F. A. Nino's is a family owned and operated artisan hot sauce producer located just a short drive down the road in Petaluma, California. They produce a variety of award winning sauces and rubs, all of which demonstrate a notable expertise in bold flavor crafting. My favorite of all their products is the PICOSO Ghost Pepper Hot Sauce. Not only did I find this to be an excellent "gateway" sauce into the "super hots", it also sets the bar as to what one can expect from a meticulously crafted balance of complex spices while still leaving room for a modest but rewarding heat factor. In short, this is an excellent sauce.

As a Ghost pepper hot sauce, and the hottest that F. A. Nino's currently produces one might presume this product to be targeted towards committed hardcore chili-heads. But I think this PICOSO hot sauce is quite a bit more approachable, which is why I consider it a "gateway" sauce. While the Bhut jolokia "Ghost" pepper is indeed extremely hot, it is featured fairly low in the PICOSO ingredient list and combined with Habanero and Chile de árbol peppers to provide a notable kick and modest burn without overwhelming the other spices and signature smoky flavor that makes this sauce especially memorable.

If I have one minor niggling point about the PICOSO Ghost Pepper Hot Sauce it is with the manner in which the Ghost pepper is factored into its marketing. The product is strategically advertised as featuring the "world's hottest chile", which in fact it does not. While the Ghost pepper held that top honor at one time it has long since been superseded by the Trinidad moruga scorpion and more recently the Carolina Reaper, a crossbred derivation of the Ghost pepper. This is a business and marketing strategy that is unfortunately common to the hot sauce industry, and many hot sauce aficionados certainly know this.

So while the subjectively moderate heat of PICOSO may not achieve the scorch factor that some heat seekers crave, the real draw of this hot sauce is its incomparably perfect blend of spices and smoky overtones, earning F. A. Nino's PICOSO Ghost Pepper Hot Sauce a spot on "My Short List" of favorites, and a permanent place in my kitchen cabinets. F. A. Nino's will tell you it goes great on beef, pork, chicken, seafood, marinades, eggs, and anything else you'd want to jazz up with hot sauce. And they're right. I'll just add that it also does wonders on a baked potato. You'll thank me.

If you want to know more about F. A. Nino's and their products as well as recipe suggestions, find them online at http://faninos.com, and on Twitter, @GodfatherSauce.

Have you tried any of F. A. Nino's products, or have recipe ideas that would go great with their PICOSO sauce? Please leave a comment below, or connect with me on Twitter, @ThePepperBarrel.