Byron Bay Chilli Co Green Jalapeño Chilli Sauce with Coriander Review

The aroma had me expecting Mexican food

This was probably the most interesting part of my first impression.

Before studying the ingredient list too closely, I smelled the sauce and tried to identify what my nose was telling me rather than looking at the label for clues.

My immediate thought was cumin.

I need to be clear here: I’m not saying this sauce contains cumin. The ingredient list simply says “spices”, so unless Byron Bay Chilli Co tells us exactly what’s included in that blend, there’s no way of knowing whether cumin is actually there.

But that’s what I smell.

There is an unmistakable Mexican-style aroma to this sauce. It reminds me of taco sauce or a Mexican salsa, and if you’d handed me a spoonful and allowed me to smell it without tasting it, that’s roughly where I’d expect the flavour to go.

Then you put it in your mouth.

And it goes somewhere quite different.

What does Byron Bay Green Jalapeño Chilli Sauce taste like?

The first thing I get is sour pickled jalapeño and vinegar.

And for my palate, it’s overpowering.

There’s no particularly gentle introduction before the other flavours arrive. I get an immediate sharp hit of acidity that reminds me strongly of the sliced pickled jalapeños you can buy in a jar.

That’s particularly surprising because the aroma had prepared me for something closer to a Mexican-style salsa.

Once that initial vinegar hit settles down, however, I start finding some of the other ingredients.

The familiar jalapeño heat makes an appearance, but it’s more of a quick little jab than a punch. You notice it, and then it fades relatively quickly.

Behind that I picked up some fruitiness, followed by a very slight hint of coconut towards the back of the flavour.

Interestingly, I identified both the fruitiness and coconut during the tasting before paying much attention to the ingredient list. Mango and coconut are both actually listed on the bottle.

They’re there.

The problem for me is that I have to get through that initial vinegar hit before I can really appreciate them.

I’d personally like the mango, coconut, spices and natural green jalapeño character to have a little more opportunity to come forward before the acidity takes control.

But that’s my palate.

Someone who loves pickled jalapeños, sharp vinegar and sour flavours may read everything I’ve just written and think it sounds fantastic.

And that’s completely fair. Taste is subjective, and the purpose of this review isn’t to tell you what you’re supposed to like. It’s to describe as accurately as I can what I experienced when I tasted it.

What about the coriander?

I originally thought coriander might be the ingredient that divided people.

Coriander is one of those herbs people seem to either love or hate, and with “with Coriander” printed prominently on the front of the bottle, I expected it to play a significant role in the flavour.

It turned out not to be the problem at all.

My wife doesn’t particularly like coriander, so I asked her to taste the sauce without telling her what I thought beforehand.

Her immediate reaction wasn’t to the coriander. It was the vinegar.

In fact, she said she couldn’t really taste the coriander.

I found much the same thing. Despite coriander accounting for 4% of the ingredients and earning a place in the product’s name, it doesn’t dominate the sauce for me.

So if you’re looking at the bottle and thinking, “I don’t like coriander, so I’m not touching that,” I wouldn’t necessarily dismiss it on that basis alone.

The family taste test

I actually delayed finishing this review because I wanted my kids to try the sauce.

There’s a reason for that. They generally enjoy pickles and sour foods, so I wondered whether my reaction to the vinegar was simply a matter of personal preference and whether they might love the very characteristic I wasn’t enjoying.

Again, I didn’t tell them what I thought beforehand.

None of them particularly liked it.

More importantly, the chilli wasn’t what bothered them. Their reaction was to the pickle and vinegar flavour.

I’m obviously not presenting my family as a scientific tasting panel. They’re simply additional opinions, and plenty of people will undoubtedly have the opposite reaction.

But it reinforced my own conclusion that the sharp pickled character, rather than the chilli heat or coriander, is the defining feature of this sauce.

How hot is Byron Bay Green Jalapeño Chilli Sauce?

