Why You Can Trust CNET I Controlled My Fear and Tried the New Star Wars Dark Side Hot Sauce by Truff
Truff promises the "hottest sauce yet" with this Star Wars collab, but the concoction falls short of being the ultimate power in the galaxy.
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One of my favorite things about being a Star Wars fan these days is the food. There are tons of options -- from the vast collection of spacey recipes you can find in theme cookbooks to the vaguely alien delights available to fans who visit Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge in Disney's theme parks (alas, the Galactic Starcruiser hotel is now closed, taking with it its cosmic comestibles). It's fun to mess with colors and textures and flavors in ways I hadn't considered before as an enthusiastic home cook.
When Truff announced it was making a Dark Side-themed hot sauce featuring the big man in black himself, I knew I had to give it a try.
Truff gets big points for packaging. The blacked-out glass bottle inside the giant themed box looks great, and it very quickly made me feel like I was in for something special. Text on the side reveals this is a ghost pepper and winter truffle mix, which Truff calls "inspired by the Sith." Because the box is sealed, there's no safety seal on the lid, but Truff says this is shelf-stable for two years. Twist off Darth Vader's head to reveal a dark red sauce in a bottle that's basically the same size as most other bottles of Truff.
There's no putting it off any longer, it's time to give this a try. Today's lunch was a beef and lamb gyro I made at home, with some fire-roasted veggies on the side, and I put a healthy dollop of Dark Side on both.
In case there was any doubt, I used quite a bit of sauce in my testing.
As hot sauces go, this is what I'd call slightly above average. As with all Truff sauces, the truffle flavor hits your tongue first. It's not as intensely truffle as some of their other sauces, but there's no denying the flavor is immediately present. The heat takes a second or two to register on the tongue, and continues to build for another second or two as you chew. If you were expecting the powers of the Dark Side to completely destroy your tongue, this is not the bottle you are looking for. I'd compare this level of heat to an average jar of chili crisp you'd find in an American grocery store, or the Garlic Peri-Peri sauce from Nando's. Maybe this sauce represents Vader just after he tossed Emperor Palpatine over that railing?
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Truff has partnered with IGN to make this Dark Side hot sauce available starting April 24 for $40, and the company promises to start selling the sauce on its own site starting May 1. If your goal is to add a nice collectible bottle to your shelf and show off that you've got a little Dark Side in you, this is a solid option. If you're looking for a hot sauce from Truff that's slightly hotter than its previous offerings, this is absolutely that. But if you were under the impression this was going to wreck your mouth in ways that would leave you feeling the same way Vader looks under that helmet, this is likely not for you.