When you live mere blocks from the University of Iowa campus, you quickly learn what comes with the territory. Besides the reputation of the writing department, the agricultural science opportunities, and the baskets of corn on every corner when it isn't cold out, you see that little yellow and black hawk face plastered on anything with more than a square inch of room. Sweatshirts, sweatpants, hats, glasses, beads, and creepy Leatherface-like yellow and black overalls are just some the adornments students and townies alike stumble around in day in and out in Hawkeye territory. But why stop with adornments? When I saw Iowa Hawkeye hot sauce it my local Hyvee, the black and gold in my blood boiled to fever pitch and $3 later I was at home, cracker in hand, ready to support my (by proximity) home team!
Let's look at the facts: People love big universities here. If they didn't, Hot Sauce Harry's would be out of a job. Hot Sauce Harry's figured out that plastering school logos on hot sauce might help sell their very normal, down to Earth blends. However, they have a wide array of bizarrely named hot sauces, though many sound, beyond their names, sound like a handful of batches under thousands of different labels. But they don't need to worry; hundreds of thousands of people, from students to parents to creepy alumni with frosted tips and goatees shell out money for any and everything Big U logo. That's why Hawkeye Hotsauce will always have a little market all nice-and-cozy set up (like a nest?) for it here in Iowa City. But does that make it special anywhere beyond the reach of the campus Hawkeye bubble of influence?
Good Hurts: This Louisiana hot sauce tastes like what Louisiana hot sauce should taste like, and has a little spike of heat, as Louisiana hot sauce tends to have. Using cayenne peppers will only kick so much for hot freaks, but it's more about the vinegary goodness that these traditional sauces use that makes them so iconic. Don't get this one for the heat...get it because you want at least one bottle of Louisiana hot sauce and you go to the University of Iowa.
Flavor: My first sentence about pretty much sums it up: vinegar and peppers combine for a classic flavor you'll find in any decent sub shop or diner. Better than Tabasco, but akin to a solid Trappey's Louisiana sauce. It's a hair less liqudy than some others, which is a plus for me. This is, I believe, what America came up with to counter the unique chips-and-vinegar combo from the UK; our Louisiana hot sauce adds a little kick but a vinegar saltiness for more tang and enjoyment with pretty much any type of food.
Availability: Hawkeye Hot Sauce is all over University of Iowa. But the actual Louisiana sauce they make is everywhere under a myriad of labels. This is 3000% novelty, but at least it's a solid, dependable novelty you can eat.
Good for: One of the pleasures of this hot sauce is that it's truly made for everyone and has ascended to the top of the pile of hot sauces for regular, college-lovin' folks. Even the most hardened pepper head would admit that Louisiana sauce is good for hung over mornings and black coffee, chips as a snack, burrito dinners, and pizza, warm or cold. It's pretty much just a tangier take on vinegar, after all. The consistency is just a little heavier and, therefore, more like a real sauce.
Review
Heat: *
Flavor: **1/2
My Review: 6.0/10
May this Louisiana hot sauce stand for all others until I find one significantly different, better, or more unique. The Hawks may not know it, but Hot Sauce Harry's is the bat in the proverbial Aesop war between the beasts and the birds; it plays every college with the same recipe, but isn't worth turning away from if you have school spirit and don't mind your iconic school mascot staring back at you from the shelf, always judging.
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