A Cuban hot sauce starts from mojo criollo, the sour orange and garlic marinade of Cuban cooking, instead of from vinegar. That one choice changes everything about how it tastes: citrus and garlic first, then the pepper.
Mojo criollo is sour orange, garlic, oregano, and cumin, the marinade that goes on lechón asado and boiled yuca. Mojo came to Cuba from the Canary Islands and became the flavor at the center of the cuisine. Barbaro Mojo uses that marinade as the base of every sauce, which is why the sauces taste like Cuban food rather than like the vinegar-forward hot sauces most Americans grew up with. There is some vinegar in the bottle, but it is not the flavor. Mojo vs hot sauce, explained.
The five sauces sit on the Barbaro Mojo Cuban heat scale, 1 to 10: Jalabáo™ 3 (jalapeño and green bell pepper), Piñazo™ 6 (pineapple and Carolina Reaper), Best Day Ever™ 8 (mango and habanero), El Havanero™ 9 (habanero and tomato), and Matanza™ 10 (habanero and Carolina Reaper, lab-tested at about 6,500 Scoville heat units). El Havanero™ belongs on slow-roasted pork; Best Day Ever™ puts sweet mango heat on seafood and wings. Independent lab results for all five are on the Scoville results page.
Try Piñazo™ on grilled plantains, Jalabáo™ stirred into Cuban black beans, and El Havanero™ on a pan con bistec. For the long version, read What is Cuban hot sauce? on barbaromojo.com, and see the pairing guide for every dish.
It can be anything from mild to extreme. Barbaro Mojo runs from Jalabáo at 3 out of 10 to Matanza at 10; the difference from other hot sauces is the mojo base, not the heat level.
The Cuban marinade of sour orange (naranja agria), garlic, oregano, and cumin that goes on lechón, yuca, and pork. Mojo came to Cuba from the Canary Islands and became the flavor at the center of Cuban cooking.
It is a 10 of 10 on the Barbaro Mojo Cuban heat scale and lab-tested at about 6,500 Scoville heat units, made with habanero and Carolina Reaper. Hot for a table sauce, but nowhere near the million-plus SHU of extract sauces, because there are no extracts in it.