Byron Bay Chilli Co labels this sauce as Medium.

For an experienced chilli eater, I’d put the actual heat considerably towards the mild end of the spectrum.

After the initial vinegar hit, the jalapeño gives you a little jab. You know the chilli is there, and then the heat fades fairly quickly.

That’s actually what I’d expect from a green jalapeño-based sauce. It doesn’t feel as though someone has tried to make a naturally mild chilli into something it isn’t.

Everyone has a different tolerance, but if you’re someone who normally avoids chilli sauce because you’re worried about excessive heat, I wouldn’t let the word “jalapeño” scare you away from this one.

For me, the vinegar packs considerably more punch than the capsaicin.

Heat: 2/10

Putting it to the food test: fried prawn cutlets

I don’t think it’s fair to judge a chilli sauce entirely from a spoon. A condiment is ultimately designed to be eaten with food, and sometimes a flavour that seems too strong on its own suddenly makes sense when it’s paired with the right dish.

For this test I chose fried crumbed prawn cutlets.

There was some thought behind that choice.

Seafood is a natural match for flavours such as lime, coriander and chilli, while the acidity in the sauce should help cut through the richness of the fried crumb. The slight sweetness of the prawns also gave the sharper flavours something to work against.

On paper, it looked like a very good pairing.

My first test was simple: sauce applied directly to the fried prawn.

Unfortunately, the vinegar was still too dominant for my palate.

The crispy coating and natural sweetness of the prawn helped, but they weren’t enough to calm that initial sour, pickled-jalapeño hit. I was still noticing the vinegar before everything else.

So I tried something different.

Mix it with mayonnaise

This is where things changed.

I mixed the Green Jalapeño Chilli Sauce approximately 50/50 with mayonnaise and used it as a dipping sauce for the prawns.

For me, this worked considerably better.

The mayonnaise softened the initial acidic hit without completely hiding the character of the sauce. I could still taste the jalapeño and get that little jab of chilli heat, but the vinegar was no longer dominating every mouthful.

Suddenly the sauce felt much more at home with the fried seafood.

The 50/50 mixture isn’t intended as a strict recipe. It’s simply the ratio I tested and enjoyed. If you love sharp vinegar and pickled jalapeño flavours, you could increase the amount of chilli sauce. If you want something milder and creamier, use more mayonnaise.

That’s probably one of the biggest things I took away from this review: you don’t necessarily have to use this product straight from the bottle.

For my tastes, using it as an ingredient opened up considerably more possibilities.

A dipping sauce for a seafood basket

I could easily see the jalapeño mayonnaise working alongside a big seafood basket loaded with fried prawns, calamari, battered fish, scallops and chips.

That’s a situation where the acidity has a job to do. It helps cut through the richness of the fried food, while the mayonnaise brings the intensity back into balance.

I also think the same mixture could work extremely well on a crumbed fish burger with lettuce and onion, or as a sauce for fish tacos.

Where else could this sauce work?

Although this isn’t a sauce I’d personally lather over a dish, there are several other foods where I think its sharp flavour could become an advantage when used sparingly.

Tacos and Mexican food

Given the Mexican-style aroma I noticed when I first opened the bottle, tacos are an obvious possibility.

I’d be particularly interested in trying it with fish tacos, where the jalapeño, lime, coriander and acidity all make sense. Again, I’d probably use it sparingly or mix it into something creamy rather than pouring it heavily over the top.

A loaded steak sandwich

This might sound like an unusual choice, but I think it has potential.

Think of a proper loaded steak sandwich with steak, bacon, fried egg, cheese, beetroot, tomato and lettuce. There is plenty of richness there for the acidity to cut through, and that pickled-jalapeño character could almost perform the job of a pickle or relish.

I wouldn’t drown the sandwich in it, but a small amount — particularly mixed with mayonnaise — could work surprisingly well.

Could it be the secret ingredient in salsa verde?

