Showing posts with label spice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spice. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 3, 2019

Cayenne Habanero Sauce

I picked up a sauce via online shopping called simply Cayenne Habanero Sauce made by All Spice Cafe. All Spice Cafe is a company out of Downers Grove, IL that has won awards for their sauces from the Scovie Awards and the Fiery Food Challenge, among others.The company started when JD Cowles was convinced to bottle his Buffalo wing sauce that he had been, up until the decision was made to start the company, made within his home. There was one outdated claim on their site, however: they state that the ghost pepper (Bhut Jolokia) is the hottest pepper in the world. This has not been true since the Carolina Reaper gained that title in 2013. On a good vibe, they have quite a few recipes on the site with which to cook their products. I think that's nice.
I love the label as it is a version of the famous photo of Albert Einstein sticking his tongue out but with peppers in place of his facial hair. I've really liked this photo since I was very young and my dad showed it to me. The font isn't mind blowing and a little irksome, but I'll let that go for now. Also there in the word HOT in red letters within a spiky black circle. We'll explore together to verify this particular assertion.
The color is very nice. It's a rich red, though not too crimson, with obvious sediment clinging to the inside of the bottle from where the liquid had touched it. There is a bit of oil separation when I leave the bottle still for too long. You can also see specks of the condiment's ingredients resting in the liquid.
The consistency is a nice thickness. This causes a fairly slow pour but be careful! After the sauce hits the lip of the bottle's mouth, it kind of speeds up. It pours fairly evenly and would be good for coating foods like chicken wings (for which they have a recipe on their site using this sauce in particular).
 The flavor is bright, almost leaving the impression of sweet fruit, though there is none in the ingredient list. The garlic flavor is thankfully rich and there is not any real salt flavor, which it doesn't really need due to the presence of cayenne pepper. There is an earthy note in the aftertaste that I can't really identify.
This product is more of a medium/hot heat. It leaves a tongue burn that lasts a decent amount of time and makes any part of the tongue that it touches tingling. Upon successive tastings the roof of my mouth began to burn and my nose started running a bit. There isn't a noticeable presence of lip burn. The heat overall is a creeping one so use caution.
This is a nice and simple sauce. I like the color, consistency, flavor, and heat of this. At $8.50 for a 5.2 ounce bottle this won't break the bank either. I am going to have to experiment with some of the recipes on the site to further my potential appreciation of Cayenne Habanero Sauce.

Edit: After eating three hot dogs with Cayenne Habanero Sauce on it, there was noticeable lip burn.

Wednesday, March 6, 2019

Pineapple and Habanero Hot Sauce


Hello all! I apologize about the lateness of this post. For some reason the review I wrote last week was appearing partially in a black font which, over this background was nigh unreadable. So I'm rewriting it to suit the finicky web software upon which I produce reviews and you consume them.
We are going to check out Pineapple and Habanero Hot Sauce by Bravado Spice Company. Bravado makes hot sauces, spice mixes, and even a margarita mix! How festive! Their main focus seems to be hot sauces, though, as suggested in their Mission section: "Our mission is to craft incredible hot sauces that are undeniably bold and delicious". I'm sure that idea is something that we can all get behind.
The label is fine but somewhat unimpressive. Their logo appears to be a simple drawing of three peppers attached to a leaf on the side. The words and color scheme seem intentionally simple. A thing that did catch my eye was what looks like a heat scale. In this case it is five designs of peppers, the first three filled in with black, the last two left hollow. The word "Medium" is below it, apparently describing the heat of the sauce.
The color and consistency of Pineapple and Habanero Hot Sauce does not tantalize me. The hue is a rather sickly yellow which might (and kind of did) make me hesitant. Keeping that in mind, however, this is obviously a pineapple-themed sauce so I'll give the color a pass this time. The texture is very thin and indicates a filtered sauce. It's so thin, in fact, that a drip spout isn't included with the bottle but, in my opinion, should be. However, there does appear to be sediment on the inside surface of the bottle that previously touched the sauce, so that's a plus to me.
The flavor here lives up to its name. A definite fruity sweetness greets the taste buds upon first interaction. This is followed by a hint of a garden-ish taste, like a taste of green leafy vegetables. A zing of garlic is present and perhaps a touch too much salt. I feel that this flavor combination would pair well with food, so I won't completely discount the salt tinge.
The heat is interesting. At first, I was inclined to agree with the rating on the bottle and rank this of "medium" heat. However after multiple subsequent tastings (I'll admit it: I love fruit tastes) a distinct lip burn grew and also left a lasting tongue tingle. So I think this may fly a little above a "medium" sauce.
I think that this would be a good addition to any collection. I think that it would be used well as an ingredient or atop many dishes cooked up in ones kitchen. As a matter of fact Pineapple and Habanero Hot Sauce would work well in fish tacos. And at $5.99 this won't break the bank. Try it out and let me know what you think!

Review Submission Pause

Friends, I will not be reviewing sauces here for a short time. I order most of the sauces you see here and until the scourge of COVID-19 i...