And now for the main sauce that I had with lunch today as I delve into yet another sauce review. As my mouth continues to try and cool down from the Widow Maker, it’s time to type up another review for one of Marie Sharp’s fine sauces. I’m continuing my look at her fruit-based sauces with her Pure Mango sauce. Let’s get to it.

A lot of hot sauces will use fruit as a balance to all the hot peppers within. Heat and sweet actually play really well together, as anyone that’s added cayenne to their brownies or hot cocoa would know. The sweet knocks the edge off the heat and the heat elevates the flavor and cuts through the sweet. This isn’t even my first mango-based hot sauce I’ve done. In fact, the other sauce, besides Marie Sharp’s original, brought back from Belize by my friend was a mango-based sauce. Though that one was just sweet on top of sweet on top of sweet. Will Marie Sharp’s go the same way?

I want to start off by saying that I love mangoes. I’ve been known to just peel one and eat the thing whole as dinner. They’re a very sweet fruit with a high sugar content. They also can have a bit of a peppery bite towards the skin. It’s a bit groovy. If you’ve never put a little cracked black pepper on an apple pie before, try it out sometime. You’ll (hopefully) thank me. And, as always for Marie Sharp’s sauces, if it’s what’s featured in the sauce, it’s going to be front-and-center in the ingredients, coming in at #1 on the label.

After the mango puree, we get a bit of an interesting order, with garlic and onion coming in before the yellow habaneros. So, being a bit down the list (instead of being, say, 2nd after the mango), this sauce will probably be a bit more mellow. I should note that it’s yellow habanero pepper mash, which is a mix of peppers and vinegar. Regular vinegar is just next on the list. So, probably not a whole lot just on its own. We finish with lime juice and salt, because everything needs a touch of salt.

Smelling the sauce, it’s got an interesting bouquet. I definitely get the sweet of the mango, along with maybe small hints of the garlic along for the ride. It doesn’t smell like vinegar, which as you all know, is a thing I always hope for in these sauces.

Like many other Marie Sharp’s sauces, this is about as thick as loose apple sauce, but I’d say it’s a touch thicker than the Green Habanero sauce from yesterday. There is a plastic stopper on the top of the bottle. Not sure it’s entirely necessary, but it can stay for now, even though it did take a bit of dedicated shaking to get the sauce on the wings.

As it warmed up, I could smell the sweetness of the mango. But it didn’t smell overly-sweet. That was my big problem with the Hot Mama’s from above. That wasn’t a hot sauce with mango. It was a mango sauce with… well… no heat at all.

That’s not what we have here. This sauce is sweet, but it’s not tooth-achingly so. I’m guessing it’s the onion and garlic that really round out the flavors the most. It gives it a bit of a savory start, a sweet middle, and then a savory finish again. I can certainly dig it.

In terms of heat, it’s not overly-hot. I’d say it’s milder than the Green Habanero from yesterday and definitely milder than, say, the Pineapple sauce from a couple weeks back. But there is still a little heat to it. Now that my tongue’s stopped being hot from the Widow Maker, I’ve had a few more finger-fulls of the Mango Sauce to refresh my memory as I type this, and after about 3-4, there’s a warm patch on the middle of my tongue. But, if you’re worried that you’ll be blown away by heat, that’s not what will happen here.

Overall, I like this sauce. It’s maybe not a favorite from Marie, but considering how high a bar that is, there’s no way every sauce could really attain that. However, it’s a perfectly fine sauce. I enjoyed my wings I had and was glad for them as I ate my way closer to what I knew would be a harrowing experience at the end.

Suggested dishes: it was really good on the wings, I must say, and actually really good when they were dipped in blue cheese dressing as well. Mango plays well with fish and pork, so I would try it there as well. A dash or two into a ceviche would probably add a lot to that particular party. Or perhaps as a pork marinade (mango does well as a marinade). Or, hell, if you have some grilled mango, put some on there. You know those flavors would mesh well.

If you’re in the States and want to give this sauce a try, you can find it on the Marie Sharp’s US site here: https://mariesharpsusa.com/collections/marie-sharps-pepper-sauces/products/mango-habanero-sauce

If you’re outside the US, you can find all of the fine Marie Sharp’s worldwide distributors here: https://www.mariesharps.bz/distributors/