Innestyle Sauce - Double Garlic product reviews

Tomato based sauces are a big hit in my house. I cannot eat raw tomatoes because of the acid in them, but absolutely love the flavour so we often indulge in meals such as bolognese, lasagne and nachos. On this particular night we were having bolognese.

Taking out our packet of Innestyle Sauce Co. Double Garlic sauce I decided to have a read of the packet. I do like to read the labels so that I am aware of the levels of particular nutrients I am putting in my body, specifically sugar. Unfortunately for me, this packet has no nutritional information included on it at all. In fact the label is pretty simple and lists the ingredients, food allergen info, their address and the best before date and batch number.

Opening the pouch the smell of the sauce hit me. I wasn't quite sure what it was I was smelling - maybe it was the red wine, possibly a bit of vinegar, but whatever it was it was quite strong. There was a subtle hint of herbs and an ever so slight smell of garlic, but certainly not as much as I expected being double garlic. At this point I did question whether I would actually use the sauce, something in the smell I wasn't so keen on, but decided to give it a shot anyway so that I could give it a fair review. I tipped half of the packet of sauce in with our mince and stirred it all in. After it had simmered for a couple of minutes I gave it a try. Something certainly was too strong and I didn't find it all that pleasant. Thinking quickly I decided to get out a tin of diced tomatoes to add to the pot. I mixed them in, let it simmer for a little bit before dishing it up, placing a little bit of parmesan cheese on top.

I was quite surprised when I sat down to eat it. The tin of tomatoes certainly helped to dull down the flavour for me a little bit and it was quite enjoyable. There was a nice mix of herbs in it, although I still struggle to pick how it can be called double garlic. I use a lot of garlic in my cooking as I love the flavour of it, and this sauce had a lot less than what I would usually use. Despite this, it was a nice flavour and I ended up enjoying the meal. My husband also quite enjoyed it, finishing up every scrap that was on his plate.

I do think that this sauce could be used for multiple purposes, and as I have another half of a packet left I will have to give it a shot with something else. I did think the cost of it was quite high at $10 for the packet, but it is a premium sauce and because I have managed to make it cover two different meals it is a bit more economical. We had left overs from our bolognese as well, so it didn't feed just the two of us but would have stretched to 3 or 4 adults.

I am a major garlic lover, I add it to every meal where possible, so I was drooling at the idea of reviewing this double garlic sauce. When it arrived I was pleased to see that the pouch is resealable, which, of course, means that if you don't use it all in one go, you have no fear of it going off before you use the rest up. The front label is nice and suits the homemade feel of this product, however I was really dissapointed that there was no list of ingredients on the back (especially when it comes to allergens, diet or simply having an idea on how spicy it might be).


Upon opening it, I could instantly tell that red wine was a key ingredient, something my mother agreed with when handed her dinner, and strong enough that even the ten year old was able to smell that out. I couldn't smell any garlic but I have had some sauces where it wasn't tasted till eating, so I reserved my opinion till I sat down to eat the pasta and vege I had made. The five of us who ate this all agreed it was spicy, very very spicy. Between the red wine and the spice I found I couldn't pinpoint even a tiny taste of garlic, a bit of a dissapointment for me. We all finished our meal but none of us were interested in having this again.


I am aware that this is batch made, so discrepancies can occur, but we found this far less garlic and much more chilli. I may try this again, see how a different batch does, but currently in no hurry.

I was given this sauce to review and was super excited to try it out, deciding it would be timely to make a huge lasagne (a favourite in this household) and use this sauce in with the meat portion. Reading the ingredients, I realised that everything was there that I might add to a good quality lasagne and so I could keep it pretty simple from my end. I did however decide to add extra onions even though there are some in the sauce as I like to have them in big noticeable pieces, but I didn't bother adding garlic and I found I didn't need any herbs or other seasonings either.

I cooked off the onions, then mince and added the Innestyle sauce with a heap of grated carrot and pumpkin. I found I needed all the packet of sauce but I still felt like the mixture needed more moisture so I added a can of tomatoes (plus a little water more for the benefit of rinsing every last bit of tomato from the tin). Now it looked like the kind of consistency that we like and after cooking it through for 15 minutes but without reducing it too much, it was ready to layer up with my cheese sauce and pasta - yum!

Before adding this garlic sauce, I had a little taste test and it was delicious on it's own - so rich and complex and I could see it being used in such places as pizza bases and direct on pasta without even diluting it down like I effectively did in my lasagne. The garlic is definitely there, but not in an overpowering way - just in a super-delicious way! There is really nothing I can mark the score down on, but just being aware it's probably more pricey than the way I usually do a family friendly nachos, but I'd definitely buy this again if I could source it. If I wanted to make a good quality tomato based sauce, I'd be well over $10 after buying the red wine, tomato paste and tomato puree so it would be much better to buy this and save myself a heap of hassle.

There is something very compelling about the smell of fresh herbs starting to heat in a pan .. except that the herbs in this sauce were not freshly picked. Yet they still managed to assail my senses. What had started as a very ordinary pan of pork mince, onions and peppers sizzling nicely on a low heat was suddenly transformed to the next level as I added the sauce and it began to warm up. I could not wait to serve it - I got a spoon and tried it straight from the pan. All I could think was, move over Jamie Oliver!

