Review: Goonie Nick is back with CaJohn’s Jolokia Select!

Limited Edition Jolokia Select

Background: It has been roughly 10 months since I have written my last review for the HSB. I just want to begin by saying that HSB is the greatest chili blog site around with the world’s greatest chili heads! I do belong to other blogs in the genres of movies, weather and science but none of these compare to the HSB. The HSB is composed of a great community of companies, individuals, fans, manufacturers, and hobbyists. While I have been inactive in terms of my reviews and comments, I have followed HSB religously every single day!

So what brought me back to becoming active after 10 months? One evening I was browsing ebay and I decided to purchase CaJohn’s Jolokia Select Puree. With this purchase came all the memories of the anticipation, curiousity, and excitement of posting reviews on the HSB. I simply had to try this product and be able to share my feelings with the rest of the hot sauce community.

In the past year I have tried a few products with the Naga Jolokia and felt that the heat levels weren’t quite were it ought to be for a pepper receiving a SHU rating of around 1 million. I have tried CaJohn’s Sauce 10 and Nagasoreass, Danny Cash’s Naga Sabi Bomb, Montego Bay’s Hell’s Inferno, and pepper pods from Mexico Institute. While all these products were great in quality and taste I didn’t feel they were hotter than some of the hottest natural sauces on the market.

I feel that in terms of pure heat for a natural sauce the top 3 are CaJohn’s Habanero Select, Fatalii Select, and CaJohn’s No Naga Sauce 10. (Not in any exact order) (No Naga Sauce 10 went on to become a manufactured product titled, “Scorch”. CaJohn informed me that I did play a significant role in his decision. I stated in my reviews of Sauce 10 and No Naga Sauce 10, that I honestly felt that No Naga Sauce 10 (Red Savina, Fatalii, and the Orange Habaneo) was actually hotter than Sauce 10 (Red Savina, Fatalii, Orange Habanero and Jolokia.) However, it is important to note that those products did contain other ingredients in them, than the jolokia, which makes it impossible to give a fair assessment of the heat level of the jolokia, in sauce form. With this being said, here I am back at what I enjoy doing!

Label: A white label with orange trim is wrapped around a traditional 5 oz. bottle. On the front of the label is a flame with JOLOKIA below it. To the right of the front label is CaJohn’s company address. To the left of the front of the label is Jolokia Select Puree, Warning Extreme Heat!!!, World’s Hottest Chile! The label is very similar to other limited edition or trial runs of CaJohn’s sauces.

Ingredients: Jolokia Chiles, Vinegar

Appearance: The sauce is close to a 50-50 mix of orange and brown in terms of color. I am able to see what might appear to be as other ingredients such as garlic, onion, black pepper, etc. However, this is not the case because this sauce was created from reconstituting dried Jolokia chilies and vinegar. The ratio is 80% pepper and 20% vinegar which is the recipe CaJohn uses for all his Select Purees! I remember conversing with CaJohn a few months ago where he informed me that the process of this sauce would take time as he was waiting for the Jolokia chiles directly from the source itself, India.

Odor: After opening the cap and taking a smell of the sauce I was actually very pleased. This sauce smells great! The sauce has a very similar fruity smell to the dried pods that I have had. It is not as fruity, due to some vinegar, but nevertheless still very fruity. I gave this sauce to a friend of mine, who has never had hot sauces and told them to compare Jolokia Select to Jolokia Pods and they responded, “That it is just about the same.” If I had to be held at gunpoint and compare it to another habanero, in terms of odor, I would say it resembles the chocolate habanero somewhat. However, the chocolate habanero has more of a BBQ rich and deep odor as compared to the fruity odor of the Jolokia.

Taste: I figured that pizza would be perfect for this sauce. In my past reviews I have always stated that if a hot sauce is good on pizza, then hell it should be good on just about any other type of food. After I tried this hot sauce I was actually pleased with what I encountered. The sauce did not take away from the pizza at all and it wasn’t a typical habanero flavor that one would expect from a hot sauce or a puree. The sauce had a similiar taste to what one would expect based on having any experience with the aroma. The taste was really unique and enjoyable making you want more. However, I have to say that that taste was a little weaker than the aroma, which was perfect since you still were able to taste the flavors of the cheese and tomato sauce. What I like about this pepper is that it doesn’t simply taste like a standard puree. This conclusion leads me to state that I will be using this on wings, pizza, tacos, stir-fries, etc. I might even add a little to some soups because I really think that the hot broth might bring out the flavors of this pepper a little more than what it has straight out of the bottle.

Heat: The heat was definitely the category that I was most interested in when coming across this hot sauce from CaJohn. After having the 1st slice I really didn’t feel the heat that much as compared to some of the other hot sauces out there that are natural but very hot. However, I definitely did recognize that there was a good amount of heat here. I had a phone call and had to wait 10 mins before I could get my next slice. Before doing that I did feel the heat kick in. With his sauce it is different from many others in that you don’t get the straight up blast which means good things for the ones that like to enjoy their food before sweating. After the second slice I did begin to bead up with some sweat above my brow. I was impressed with this because from the pics you can see that I definitely didn’t use as much sauce as you might expect from my past reviews. After my third slice I did begin to feel the high that hot sauce can provide. I was sweating and it was definitely just as hot as the hottest natural sauces that I have tried. In the end, this sauce was able to play games with my mind in making me sweat but then feeling cold afterwards. The amount I had to use to get this feeling was half of what I had to use in the past with the other hottest natural sauces I have tried. CaJohn’s Jolokia Select is the hottest natural sauce out there!

Packaging 9/10
Aroma 10/10
Taste 9.5/10
Appearance 9.5/10
Heat 10/10

Overall 9.5