This is probably the experiment I’d most like to try next.

If I were putting together a Mexican night and making a fresh salsa verde, I’d be tempted to add a small amount of this sauce to the mix.

A salsa verde built around tomatillo and fresh ingredients could provide the freshness and body, while a splash of the Byron Bay sauce could contribute jalapeño, acidity, spices and a little extra heat.

Rather than being the dominant flavour, it could become the X-factor.

That little secret ingredient nobody can quite identify, but which has everyone coming back for another scoop.

And that’s where I think this sauce may have more potential for me personally: not necessarily as something I pour heavily over food, but as a distinctive ingredient that can add acidity, jalapeño flavour and gentle heat to something else.

Flavour: 4/10

This is probably the most difficult score to give because flavour is so subjective.

For my palate, the initial vinegar and sour pickled-jalapeño character is simply too dominant.

There are some genuinely interesting flavours underneath it. I can pick up the jalapeño, some fruitiness from the mango, a slight hint of coconut and that Mexican-style spice aroma I noticed before tasting it.

I just wish those flavours had more opportunity to come forward before the vinegar takes control.

That’s why I’ve settled on 4/10 for flavour.

I don’t want that score to be interpreted as me saying this is a badly made sauce. It isn’t. The colour is impressive, the consistency is good, there are plenty of visible ingredients and it certainly has its own distinctive character.

It just isn’t a flavour profile that particularly suits me.

If you love the sharp tang of pickled jalapeños and vinegary foods, you may taste exactly the same things I tasted and rate it considerably higher.

Flavour: 4/10

Heat: 2/10

Despite being labelled Medium, I found the actual chilli heat quite mild.

There’s a recognisable jalapeño jab after the initial acidity, but it doesn’t hang around for long and there’s no aggressive burn building in the background.

For experienced chilli eaters, this should be very approachable. Even people who don’t normally chase hot food shouldn’t be too intimidated by the heat level.

Heat: 2/10

Value: 7/10

At the time of this review, Byron Bay Chilli Co lists a 250 mL bottle for $5.50 through its own website.

At that price, I think 7/10 for value is fair.

My flavour score and value score are deliberately separate. Just because a particular flavour profile doesn’t suit my palate doesn’t automatically make the product poor value.

For $5.50 you’re getting a distinctive chilli sauce with 18% jalapeño chillies, another 3% green chillies and ingredients including mango, coriander, coconut and lime juice.

I also discovered that a little can go a long way when it’s mixed through mayonnaise or used as an ingredient rather than poured heavily over food.

Someone who loves pickled jalapeño flavours could obviously get considerably more enjoyment from the same $5.50 bottle than I did.

Value: 7/10

Final verdict

Byron Bay Chilli Co Green Jalapeño Chilli Sauce with Coriander wasn’t a sauce that immediately worked for me.

The aroma had me expecting something resembling a Mexican-style taco sauce or salsa, but the first taste went in a very different direction. That immediate hit of vinegar and sour pickled jalapeño dominated my first tasting, and it continued to dominate when I tried the sauce directly on fried prawns.

But that’s not quite where the story ended.

Mixing it 50/50 with mayonnaise transformed it into a dipping sauce I genuinely enjoyed with the fried prawns. That experiment also opened up plenty of other possibilities — a fried seafood basket, fish burgers, tacos, a loaded steak sandwich or even a small amount mixed through a fresh salsa verde.

So while I wouldn’t personally reach for this bottle to lather over a meal, I can certainly find uses for it.

More importantly, I think this is a sauce where personal taste is going to make an enormous difference.

If you dislike strong vinegar and pickled flavours, you may have a similar reaction to mine.

But if you’re the person who opens a jar of pickled jalapeños and thinks the sharper and more sour the better, don’t let my 4/10 flavour score make the decision for you.

You might taste exactly what I tasted — and love it.

Final scores:
Flavour: 4/10
Heat: 2/10
Value: 7/10