.
With around 36 Carolina Reapers contained in each bottle of The Constrictor, we knew the heat would be intense. However, it doesn’t do much else for us other than burn.
There is an initial flavor that has hints of citrus and flowers, but it quickly turns to a numbing burn. Some people like this, but we prefer a more robust coexistence of flavor and heat.
However, we’d be silly to assume this sauce would be delicious. It is made almost entirely of Carolina Reaper peppers and was made for a spicy wing game show. It is exactly right for that setting.
Flavor
- No surprises – tastes exactly like eating a superhot pepper
How To Use
- Put it on whatever and hold on for dear life
- The bottle says ‘Enjoy On Everything’ – Neat!
Tip: Taste a tiny drop to start and wait for at least 5 minutes to allow the heat level to rise. It comes on slowly and intensifies before peaking.
The label on The Constrictor shows that the hot sauce includes Carolina Reapers, distilled vinegar, Carolina Reaper powder, and Carolina Reaper distillate (hilariously called ‘Reaper Blood’ by Hot Ones). As if eating Carolina Reaper peppers wasn’t spicy enough, Smokin’ Ed had to go one step further and create a distillate to amplify the intensity.
My favorite bit on the label is the simple advice to ‘Enjoy On Everything.’ Absolutely! I can’t wait to shake some of this into my morning coffee and later onto my ice create sundae.
The Constrictor Hot Sauce Scoville Rating
The Constrictor hot sauce burns like you wouldn’t believe. Unless you’re a hot sauce veteran, any more than a tiny dab is going to send you into full panic mode.
To put it simply, The Constrictor hot sauce comes in at 1,400,000 SHUs on the Scoville Scale, making it one of the hottest natural sauces we have ever tasted. Consisting of almost purely Carolina Reapers, it is no wonder this sauce is scorching.
This Scoville rating is apparently lower than The Last Dab hot sauces, but we disagree when it comes to experience. The Constrictor is certainly more painful than The Last Dab (and most other sauces we have tried, for that matter).
The Carolina Reaper pepper is known to consistently rate above 1.5M Scovilles. Since this sauce has around 36 reapers per bottle, you can feel the burn of eating a reaper pepper straight, in hot sauce form.
Hot Ones game show gives The Constrictor a 10/10 rating on their heat scale, and we agree. It maxes out our pain tolerance, and with just 5oz of this stuff you could spice up your cooking for a lifetime.
How Much Does The Constrictor Cost?
This is by far the most expensive hot sauce we have ever ordered. There are more expensive bottles out there, but they are usually limited edition or extremely spicy extracts. The Constrictor costs $30 on Heatonist for a 5oz bottle.
However, when you consider that each bottle has 36 Carolina Reaper peppers in it, and that a Carolina Reaper plant takes about 140 days to produce peppers, the price starts to make sense.
The Constrictor Hot Sauce Consistency
The consistency of The Constrictor is on the thicker side. You can clearly make out seeds and small pepper pieces in the sauce. It pours slowly, and you should be thankful for that.
It doesn’t take much of this sauce to go overboard. We could only really see ourselves using this sauce to add heat to a large pot of soup or another big dish. So in that regard, the texture doesn’t much matter.
Is The Constrictor Worth It?
We ordered this hot sauce because we just had to know what the hottest natural hot sauce available tasted like. The Constrictor hot sauce is not for everyone. In fact, it is not for most people.
At $30 per bottle with an almost intolerable spiciness, this hot sauce will only appeal to those with a seriously high tolerance for spicy food. If you know someone who grows Carolina Reapers or other superhot peppers, perhaps this would make a good birthday gift.
Otherwise, we’d recommend many other sauces before picking up The Constrictor.
Get your own bottle on Heatonist
Calvin
One of the original Pepper Geeks! When Calvin isn’t gardening or learning more about peppers and botany, he might be traveling new places or playing some music.