09 Jul Danny Balboa’s Juice Head Sauce
Reviewed by Greg Wagenmakers
Product: Danny Balboa’s Juice Head
Location: Coburg North, Vic
Ingredients: Grapes, Onion, Tomatillos, Habeneros, Szechwan pepper, white wine vinegar
Danny Balboa’s Juice Head Sauce with roasted red grape and habanero is really quite fragrant. It’s a welcome deviation from a typical tomato-based sauce and because of this, a whole different range of complimentary flavours are available.
I initially tasted this sauce with some savoury mince on toast and although it was and by no means did it detract from the mince, it found its place with mashed avocado on toast! The creamy fruit mixed in with the roasted and slightly tart flavours of the red grape were excellent. The heat of the habanero certainly makes itself known but the heat doesn’t stay for long, which is always welcome as it prevents me looking like a goose in front my family.
Although Juice Head isn’t a tomato-based sauce, it does contain white vinegar, which is necessary for the flavours to cut through. I honestly believe that the grape is the hero of this sauce, and righty so as it the first ingredient on the list, clearly because it is the most common ingredient. Another indication that red grape is present is that the sauce has a very slight mauve hue.
The tang from this sauce would compliment food that are cream based as the acid and the fruit is able to cleans the palette, allowing the diner to enjoy each mouthful of their meal.
For flavour, I rate this sauce a 7/10 and for heat, I give it an 8.
