Elijah's Xtreme Reaper Sauce

Hello again fiery flavor fans! It's time again for us to take another journey of exploration for something new and hot to coat our tongues. This week I stumbled upon Elijah's Xtreme Reaper Sauce. The Reaper Sauce, made by Elijah's Xtreme Gourmet Sauces, is touted to be "so good you'll keep adding more". The site also claims that it's delicious on everything from pork to wings and suggests to even try it on ice cream. I think I'll leave that one on the drawing board.
Elijah's Xtreme Gourmet Sauces was born from a father and son's love of hot peppers and the mutual desire to make more flavorful, thicker, hotter sauces. Elijah began, at six years old, quite curious about pushing the hot pepper envelope by wanting to eat them. After eating a banana pepper given to him by his father, Elijah's tenacious curiosity sprang to life and evolved into exploring new and innovative ways to bring out flavors in their own custom hot sauces. Years later, in 2014, they started their own sauce company and continue to this day to offer the world their own twist on the hot sauce experience.
The label is nothing particularly noteworthy, though not faulty in any particular way either. It's just not something I'd call my mom to tell her about. A large red X is central, appearing to have a cut or ripped effect. This is presumably by the scythe that the grim reaper bears who appears to the right of the X. This image of death holds a portrayal of a Carolina Reaper in it's bony claws. On the back of the bottle is where it's announced that the condiment is all natural, vegan, and gluten free. Good news to fans with dietary restrictions!
The color is a quite dark and rich red. Sediment is apparent in the bottle after a pour but not so much in the deployed liquid. One of the reasons for this could be the thickness of the sauce. The pour is quite slow and controlled, though not the slowest in my collection. Quite a nice thickness here suggesting, perhaps, a sauce that'll stick to your bones (bones... reaper... see what I did there?).
The flavor begins very sweet, almost deceptively so. I taste the fruits, cranberries and black cherries, they put in this concoction. The fruits themselves make sense as I was to find out, then tasting savory bourbon, as the fruits listed are more savory fruits than some of their counterparts. The taste experience ends with the savory and sweet swirling together quite well and making me tip my hat to the father and son creators of our new friend here.
The heat of this is almost immaculately timed. Make no mistake: the heat is intense and burns the tongue nicely, though not too intensely. However, it doesn't really kick in until one gets to enjoy the above-mentioned flavor experience without too much interference. It doesn't kick in for a few seconds. When it does, it seems to focus on the roof of the mouth and the sides and center of the tongue, though not forgetting to leave a lip burn in the process. I did reach for some water but not with great urgency.
This is a sauce that I discovered quite by accident and I'm glad that I did. This is a great tasting sauce without a kick that is too overt as might be suggested by the containing Carolina Reaper pepper. A mix of sweet, savory, and heat that I think will go well with many foods, as predicted on the site. And at $8.95 you can't really go wrong with at least giving this one a shot. Until next time fire breathers!

Professor Phardtpounders Colon Cleaner

So every once in a while the 8-year-old in me comes to the fore in my daily life. This week's featured exploration into the inferno is an example of my inner child's appearance into plain sight. I ran across the name of this product and couldn't help myself when I giggled silently and said to myself "I gotta get this. It's hilarious!". Not my proudest moment but I'll say it here for the ridicule of my readers: The name is funny. #sorrynotsorry
Professor Phardtpounders (yes, I know it's not in possessive form. It's like that on the bottle!) Colon Cleaner is the product of Sauce Crafters Inc. This company, operating out of Riviera Beach, FL, began full service sauce production in 1989. They currently produce more than 250 different sauces ranging from mild to super hot. Colon Cleaner is placed in the hot category.
The label is cute in that it is in the form of an old time-type elixir or sham medicine label with a picture of a man with a beard and a mustache (presumably our good professor). It reads "Elixir of Capsaicin Extremus" below the black and white picture of the man. On the side of the bottle the label tells of the contents' reported effects, such as curing the common cold or making an old man remember his wife's name. General good fun.
The color is a deep yellow with fine sediment. Is has a color that one might expect from a mustard-based sauce. The sediment is nice too. The consistency is surprisingly thick and the pour quite slow and controlled. Upon deposition into the vector that brought it to my mouth, it even held it's drop shape somewhat until slowly conforming to the boundaries of the carrier.
The flavor begins with a tangy sweetness that is quickly followed by a savoriness, in part brought about by the inclusion of onion and garlic. A nice mix of spices is present along with the familiar mustard. Finally one draws the taste of the hot peppers but even this taste isn't in the fore but rather appear to accentuate the mustard as an obvious centerpiece.
The heat is present without overpowering one's palate and more importantly, to me at least, without taking away from the inherit flavor of the mixture, as many sauces do. It has an immediate front of the tongue burn that fairly quickly travels to the roof of the mouth. As one might expect, multiple samplings lead to a lip burn. This is not severe and is more of the tingle that I've grown accustomed to in hot sauces. Additionally, not of the bites are particularly long-lasting which, again, doesn't take away from the well-presented flavor profile.
At $8.99 from the Sauce Crafters website this could be considered a must-have for any collector. With it's mid-level yet enjoyable heat and fantastic flavor, I'd recommend this for my readers. Cheers and I'll be back soon with a review!

