To date the HSB has recieved over 2,500 comments on 766 posts, a considerable leap from our stats in October of 2005 (536 posts and 575 comments). One dull night I got to tinkering with some of the SQL information and after a few pivot tables and vlookups I finally got an accurate count of comments by person. The comments were counted by email address (which is inputed when a user leaves a comment) and not by the name of the commentor since several commentors have the same name (Ryan & Ryan B, Adam & Adam2 etc…). Over 700 people have left at least one comment on the HSB and for that we here behind the scenes thank you.

Top 30 Commentors (by number of comments)

• 155 – Ryan Davis
• 139 – Scott
• 101 – Thakswet
• 96 – Mad_Reilly
• 82 – eman
• 76 – Chris K
• 63 – Randy
• 55 – Dr. Biggles
• 54 – Daniel
• 40 – Adam – Meninaprons
• 39 – Joe Levinson
• 38 – DEFCON Creator
• 35 – DK
• 33 – John – huvason
• 28 – MattUK
• 27 – Terry Bytes
• 25 – Anthony
• 25 – John S.
• 24 – Tracy Campbell
• 20 – Tasker
• 17 – Cheffy
• 17 – Ryan Bell
• 15 – Jim
• 15 – Mike – map
• 14 – Clinton
• 13 – Adam
• 12 – Mike – bdo
• 11 – Bill Brigden
• 10 – Hot Sauce Head
• 10 – Bill
• 10 – Robert

A big ‘hot’ thank you to those that have commented thus far. Keep em coming!

Blair will make only 59 Bottles Of these Mega Hot Reserves. Feel Alive! These bottles will only be available March 3-5 2006 at the Fiery Foods Show in Albequerque, New Mexico. These will be available for $100.00 at the show only. NOT FOR SALE ONLINE!

[tag]Serrano[/tag] peppers are the unheralded hero’s of the [tag]pepper[/tag] world. Often over looked, and getting pushed in the shadow of the jalapeno and the cayenne. Why are they the unheralded hero? Because what many people don’t know is that they are responsible for making the transition from the jalapeno to the cayenne bearable for the beginner chili-head.

Ingredients: Serrano Peppers, Distilled Vinegar, Citric Acid & Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), to preserve colour.

This review is going to be more to the point. If you have read the past 5 reviews for CaJohns Select Purees you know where this is going. If you haven’t, then just follow the links.

CaJohn has been a consistency champ in this product line. The only thing different about this review is the pepper involved. What you get here is a bottle of Serrano peppers in the clear bottle showcasing the sauce inside. It is a beautiful deep orange\red colour that is reminiscent of Dave’s Insanity [tag]Hot Sauce[/tag]. But when you look closely you can actually see very fine pieces of pepper in the puree.

The aroma of this is sharp. You can feel it slice through a nose hair if you take a big sniff and it carries on right down to the back of your throat. Like the other purees it is almost overpowering.

I gave it the usual taste test on a piece of flatbread. It has a quick zesty bite with some heat and the flavour lasts a long, long time. I actually could taste it in my burps hours later. I would recommend it for its powerful flavour but it is definitely not a first date sauce.

Out of the three sauces this is my least favorite. Don’t get me wrong it is still an excellent product but just not for me. That lingering after taste hurt more than the heat of the sauce initially. If the other puree reviews have enticed you so far then this should be a pleasant addition to your collection.

Packaging – 9/10
Aroma – 7.5/10
Appearance – 8.5/10
Taste – 8/10
Heat - 6/10
Overall - 8/10

CaJohns Select Serrano Puree
CaJohns Fiery Foods
Columbus, Ohio
888-703-FIRE

Eating chocolate is not something most of us usually associate with raw, buttock-clenching tension. A quick straw poll around Firebox HQ showed that the closest any of us has ever come to this pleasure-meets-pain-style sensation was when we shared a tube of Smarties whilst watching the final episode of 24.

The thing is, chomping on choccy has always been a relatively humdrum experience… Until now.