The kitchen continued to give off wafts of herbs and tomato while the mixture seethed on the stove. I put some spaghetti on to cook. I resisted the urge to start singing something in Italian and confined myself to pouring some grape juice - no point in scaring the neighbours! I was getting hungry just watching the meal in progress and could not wait to check the result.

I had intended to create a very ordinary spaghetti alla bolognese, but the end result surpassed all expectations. I topped it with a mixture of parmesan cheese and mozzarella, and then it was ready. My first taste confirmed what all that anticipation had been building up to. The meal was every bit as nice as I had hoped for. The herbs were just as strong, and just as tasty. People who do not like heavily flavoured foods might find it a little overwhelming, but for me it was just right.

I had some of the meat and sauce mixture left over so I thought I would see how it went in a pie. I lined a pie tin with pastry, added a generous helping of the meat mixture, topped it with mashed potato, and cooked it Home-made pies are often much better that the bought variety as you can put plenty of filling in. I had to agree that this was just as tasty as the bolognese. Perhaps more so as the sauce had sat overnight and this had intensified the flavour.

Although the sauce is quite expensive, it goes a long way and the packet can be resealed. I used half a pack to a kilo of pork and found that was plenty. That quantity was enough for two generous servings of spaghetti and two large pies, and because it is so highly flavoured there is no extra expense for additional herbs or other seasonings. Of the three varieties I tried in this range, this one absolutely has to be my favourite,

After having tried another of the sauces from the Innestyle Sauce Co I was excited to try this one, as the last one was absolutely delicious and so I was really hoping that this Double Garlic Sauce would be the same. I often try to add a lot of garlic to my meals, especially those that consist of mince and/or pasta, and more importantly so during the Winter months where coughs and colds are in full abundance.

The sauce comes in a clear plastic pouch with a bright and eye-catching label that tells you exactly what the product is- Double Garlic Sauce. I love that the pouch is resealable as 500mls does seem a considerable amount of sauce and this much would last me over a couple of dishes, so being able to reseal it is a real help. Looking through the pouch you can see that the sauce is of a really high quality, it is a rich, deep red colour and you can see a large amount of herbs throughout the entire sauce. The only thing I found a bit odd is that the pouch does not have a list of ingredients on it, which is something I feel would be of importance especially for those who have to cater for people with allergies.

I decided to first use this sauce in nachos, after browning some beef mince I added almost half of the pouch of sauce to it and stirred it through until heated. This is when I gave it a small taste test, as usually after adding a tomato based sauce I find the flavours are still a bit bland and need more flavours added, however much to my surprise this was not the case the flavours present from this sauce were spot on, it was rich, flavoursome and full of taste, you could taste the tomatoes, the garlic, and all of the flavours from the various herbs used, the only thing that did surprise me a bit was the amount of spice it had, which could almost be a bit to much for me! However this was soon teamed up and served over a bed of cheese corn chips, and topped with a dollop of sour cream and lot's of yummy melted cheese. My partner and Miss 4 are like me and don't do spicy but there were no complaints from them as they ate their meals.

With a few more spoonfuls of the sauce I decided to make mini pizzas by spreading the sauce over the top of some pita breads, these were topped with salami, bacon, chicken, cheese and pineapple and the flavour provided when used as a pizza sauce was outstanding full of flavour, and much nicer than any pizza sauce I have purchased in the past.

As far as store bought sauces fo this is fantastic full of both flavour and colour and I actually can't find anyway to bring down it's rating so it's a definite 10/10 for me. I can see that it's not going to be long until I need another tomato based sauce to cook with and find myself needing to buy another of these pouches, I just hope I can source some when I need it.

Testing out a range of tomato-based sauces can be tough... once you have run through the gamut of uses with one, it's a bit hard to be unique but I decided to try a dish I haven't made in years - beef pasta bake. Basically, a savoury mince but "wetter" mixed with grated cheddar cheese, par-cooked pasta, all tipped into a casserole dish and topped with more cheese, then baked until the pasta has soaked up the remaining liquid. Takes maybe 20 minutes to prepare, then an hour in the over on a medium-high heat to avoid boiling all the water away before the pasta is cooked.

The results were... incredible. I normally make quite an elaborate sauce for the mince, but this time I simply up-ended the entire 500ml pouch into the browned mince and half an onion, diced... brought it up to a heavy simmer while the pasta par-boiled, then dropped the whole lot into the casserole dish and gave it a stir, dropped the cheese on top and into the over for 45 minutes.

Even fussy-eater Mr8 gobbled down a bowl full for dinner, and *ASKED* for some leftovers for lunch the next day. I swear, if Cthulhu, The Kraken and Coyote the Trickster God had knocked on the door asking if I had welcomed a supernatural saviour into my heart, I could not have been more surprised. I mean, that is some really out-there unheard-of happenings! (In case you haven't read any other reviews of mine, he's a really fussy eater and doesn't like anything remotely spicy, especially chilli and garlic.)

Overall, a wonderful sauce that makes some complicated meals suddenly simple to prepare. This sauce would be equally amazing as part of nachos too I think, because of the high garlic and mild chilli levels. Well worth a try, if you can get your mitts on some - this is batch-made so there is a limited supply and because it's getting very popular, you may sometimes come across situations where there may be a bit of a wait before the next batch is ready for sale.