Product review: Metalhead Mayo by UrbanStreatery
See my product review outlook here
I am ever so pleased to see the craze of burger sauce hitting the mainstream in the last few years.
Burger sauce a.k.a Dirty burger sauce a.k.a Special sauce has been a common condiment in burger chains and restaurants for some time, but it was just a few short years ago that if you wanted some kind of dirty burger sauce at home, you were left trying to make it for yourself - normally resorting to some varying mix of ketchup, mayo and whatever kind of BBQ spices you could find to throw in.
Thankfully, burger sauce in all sorts of varieties has very much hit the mainstream with major supermarket chains selling multiple brands of the stuff. This is a good thing. Some of them are a bit of a let down (Hellmans Burger sauce), some of them taste overly artificial (Heinz Baconnaise), but so far all that I have tasted have been better than nothing. Some of them are really quite different, sauces such as Reds Dirty Burger Sauce are really not the flavour profile you’d expect, but its still a really great sauce.
This is all to say, I am something of a Special Sauce fan, and have got through a fair range of them. Almost a special/burger sauce connoisseur, you might even say (haha, not really, but I have eaten a tonne of the stuff).
Furthermore, what this growth of burger sauces has really done, is brought the concept to the attention of the wider market and made it a bigger market for independent producers to enter (undoubtedly easier to bring a brand new product to market if you don’t need to explain to your customers what it is).
Metalhead Mayo by UrbanStreatery
I first became aware of Metalhead Mayo through the branding and promo pre-launch. I enjoy trying new, independently produced products and an absolute sucker for good branding, and Metalhead Mayo branding is spot on. As the name suggests, its reminiscent of 80s/90s skate-rock type branding (maybe thats just my take on it - but if you were ever in or around the skateboard scene in the 80s/90s chances are you are familiar with the sight of boards/clothing with rock/heavy-metal themed skulls emblazoned on them somewhere).
But it goes way beyond the branding, the sauce is spot on too. It really perfectly captures special sauce. It’s not trying to be something else, its burger sauce, and does it damn well. Its in the same vein as those classic sauces you’d be used to in burger joints and restaurants, but just done way better.
Smooth, tangy and hella moorish.
You get hit with that classic flavour we’ve come to expect, then the tang of the pickled gherkins come through for a nice kick (in a good way), followed by a nice rounded savoury flavour. This is often where some burger sauces can fall down, with a slightly odd aftertaste - sometimes down to an overuse of powdered garlic (don’t get me wrong, I use garlic powder quite a bit, but it can be over used, and has a fairly distinct taste). I have tried using pickled gherkins to get that authentic tang you want from a good burger sauce, and never got anywhere near this. There is definitely some other magic going on here!
I’m not the only one to be an early fan either, the nascent BBQ insta community also caught on and you will see lots of people raving about this one. I have been tempted to have pure Metalhead Mayo sandwiches, and I always reach for it when there are kids leftovers knocking about (I can confirm it works well with chicken dippers, turkey dinos and pizza crusts).
If you want to get yourself some, you can either hit up UrbanStreatery directly, or purchase it from SubWolfer store.