Because by combining one of life’s great pleasures (chocolate) with one of death’s best buddies (Russian Roulette), clever confectioners have come up with this fiendishly amusing gift box.

Seated in individual compartments, twelve chocolate bullets lay waiting to be bitten into. Although eleven of the sweet little slugs contain delicious praline centres, one conceals a seriously red hot chilli that’s guaranteed to blow your head off – metaphorically, at least.

The great thing about encasing something so palate-peelingly hot in chocolate is that it takes a few seconds for the ‘victim’ to register that he or she has just bitten into the wrong bullet. So relief and delight are rapidly replaced by abject horror, an expression reminiscent of Kenneth Williams getting into a hot bath, a volley of garbled expletives and a manic sprint to the nearest tap!

As far as Russian Roulette-style games go, this is right up there with old chestnuts like the Beer Hunter – you know, when you shake up a couple of cans, mix them with a dozen untouched ones, and then jerk the ring pulls in close proximity to your head.

You can get yourself a Russian Roulette Chocolate Board Game here.

I just received this set of 3 sauces the other day. After reading John’s reviews and knowing the review I did for CaJohn’s Krakatoa I was totaled hyped about this.

I decided I was going to attack this in 3 separate parts. I think [tag]hot sauce[/tag] of this caliber deserves to be treated as an individual and get the full review it deserves. So we start with the mildest of the three, CaJohns Select Chipotle Puree. Now the pictures you see here don’t really do it justice. You have to see this right up close. No gimmick is needed here. The proof is in the bottle. Like John mentioned in his reviews the ingredients are all consistent.

Ingredients: Chipotle Chiles, Distilled Vinegar, Citric Acid & Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), to preserve colour.

If I wasn’t running low on hot sauce already (is 20 opened bottles running low?) I would have waited to open it. But being the dedicated HSB reviewer I sacrificed the bottle just so you all can get the scoop about it and try it for yourself.

I learned something quick once I opened the bottle. If you are expecting a hot sauce your wrong. This is exactly what it claims to be, a puree. You get the full unadulterated taste of [tag]chipotle[/tag] peppers. Now I am not that crazy about chipotles, but if you are, then this is a must try. It seems like every care was taken to ensure that this sauce will smell fresh as soon as you open the bottle. In fact I almost found it overpowering (hold that thought until the taste review).

I poured it on some flat bread and admired the brownish texture. Again, I am not a big fan of chipotles but you don’t have to be to appreciate this *ahem* sauce. If chipotles are your thing then make sure to get a bottle. Also, the bite to this puree is quite sharp. Kind of like one of those jalapenos that catch you by surprise every once in awhile.

As with this bottle, it is the same for the other two. The taste is extremely strong. I could only handle small bits at a time. No worries about this puree losing its taste in a dish here. The uses for this are varied. I think it would make a great spread for a sandwich as well as a dipping sauce (think of having some on the side along with a steak), to an additive in soups or chili’s. I think my chicken strips have a new best friend.

I am going to agree with John here and how he reviewed his Select Puree’s. I think he hit it spot on. Everything here is first class. The packaging, the ingredients, the taste. If [tag]Chipotles[/tag] are your thing, look no further! This is great stuff!

Packaging - 9/10
Aroma - 8/10
Appearance – 7.5/10
Taste – 8/10
Heat - 4/10
Overall - 8.5/10

CaJohns Select Chipotle Puree
CaJohns Fiery Foods
Columbus, Ohio
888-703-FIRE

By JOE TEMPLE, Master Gardener

When the spring planting season gets here you are going to hear more and more about the hot peppers of the garden world. Whether you prefer [tag]chile[/tag] or chili, the spelling doesn’t make that much difference. The South American country is Chile. When the pepper is used as an ingredient in an ethnic dish, such as chili con carne, it is spelled with an “i.”

Either way, the National Garden Bureau is calling 2006 the Year of the Chile Pepper.

