Hot Sauces #12 and 13 – Tom’s Garden Man and Woman Sauces Review

Tom's Garden Man and Woman Hot SauceHi. A recent trip to one of my favorite places to buy Hot Sauce yielded these two discoveries.  They look great together — but are they any good?  Click below to see my review.


Tom’s Garden Man and Woman Sauces

On my most recent trip up to Cincinnati, I made my usual stop at Jungle Jim’s International Market to pick up a few things.  Chief among them, of course, New Hot Sauces.

As I was studying the massive collection of sauces offered, one of the Jungle Jim employees struck up a conversation with me.  During our talk (naturally it was mainly about hot sauce) he recommended I try the Tom’s Garden Sauces.  They are fairly new and made locally, in Xenia, Ohio.

I checked them out and all of this – his recommendation, the fact that they we new and that they were made locally – was more than enough for me to grab both versions.

Tom’s Garden Man and Woman Sauces


I’ll group them together to tell you about first thing that struck me with both sauces, which is the texture.  These are more salsa than sauce.  They have the “ingredients suspended in then liquid” texture of an uncooked salsa (this sounds kinda silly and it’s hard to explain.  See my photo below and you’ll understand instantly.)  This is not bad, as such.  But it does tend to make the sauce a little difficult to pour from a bottle.  You need to really shake them just before pouring and still you tend to get more thin liquid.  This has made the sauces “drier” as I have gotten closer to the bottom of both bottles and much harder to pour. Even though it is nontraditional, these might work better in a jar.

Tom’s Garden Woman Sauce

The Woman Sauce starts sweet and heats up just a bit.  I has a wonderful, fresh jalapeno flavor that doesn’t overwhelm the food or your tongue. The vinegar is just enough to make it interesting and doesn’t overpower the other flavors.

This is one of those sauces that enhances the flavor of your food with the jalapenos, garlic and onions and I think would work well on most savory foods.

Tom’s Garden Man Sauce

A quick glance at the ingredients will show you that, except for the peppers, these two sauces are basically the same (Maybe “exactly” — but since the last ingredient listed is “spices”, I have no way of knowing for sure.)

So this sauce tastes a lot like a much hotter version of the Woman’s Sauce…except not quite as good somehow.  I don’t think the habs (or those mysterious “spices”) bring as much flavor to the party as the Jalapenos do. It seems like you took the Woman Sauce, removed 1/2 the flavor and added 5 times the heat.

Having said that, it’s still a good sauce and everything I said for the Woman Sauce would apply here as well.

I tried both sauces on a spoon, on chips and then on a store-bought burrito with sour cream.

Tom's Garden Man and Woman Hot Sauce on a Burrito

In all cases I liked the Woman Sauce better.  (Go ahead and insert any joke you want here. When you are done, remember that they are only names. 😉 )

UPDATE – I saw Tom at his booth at the Weekend of Fire 2014.  I stopped to talk a bit and mentioned that I liked the Woman Sauce better.  He said that he hears that from about 90% of his customers and his sales also show it.

So I recommend picking up a bottle of each whenever you see them. I don’t think you will be disappointed with either one.

Tom’s Garden Man Sauce

My Ratings:

Taste: ★★☆☆☆  — Heat Level: ★★★☆☆  — Usability: ★★★★☆ 

Information:

Ingredients: Habanero peppers, vinegar, water, onions, garlic and spices

Tom’s Garden Woman Sauce

My Ratings:

Taste: ★★★★☆  — Heat Level: ★☆☆☆☆  — Usability: ★★★★☆ 

Information:

Ingredients: Jalapeno peppers, vinegar, water, onions, garlic and spices

Where I got them both:  Jungle Jim’s International Market, Cincinnati, OH

Their Website:  http://www.toms-garden.com/

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