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Hot sauce is an essential ingredient in many of our kitchens and can be included in a variety of recipes to give it that extra kick.
However, there are a variety of hot sauces out there, all with different levels of heat, flavors, and suitability for different cuisines.
So, there is no point in finding one hot sauce you like and sticking to it.
It is a good idea to add many different hot sauces to your flavor palette, and we are here to help you do just that!
In this article, we will be reviewing Valentina Hot Sauce! We will discuss all aspects of this sauce, from its name origins to its flavor profile, cost, and more!
Keep reading for our full Valentina hot sauce review, and see if you can handle the heat.
Valentina Hot Sauce is considered to be a classic Mexican hot sauce. It has a list of ingredients that are simple and full of delicious flavor.
While it does pack a punch, it is a very mild sauce (around 900 SHU.)
One of the most prominent ingredients in this cause is the sweet chili pepper, giving it a lovely blend of spicy, sweet, and tangy.
For this reason, Valentina Hot Sauce is incredibly versatile and can be used on a variety of dishes.
Valentina Hot Sauce is made by the Tamazula Group in Guadalajara, Mexico, and has been for 60 years.
This is a business rooted in family, and the factory employs people from 125 different families living in the area.
How Valentina Hot Sauce got its name is an interesting story.
Valentina hot sauce was named after Valentina Ramirez Avitia, a 17-year-old girl who dressed as a man in order to join the Maderista Troops and fight in the Mexican Revolution.
In her disguise, Valentina rose to the rank of lieutenant, but her true identity was eventually discovered and while she was commended for her bravery, she was subsequently expelled five months after she had joined.
Her actions were greatly admired by a man named Manuel Maciel Mendez. In the 1960s, Mendez created a hot sauce line which he named Tamazula, after his hometown, Tamazula de Gordiano.
Because the hot sauce line was so popular, he chose to name the second product Salsa Valentina - Valentina Hot Sauce, after being greatly moved by Valentina’s story.
The ingredients in Valentina Hot Sauce are very simple, there are just 3 ingredients: salt, spices, and a preservative. They are as follows:
Pay close attention to the order of ingredients here, as we found that this is a good indicator of what to expect on the first bite.
First of all, you quickly get a strong, fruity taste of sweet chili peppers, which is quickly followed by a hit of spice and heat, and then finished with a tangy, vinegar taste to cleanse the palate.
Valentina Hot Sauce leans into the natural flavor of the chili pepper to provide a simple sauce that is still hot and extremely tasty.
As you can see, salt makes the ingredient list for this delicious hot sauce.
However, it is not an overpowering flavor, nor is it going to be overpowering for your health.
On average, there is 64 mg of sodium in one teaspoon of this hot sauce, which is only 3% of the daily value for the average person.
However, most people will have more than one teaspoon of hot sauce per sitting, so this percentage can add up rather quickly.
Therefore, it is important to pay close attention to how much Valentina Hot Sauce you are actually consuming with a meal.
This is one of the downsides of Valentina hot sauce, as you do not need to do this as much with other sauces.
For example, Tabasco Original Red sauce contains less sodium than Valentina hot sauce, and it takes many dashes of the former to make up a teaspoon.
If you’re trying to be mindful of your sodium intake, this is something to pay attention to.
Compared to other sauces, Valentina Hot sauce does not contain as many preservatives.
This is because many of the existing ingredients in the sauce are natural preservatives anyway.
For example, capsaicin, vinegar, and salt are all antibacterial to a certain degree. Therefore, Valentina hot sauce does not need as many preservatives.
Valentina Hot Sauce is considered to be quite a thick sauce.
It is typically thicker than the Cajun hot sauce that it shares a grocery store shelf with. Some people may not like the idea of a thick sauce.
However, because of its consistency, you can enjoy the full flavors offered by the spices.
The heat of Valentina hot sauce, and other types of hot sauce, is measured by the Schoville Heat Scale and in Scoville heat units.
These are named after Wilbur Scoville, a scientist in 1912 that created the scale to measure both the heat and the pungency of chili peppers.
The scale begins with a unit of 0, where the bell pepper sits. Then, it travels all the way up to 2,200,000, where you will find the Carolina Reaper.
Beyond this is 2-5300,000 and 15-16,000,000, where you will find the average bottle of pepper spray and pure capsaicin, respectively.
So, where does Valentina Hot Sauce sit on this scale? Well, Valentina Hot Sauce is mildly spicy.
The chili peppers used to make this sauce are typically pua peppers, and these peppers have a heat level similar to a jalapeno, around 5,000-8,000 Scoville heat units.
However, the heat of these puya peppers has been diluted with vinegar and water.
Therefore, Valentina Hot Sauce hits the 900 mark of the Schoville heat unit system, meaning more heat-sensitive members of the family should still be able to enjoy it.
This makes it a little hotter than Texas Pete’s Sauce, which sits at around 340-740 SHU, but milder than Tapatio hot sauce, another type of Mexican hot sauce and competitor of Valentina Hot Sauce.
We think that the mild kick you get from your initial tasting of this hot sauce disappears very quickly.
So, it is suitable for those who are not very well acquainted with hot sauce, and those who enjoy all the heat chili peppers have to offer.
Valentina Hot Sauce is very usable and very versatile.
It has balanced flavors with simple ingredients that do not overpower a dish, and it is mild so it can be enjoyed by everyone, even those who are not huge fans of spicy foods.
We tried this sauce on a variety of Mexican dishes, and even on foods like eggs, and hot dogs, and we thought it tasted great with all of them!
However, we think the highlight is Valentina hot sauce on salted popcorn - it is a must-try!
Not only does Valentina Hot Sauce work with a variety of dishes and cuisines, but its physical usability is very useful, too.
All bottles of Valentina Hot Sauce come with a pencil-eraser-sized spout on the lid, so it is very easy to pour out the hot sauce.
Not only that, but you can easily pour out the correct amount of hot sauce you need - you won’t find yourself accidentally pouring out too much or struggling to get any at all into the dish, as is the case with some other hot sauces.
Valentina hot sauce is orange and red in color. The bottle is yellow and has splashes of red and green, reminiscent of the Mexican flag.
You can easily identify this hot sauce among the reams and reams of them on the grocery store shelves.
Valentina Hot Sauce has been made in Mexico by the Tamazula Group for over 60 years.
It was first created by Manuel Maciel Mendez, who was moved to name the hot sauce after Valentina Ramirez Aviatia, a young girl who dressed as a man to fight in the Mexican Revolution.
Overall, we think this is a great hot sauce to have in your kitchen. It consists of simple ingredients but is still full of delicious flavors.
It perfectly balances spice, sweetness, and tanginess that results in a mild flavor suitable for the entire family, from those who do not like spicy foods to those who love feeling the heat.
Not only is this hot sauce suitable for everyone, but it is also suitable for a variety of foods.
Valentina hot sauce is very versatile, so you can eat it with anything, from classic Mexican dishes to salted popcorn.
However, one teaspoon of this hot sauce contains 3% of your daily sodium intake, so be aware of how much you are consuming.
Valentina Hot Sauce is available at a variety of grocery stores across the US at a very reasonable price point - grab yours today and thank us later!
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