Goya Sazon Liquido

If your local supermarket sells Goya's Sazon Liquido, you won't be able to miss it. Packaged in a tall plastic bottle with a long squeeze nozzle, it towers above the other seasoning and hot sauces on the shelf. Because I enjoy a variety of different hot sauces and seasoning blends in my cooking, Sazon Liquido immediately caught my eye - I'd never seen it before, and figured it might be a new product. Also, the "HOT - PICANTE" label sparked my curiosity, so I picked a bottle up.

The ingredients list includes tomatoes, green and red chile peppers, dehydrated jalapeno peppers, salt, MSG, and some spices - pretty standard fare for a seasoning and hot sauce.

Unfortunately, the only flavor element that comes through is salt. A lot of salt. And, despite the label, not a single bit of heat.

I was hoping that it would be like Goya's answer to Salsa Lizano (a not-very-hot but extremely flavorful sauce/seasoning made with spices, peppers, and pureed vegetables) but unfortunately the Goya product can't hold a candle to the richer-flavored Salsa Lizano.

I'm probably missing the point of Sazon Liquido; I thought the vegetables and aromatics in it would make it more versatile, but to me it just tastes like liquid salt, and I just don't have an application for it in my kitchen. I ended up giving the bottle to an Hispanic friend at work. She'd never heard of it either, but told me she'd probably use it instead of salt in stewed dishes like her fricase.
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