Welcome back, everyone. It’s time for another… well, this isn’t a hot sauce, but I’m putting it as part of my hot sauce reviews. This is another sauce, like the Regret sauce before, given to me by a friend (Hey there, PA! *waves*). PA is in Canada (PA is not short for Pennsylvania here. Pennsylvania is not in Canada) and when he saw my reviews of Marie Sharp’s Exotic Sauce and their Exotic Steak Sauce, thinking that it sounded a lot like the HP Sauce that he saw on his grocery shelves every week. We talked about it some and I looked in my local grocery store, but did not find HP Sauce. So, he shipped me some (along with a couple other sauces I need to review as well). That… was actually quite a while ago, but I never seemed to get around to trying it. That ends now (or, it ended about a half-hour ago), as I give this sauce a try.

So, what goes into a bottle of HP Sauce? It consists of: White vinegar, fructose-glucose, tomato puree, blackstrap molasses, dates, modified corn starch, salt, concentrated orange juice, spices, onions, tamarind extract, concentrated apple juice, garlic, mustard flour, and caramel.

I have to say, looking over the ingredients list, it doesn’t remind me much of either of the Marie Sharp’s sauces. However, it does remind me a lot of the ingredients list for A.1. Steak Sauce, which I reviewed alongside the Exotic Steak Sauce. Now, I didn’t read that ingredients list until just now as I was typing it out. I tried the sauce before that. So, keep that in mind.

Anyway, the sauce is rather liquid. It’s not watery, but it definitely does flow easily. It’s akin to a slightly runny ketchup. It came out rather readily from the bottle, but it also mostly stuck to where it ended up. The sauce smells a whole hell of a lot like A.1. Steak Sauce to me as well.

Taking a bite… so, I don’t have any A.1. with me anymore in the apartment. After I did that review of the Marie Sharp’s Exotic Steak Sauce, I chipped away at the bottle and finished it off a while ago. However, I do wish that I had some with me to do a side-by-side comparison. I have a feeling that the two would be extremely similar in the end.

But how about if you’ve never had A.1. Steak Sauce before? What’s it like? Well, it’s a very dark but also very, very sharp flavor. There’s the acid from the vinegar and the orange. It doesn’t actually taste like oranges, but it’s a very acidic sauce flavor. There’s also darkness to it from all the molasses. But I wouldn’t really go to say it’s earthy. At the very least, the bright, sharp notes from the other ingredients are so high that they drown out earthiness to me. There’s still darkness, but not necessarily earthiness, if you catch my meaning (“We don’t!” I hear everyone reply). Well… hmm… taking another couple fingerfulls of the HP sauce, I’m noticing a lot more of the sweetness as well form the dates and the apple juice. Though the orange juice is up higher on the ingredients list, I mentioned how I don’t really taste orange, but I do definitely taste apple. On its own, it’s very apple-centric. After the first sharp wave goes by, it does mellow out into sweet, apple notes (I’m sure the dates fit into that as well). So, yeah, sharp notes from the acid give way to sweet apple notes, all underscored by a darkness of molasses and caramel.

An interesting thing was the residual heat that I had in my mouth when I was done. I knew that this wasn’t a hot sauce, but just a regular sauce. As such, I definitely wasn’t shy in my application of it on my chicken, as usual. But while I wasn’t expecting any heat at all, I was surprised to find that there definitely was some in my mouth. I’m guessing that’s all coming from the mustard flour (which I assume is just mustard powder by another name), maybe being bolstered by the sulfurous nature of the molasses and the acid from the vinegar and citrus. There’s some actual heat in this sauce. It’s below any off-the-shelf hot sauce, but at least with how much I used on my chicken, I’d put it in the same range as something like the Gulden’s Spicy Brown Mustard that I love to use as well. So note: this sauce has some kick to it. If you’re expecting no heat at all, you will be surprised.

All in all, this was an interesting experience. I was expecting it to taste like one thing and it ended up tasting like another. As I typed above, I wish I had some A.1. on-hand to actually try them back-to-back. But I’ve had A.1. a decent amount over the years, and had some just not long ago, and very few things I’ve ever tasted have tasted like it. So, when something comes along that makes me think of it, it stands out. And that’s what this HP Sauce did for me. I should note that A.1. is made by Kraft, which also makes HP Sauce. Just sayin’.

Suggested dishes: Well, I’d use it the same way I’d use A.1. I’d put a bit on a burger. I might dip a few bites of steak into it. It’s a very powerful sauce and they say it’s good for marinading beef, and I would agree with that, though I’ve never really done it. Probably wouldn’t take that long. Just a couple hours on some thinly-sliced steak. Fry that up hot and fast. Serve. Rather straightforward.

HP Sauce should be something you can pick up at your grocery store. At least, if you’re in Canada you should be able to. You might be able to find it down at your local shop, but I have a feeling it’ll be the bigger shops that’ll have it instead of the littler ones.

And, of course, thanks to PA for sending this from the far-off Great White North of Canada.