Pain Is Good hot sauce has recently become a popular brand among hot sauce aficionados, as the hot sauce is delicious on kebabs and chicken and comes with a distinctive and rich flavor.
This habanero sauce originates from the hustle and bustle of Kansas City, where it is produced by the Spicin Food company.
Promising to pack vast amounts of flavor into only a small bottle, Pain Is Good is somewhat unique among other hot sauces due to its mustard base, and the inclusion of carrots and garlic in the recipe.
With Spicin Food now dominating the hot sauce market with their various mixtures, we thought it was about time to take a detailed look at one of their more traditional recipes.
So let’s discover if Pain Is Good hot sauce is all that it promises to be in our in-depth review down below!
First produced by Spicin Foods, Pain Is Good hot sauce does pack a powerful punch to the taste buds. However, this does not mean it’s the hottest sauce on the market, or even the most painful sauce to consume - despite its clever name.
When comparing Pain Is Good to more notoriously powerful hot sauces, like Da Bomb and Brain Burner, you may find that Pain Is Good takes on a milder and more intentionally delicious taste.
This is because the hot sauce uses mustard and habanero peppers as the basis of its recipe - to help create its signature heat. When blended these flavors can give the sauce a more fruity note, which makes it more enjoyable than eye-watering.
Although mustard-based hot sauces are not necessarily unique among the hot sauce world, they do fall more into a niche sub-genre of the popular condiment.
This is a shame, as a hot sauce that utilizes mustard as a key ingredient is often more savoury and delicious than it is fiery and unpleasant to eat.
Overall, Pain Is Good hot sauce packs a lot of flavor into a very small portion, and one taste will have you detecting powerful notes of garlic, mustard, vinegar, habanero and carrot.
Although the sauce can be considered on the hot side, we doubt you’ll see it in any hot sauce challenges.
By using habanero peppers, Pain is Good delivers the heat needed for a good hot sauce, but it seems the sauce chooses to value flavor over fire, which is always a good thing!
What Are The Ingredients?
As previously mentioned, Pain Is Good hot sauce is somewhat unique in the ingredients it includes in its recipe - helping to make a hot sauce with a very distinctive and rich flavor.
For the recipe, it seems that Spicin Food decided to step away from their more experimental mixtures to create something traditional and flavorful.
Of course, the key ingredient in this particular sauce is the habanero peppers, which hold a dominant role in the overall recipe.
By using habanero peppers as the primary source of the sauce’s heat - Spicin Food has been able to create a sauce that delivers a slightly fruity punch along with its signature fiery kick.
The next most significant ingredient in the recipe is mustard, which has been added to the sauce to help heighten the flavor and heat of the peppers.
Using mustard as a heat source can help the sauce to take on a more aromatic and decidedly mustardy flavor, which is very true of this particular brand.
When sampling Pain is Good for the first time, you may be struck by the strong notes of mustard that will come through with the spice of the habaneros.
The final ingredient that has been added to the recipe is arguably the most strange and questionable, as the hot sauce also uses carrots to create its delicious taste.
By nature, carrots are a sweet root vegetable that are often used when cooking soups, stews and even cakes.
However, adding carrots to a hot sauce can allow the vegetables to cut through the heat with their natural earthy tones, which will help to make the sauce’s more fiery notes more subtle and enjoyable.
What Is The Consistency Like?
Pain Is Good takes on a vibrant orange-red hue that could be compared as being similar to sauces like Tabasco. However, it is the consistency of the sauce that makes it so distinctive.
Most hot sauces that use vinegar will often take on a thin and even watery consistency, which makes them great for pouring but sometimes too runny to be enjoyable.
Because Pain Is Good uses such dense ingredients in its recipe, the sauce actually takes on a thicker and less runny consistency, which pours easily but not too quickly.
The sauce also features a distinctly smooth texture, which makes it perfect for putting on meals and snacks. Because the sauce comes with such a strong mustard flavor, it could actually be used as a more fruity and flavorful alternative to the classic yellow condiment.
We would actually recommend this sauce to anyone who enjoys mustard but wishes it offered a little more in terms of texture and taste.
Is ‘Pain Is Good’ Worth It?
We wouldn’t say our review is entirely positive, but nor is it completely negative. The benefits of this sauce come down to your tastes and preferences. If you want a hot sauce that packs the heat but also comes loaded with a variety of different flavors, then this is the sauce you’ve been looking for.
Although we may not recommend the sauce to hardcore hot sauce lovers, it remains a delicious and well-made sauce that can add a lot of flavor to any bland meal.
So the next time you are making a sandwich or cooking up some chicken, maybe you should have a bottle of this sauce ready to hand.