There is a mystique – mostly masculine — about who can eat the hottest peppers without dire consequences. We have one grandson in that group who likes to challenge all comers to the consumption of the “hot” ones. Some experts speculate chile pepper heat, (and the subsequent oral pain) stimulates the production of endorphins in the brain, conferring a sense of well being in the individual.

There is no macho connotation to eating carrots or tomatoes, no matter what color or size. Not many vegetables have a magazine and festivals solely devoted to them. Whether a small cayenne or a large, all peppers, whether sweet bells or scorching chiles, originated in Central and South America. Archaeological evidence in Mexico suggests the use of peppers as far back at 7000 B.C. By 2,500 B.C they were cultivating chile peppers.

Records dating to colonial days show that both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson grew a cayenne-type pepper at their respective residences at Mount Vernon and Monticello. Peppers were hard to find outside New Orleans and the Southwest until the middle of the 20th century.

One way to classify chile peppers is based on the heat they can generate when eaten.

In 1912, pharmacist Wilbur Scoville invented a test to measure the hotness of peppers by diluting the pepper until the heat was just perceptible on the tongue. The Scoville rating is measured in multiples of 100. A sweet bell pepper can have a rating of 0; hot peppers can range as high as 60,000 Scoville units.

Hungarian Wax and Poblano can range from 1,000 to 5,000 units, while Habanero can range up to the 60,000 figure.

Peppers are best started from seed indoors in late winter and transplanted into the garden after soil and air have warmed in the spring. The plants cannot tolerate frost and do not grow well in cold, wet soil.

When night temperatures are below 50-55 degrees F. the plants grow slowly, leaves may turn yellow, and the flowers drop off. Any procedure to warm the soil will hasten maturity.

Space the plants 18 to 24 inches apart in the row. Use a starter fertilizer when transplanting, usually one high in phosphorus. After the first flush of peppers has set, add additional supplemental fertilizer.

When summer daytime temperatures are above 90 degrees F. or nighttime temperatures drop below 60 degrees F., blossoms will drop, resulting in little or no fruit set. Sometimes little or no pollination will take place, in which case it may help to hand pollinate blossoms using a cotton swab.

Chile peppers are usually quite healthy. Occasionally there will be a pest problem.

Tiny green aphids may congregate on tips of branches. They suck sap out of the plant for their nourishment, causing leaf deformities and a general weakening of the structure. They can also spread deadly viruses. A strong spray of water from the garden hose can knock many of them off. Lady beetles, the “good guys” of the garden world, feed on aphids by the hundreds. Caterpillars, including hornworms, corn earworms, and corn borers may damage fruit and leaves.

For the caterpillar pests, consider using carbaryl, sold as Sevin, to assist in control.

A word of caution is in order to the first-time handlers of chile-type peppers.

The plant produces an alkaloid compound called [tag]capsaicin[/tag] (cap-say-a-sin). It is what produces a pleasure-pain response in the mouth, but it burns skin and eyes. Always wear disposable latex gloves when working with these types of peppers to protect the hands. Never touch your face, mouth, eyes, or nasal passages. We would add, to use caution when pausing from chile pepper duties to attend to bathroom chores, also. Carelessness could cause short-term dire consequences.

If you accidentally get pepper juice in the eyes, wash immediately with clean cool water, continuing it until relief is felt. From excessive eating of hot peppers try consuming yogurt, ice cream, or milk.

Some information for this article came from National Garden Bureau, celebrating 2006 as The Year of the [tag]Chile Pepper[/tag].

[tag]Cholula[/tag] [tag]Hot Sauce[/tag] has been a long time favorite of mine and like most chileheads Cholula Pizza is one of my favorite hangover meals. Not to mention it’s the prefered sauce of the acclaimed Buritto Blog. So the first chance I had, I whipped up an egg sandwich and gave Cholula w/ Garlic a whirl.

Not too bad, not bad at all. In fact the manufacturers of Cholula better start offering this in larger sizes, I burnt through a whole 5 oz bottle in one day.