Ultimate Insanity Hot Sauce

Hello again chiliheads! This week I am finally getting around to checking out the newest iteration of an old sauce-fan favorite: Dave's Insanity Hot Sauce. I'm speaking, of course, about Ultimate Insanity Hot Sauce, made by the same company, Dave's Gourmet Specialty Foods. I was glad to find a newer version of the classic and I'll share my thoughts with you all as always.
Dave's Gourmet Specialty Foods was started by Dave Hirschkop and reportedly reflects his love of quality foods and ingredients. Dave started a taqueria is Maryland called Burrito Madness. He created the "hottest sauce in the universe" to control unruly drunks at his establishment. It had another effect in that it drove many customers to his establishment for the sauce due to its flavor and heat.
The label on this one is very light-hearted. The main illustration depicts a pepper sunbathing near a protective umbrella with a drink in reachable distance. It also proclaims to be the "hottest sauce in the universe!" (presumably hotter that the original sauce). In the circle outside the illustration that contains the words "Dave's Gourmet", the words are separated by tiny red peppers. It's fun without being too corny or silly.
The pour is very slow and controlled. This condiment is quite thick and I even had to shake the bottle slightly to encourage the contents to make an exit from the spout. The sauce is also a very dark red. There is no visible sediment but the darkness and thickness of this are pleasing to me.
In the matter of taste, there is a heavy garlic and onion flavor with a VERY slight hint of fruit, maybe a lemon lurking behind the scenes. It's quite savory and rich and I found myself exhaling vegetable flavor through my nose. A smokiness is present which could be many things but my tongue caught the suggestion of possible paprika. Don't take that to the bank though. There is also the expected tomato flavor but it's complimented well with the other ingredients and isn't overpowering like other sauces I've sampled.
When it claims to be "the hottest sauce in the universe" it may not be that far from the facts. I was IMMEDIATELY assaulted with a furnace in my mouth that had me scrambling for my water glass. sharp pains in the center of my tongue was the front line of the assault followed quickly with the roof of my mouth pulsating in warmth. The lip burn was instant. Mind you, this was not a tingling of the lips but had me soaking my lips in my water glass briefly. Also the lip burn and mouth burn persisted for a surprisingly long time. Indeed even in the after effects my top left side lip felt numb but swollen.
You may purchase this sauce for $10.99 from their site. This seems to me quite a reasonable price for a flavorful sauce but, to be honest, this sauce may not be going on much at the old homestead. The heat is on the border of painful for pain's sake.

Go Chu Jang

Hello again friends! I apologize for the lack of a review last week. It was my birthday week so I used the time to treat myself. No matter! Today we're going to do a deeper dive on Go Chu Jang sauce brought to us by Bibigo. It claims to be a "hot&sweet" sauce on the bottle so let's see how accurate that is, shall we?
Bibigo makes Korean-influenced food products found easily in groceries and restaurants. They were founded in 2010 and created by CJ, Korea's Number One Food Company. Bibigo claims that they intend to "bring modern, authentic Korean taste to your kitchen". Their site has a decent amount of recipes with which to use their products.
While the label itself isn't overly awe-inspiring, the shape of the bottle is what I found drawing me to the sauce. With a vaguely pear shape, it's fairly unique for grocery store fair. There is a depiction of a chili pepper as it's main subject with a statement declaring the sauce all purpose. The rest of the label is pretty straight-forward with the possible exceptions of the Bibigo and CJ logos towards the top.
The consistency is very pleasing to me. Think of a ketchup yet far thicker and with a deeper red color. The pour is nice and slow, controlled I might call it. It is contained in a squeeze bottle and the sauce never touched a centimeter of surface that I didn't intend.
The flavor begins with a slight sweetness that is immediately followed by salt, garlic, and onion. It's very rich and full of a fresh vegetable feel. It ends with a deep pepper flavor leading to an overall flavor experience that I found well rounded and mildly complex without seeming to try overly hard.
The punch of the sauce is not particularly striking at first. It crept on me upon my first few samplings and hit me in the back of the throat, surprising me. It doesn't linger very long and I noticed no lip burn at all. The burn becomes less harsh upon multiple samplings.
The Bibigo site doesn't appear to offer the option to purchase on the site but does have a "Find This Product in Store" feature in which you enter your area code and it will tell you where the particular product you're searching for is sold near you. On Amazon.com it's going for $4.89 at the time of this writing. That's a great price for an 11.5 ounce bottle! I plan on using this fairly often, especially for the tacos that I love to make. I think that the sweetness and small kick of a burn would match well for me there. I'm a little hesitant to use it in chili as I'm slightly averse to sweetness in that dish.
Until next time friends keep the heat alive!