After properly destroying my breakfast sandwich, I started hitting the sauce straight out of the bottle. No kidding, I was drinking it straight, trying to determine how different it tasted from Original Cholula. Good news is that it’s not that much different, only the garlic seperates the two in the flavor showdown. Bad news is that after drinking the bottle, I still wanted more.
Though Original Cholula continues to hold a place in my “staple sauces” section – Cholula Chili Garlic is quite tasty, same great Cholula taste but with garlic.

PSHHHH I don’t need three reviews just for these three [tag]hot sauces[/tag]. BLAMMO. One big review to cover them all.

These were previously reviewed but I didn’t read them to stay objective.

LETS DO THIS!

Bottle Description: CaJohn selects only the finest chiles for his signature line of purees. Ground fresh from the fields, they are blended with distilled vinegar. Citric acid and Vitamin C are added to preserve color, then bottled immediately. The results it minimum 80% chile solids, more than four times the content of most hot sauces. These purees are wonderful for inclusion in your culinary creations, or you can use them to create sauces of your own design. Their use is limited only by your imagination! From CaJohn’s kitchen to your. ENJOY!

Introduction: 80%!!! Wow that’s a whole lot of chile. This is something I’ve never encountered. How novel! How original! But how does it taste? And is it worth it to buy a puree when you can easily hit up your local bodega and or carneceria for all these peppers? Let me pontificate upon these mild queries.

Ingredients:
Select Habanero Puree: [tag]Habanero[/tag] Chiles, Distilled Vinegar, Citric Acid & Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), to Preserve Color.
Select Jalapeno Puree: [tag]Jalapeno[/tag] Chiles, Distilled Vinegar, Citric Acid & Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), to Preserve Color.
Select Cayenne Puree: [tag]Cayenne[/tag] Chiles, Distilled Vinegar, Citric Acid & Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C), to Preserve Color.

Container: Love em. Respectively just pictures of a jalapeno, a cayenne pepper and a habanero. With CaJohn’s back to basics direction with these purees, the bottle really fit the overall feel of the sauces.

Appearance:
Jalapeno: This sauce is the color of the pickled vinegared jalapenos that you get in most restaurants. Light green, totally different from the hue of the original jalapeno. There are chunks of seeds and skin in here. Color aside, this looks tasty.

Cayenne: This color is right. Deep red and chunky. Deliciously beckoning to lie across my tongue.

Habanero: This is a little more disturbing than the jalapeno. Looks weird doesn’t it? Light orange. Looks like Chinese mustard. Whatever, as we know its taste and smell that matters.
Smell:
Jalapeno: A rather warm smell. The peppers really come through but it all ends with a nasal stab of vinegar. If you read my Chedville’s review you know how I feel about vinegar in my sauce (pssst – not so good). Overall not bad.

Cayenne: Holy crap in a hat! The cayenne-ness is all there. The vinegar? Not an issue. I’m not sure but I think I have some kind of previous happy childhood memory of cayennes or something because this smell is damn near euphoric.

Habanero: This is more along the lines of the Jalapeno puree. Good pepper aroma but the vinegar tagging along is a bit annoying. The kind of annoying where you go hrmmm.

Consistency:
All: Good. It can slow pour if you want. It can FOOD DESTROY fast pour if you want too. If you want to sip it out of the bottle like a fine wine, hey that’s totally possible to. How do I know? Yup, I did.

Taste: (dun dun dun)
Jalapeno: The jalapeno is there. That’s about the end of the good news. I never thought jalapeno tasted good unless it was a raw pepper and I stand by that still. The jalapenos you get from Mexican restaurants? Yeah exactly like that. A bit sour and bitter.

Cayenne: The smell was great. The taste? It’s a lot better than the jalapeno puree. A bit sweet, a lot of cayenne flavor and book ended with some vinegar. Definitely good.

Habanero: So far I’ve been panning our good friends habanero, the champion of almost every sauce I love. Fear not readers because the habanero puree is the best among the bunch. The habanero taste bitch slaps the vinegar into submission. It taste almost like pure hab.

Heat:
Jalapeno: Hee hee. That tickles…barely. (2.8/10)

Cayenne: My friend Matt ate some of this and he could eat this and not faint like a Southern belle you’ll be fine. (6.2/10)

Habanero: I was talking to my buddy Daniel on the phone and I took a big spoon of this when I first got it in the mail. What harm could it do? It wasn’t Blair’s or Dave’s etc. Klacka BAM! I was not expecting this amount of heat. It’s really not too hot but when it catches you off guard it’s searing. (7.9/10)

Field Test: (eaten on Mexican food)
Jalapeno: Gah. So distracting. I think it detracts from my overall food experience. It’s like watching your favorite comedy and having your friend who laughs WAY too loud with you.

Cayenne: The sweetness is a bit untamed but otherwise go ahead and douse all you eat in this stuff. It’s all pepper flavor.

Habanero: It’s like biting into a habanero then eating your food. Habanero in liquid form. So pure!

Final Word:
Overall: If you want to go basic (pure) pepper flavor, any of these sauces are worth picking up.

Jalapeno: Definitely not my favorite of the three. It squeaks by as decent at best. I would rather hit up my local Albertson’s etc and just buy some real peppers. It’s like a dollar a pound at most.

Cayenne: Great stuff. This one has gone the fastest. I’m pretty much done with the bottle now. It’s cayenne but dare I say I think the vinegar helps in the overall flavor. This is your dousing sauce. Bury everything in it.

Habanero: If you need a habanero sauce then this is it. Hot as hell and delicious.

Overall:
Jalapeno: 3.5/10

Cayenne: 8.4/10

Habanero: 8.5/10

CaJohns Fiery Foods
2040 Oakland Park Avenue
Columbus, Ohio 43224
Toll Free: 888-703-FIRE
Phone: (614)-418-0808
Fax: (614)-418-0800

As busy as we’ve been, we’ve made the time and worked a few more products into our store! You’ve read the reviews of CaJohns Select Purees & the press release for 357 Mad Dog [tag]Mustard[/tag] and now you can get these items directly from Sweat ‘N Spice [tag]Hot Sauces[/tag].

New Items:
• Z Nothing Beyond Extreme Hot Sauce
• Irish Scream Hot Sauce
• CaJohn’s Exotic Select Pepper Puree Gift Pack
• CaJohn’s Select Pepper Puree Gift Pack ** Reviews: Habanero, Jalapeno, Cayenne
• Cholula Chili Garlic Hot Sauce
• 357 Mad Dog Extreme Mustard Sauce ** Press Release
• Matteo’s Red Headed Step Sauce ** Each bottle has been signed by Matteo
  
• Matteo’s Rear Trauma Hot Sauce ** Each bottle has been signed by Matteo
  
• Habanero Rub from Hell
• Blair’s Q Heat Wasabi Green Tea Hot Sauce ** Review Here

And the best news? The first 50 people to checkout using the coupon code “febfree” recieve free shipping. (offer good until 2/28/06 – US Only)

Guacamole has always been one of the staples of our Super Bowl parties and this year was no exception. I made a few recipe changes from the original How to Make Guacamole post, but all the prep remained the same.

What’s in the bag you ask? Hard avocados. I bought the avocados the day before the party, so I had to speed up the ripening process by tossing them into a bag and letting them sit in there over night. The next day they were perfectly ripe.

Ingredients:
• 3-4 Large Avocados
• 1 Head of Garlic, minced
• 2 Jalapeno Peppers, seeded and minced
• 1 Habanero Pepper, seeded and minced
• 1/2 a large red onion, diced
• 2 Tablespoons Sour Cream
• Juice of 1 Lime
• Fresh Ground Pepper & Salt to taste

Combine all the ingredients into a large bowl and carefully mix. Take care not to mash all of the avocados, little chunks will give the final [tag]guacamole[/tag] a bit more substance. That’s it! This recipe couldn’t get much easier.

There you have it, the finished product. This recipe combines the creamy texture of sour cream with the heat of the habaneros & jalapenos – perfect for those chilehead football fanatics in your house.