Smouldering Chocolate Fireballs

Ancient Central and South Americans have been combining chilies and chocolate since at least 595 A.D., why shouldn’t the folks over at The Chilli Pepper company.

Ingredients: sugar, full cream milk powder, cocoa butter, cocoa mass, cream, marc de champagne, concentrated whey, alcohol, jalapeno chilli powder, orange oil, milk proteins, soya lecithin, natural vanilla.

With mother’s day around the corner chocolates are always a good idea. When I received these little gems in the mail, I rushed over to visit dear ol’ Mom and kill two birds with one chocolate.

Bouquet: It smells like chocolate.

Texture: The chocolate is firm and doesn’t get “melty” when handled.

Taste: The first thing I (and Mom) noticed was the high quality of the chocolate. The outer chocolate has a light milky orange taste and despite being very firm, yields to the tooth quite easily. The center has a smooth crème de champagne taste that is really nice. At the finish the Jalapeno flavor enters, bites you, and then leaves just as quick.

After all was said and done, I was happy with the chocolates and more importantly Mom was happy. Don’t forget your mom on May 11th I’m sure these chocolates would do the trick.

The Chilli Pepper Company
www.chileseeds.co.uk

Tony Legner’s Habanero Premium Steak Sauce: $8 a bottle

A new release at the 2008 Fiery Foods Show - this sauce was so hot off the press at show time that Tony had not yet even announced the line up. Hopefully those that attended managed to give it a whirl and grab yourself a bottle. Tony’s Cat-5 Food Polish is still one of my favorite dusts for a bland dish and knowing that Tony’s restaurant is as successful as it is, I was more then willing to give his new sauce a try.

Up Close

Looking at the sauce, it’s doesn’t look like any steak sauce I’ve ever seen before. The appearance is almost a translucent brown with flakes of ingredients running throughout.

Smell: It smells like a steak - not a steak sauce, but like the little sauce that drips off a steak after you cook it. To put it bluntly, the smell of this sauce is drool inducing.

Perfect for a t-bone

Steak was the only way I could foresee trying this sauce out on, given the name, at least to start. I cooked up a mean t-bone and went to town. The sauce does have a bit of a heat tickle to it which is surprising given that the smell does not alert ones senses to the presence of the habanero. Coating the steak nicely, the consistency of the sauce is a bit thinner then a typical steak sauce (like A1). The flavor though, is out of this world. With a sauce this tasty, you could make anything taste gourmet.

The sauce by itself is ever so slightly sweet, with the undertones of spice and a hint of mushroom. On the steak itself, it’s like the sauce draws out the already great flavors of the steak. Laura & I went through almost half the bottle with this one steak and I tried it out the other night on burgers - fantastic! If you’ve got any sort of plans to grill this summer, do yourself a favor and get yourself a few bottles of Tony’s steak sauce - you won’t be disappointed.

Tony Legner’s Culinary Productions
1003 East Concho Street
Rockport, Texas 78382
361-386-0084

Several months ago, I was browsing the shelves of my local Latin “mercado” when I was stopped in my tracks by the image of a fair maiden, semi-nude, resting serenely on a rock in the middle of the ocean. The image was not on a calendar, or the cover of Sports Illustrated. No, it was on a sardine can! I bought it simply because I thought the label was cool and it would look good in my pantry on a special shelf I keep stocked with culinary curiosities.

After all, who could resist La Sirena – the mythical “Siren of the Sea” who, for centuries, has lured seafaring men to come closer for a look, only to have their vessels dashed upon the rocks, and they to be thrown into the foamy surf, and drown with that beautiful, haunting image being the last thing to go through their minds before sinking into the briny depths for eternity.

So, visually speaking, La Sirena is irresistible. Hey, look closely at the label – even the sardine is jumping out of the water for a peek!

But how does the product taste? I might never have known had I not stepped on the scale after the holidays and decided I needed to change my diet. I decided to try sardines for lunch one day – it seemed like a low-fat, low-cal alternative. Just then, the Siren caught my eye again. So I read the back of the label:

Ingredients: Sardines, Tomato Sauce, Salt and Spices

Reading further, I liked seeing that this lunch-size portion of sardines was 110 calories/ 20 calories from fat. Hmmm, I’ve seen those numbers before and the product tasted like sawdust! Anyway, I also liked the fact that sardines are rich in the beneficial Omega-3 fatty acids. The only caveat is that while Omega-3 is supposed to be “heart-healthy”, this little can of sardines also delivers 90 mg. (30% of your RDA) of Cholesterol. So, on the health meter, that lies somewhere closer to a bowl of Haagen Dazs than it does to sawdust…just a word to the wise.

Anyway, as I opened the can I was hoping that something packaged with chili would provide some flavor. A visit to the producer’s website revealed that the “Pica Pica” was a very popular product. One thing was for sure – it’s as eye-appealing on the plate as La Sirena herself!

These are about as large a sardine as you will find in a can, so you get a lot for your 110 calories – three big, beautiful fish - heads off, tails on. Be warned that if you have never eaten a canned sardine, it’s best to start with the smaller ones. The big ones like these are somewhat of an acquired taste because you are eating the whole fish – bones, innards and all. That’s true of the small ones too, but the big ones are a bit more “crunchy”. So, if you are still with me, know that this is the best tasting can of sardines on the planet!

Taste: The first thing of concern with some canned fish products is the salt level. They got it just right in the Pica Pica. The next thing is how nicely the acid in the tomato sauce balances the oily fish flavor of the sardine. Lastly, the flavor of the chilis complements the fish, salt and tomato flavors perfectly! It’s a fresh chili flavor, as if they mixed equal parts tomato sauce and Sambal Oelek (which is an educated guess, since they are packed in Thailand).

Heat: For me, the heat was just right for this type of product – probably a 5.5 on the 10-point HSB scale. Assuming these are Thai peppers, they do just what you would expect. The burn starts at the front of the mouth, then spreads to the tongue, roof of mouth, then the back of the throat. The heat stays pretty steady through the meal rather than building to a crescendo. By the time you have downed the second sardine, you have a good lip burn and a mild shvitz just above the eyebrows. I am always amazed at how localized the sweat points are for different types of peppers – one can make you perspire just above the eyes, another affects you just below the hair line, or on the side of the nose, or back of your head.

Where to Purchase: Well…that’s about as big a mystery The Siren herself. I tried to get this information, to no avail. On the can, it lists the distributor as Otis McAllister Inc. www.otismcallister.com . I wrote to the email address on the website and it bounced back to me. I also went on the website of La Sirena www.lasirenafoods.com and the inquiry form on the site bounced back at me as well. So I called the phone number for La Sirena and got what sounded like a cell phone greeting in Spanish.

So, if you want to find this product (and I think it’s well worth the hunt!), start first at your local Latin grocery store. (Even though this product is made in Asia, it is packaged for the Latin consumer). Failing that, maybe someone who speaks Spanish can call that number at La Sirena and report back to the blog.

For those who are lucky enough to hear the Siren’s song, enjoy!

Not Yo’ Mama’s
Pepper Marmalade

I decided to take a peek at the Not Yo’ Mama’s Gourmet Foods website before I went about trying this product.
http://notyomamasgourmet.com/

From the looks of things here, they specialize in pepper marmalades. I couldn’t find any hot sauce, barbecue sauce, salsa, or whatnot. But that’s cool; man cannot live on hot sauce alone! Although I’m quite certain that there are a few people reading this that would contest that statement. Not Yo’ Mama’s makes 2 types of pepper marmalade, the mild one I will be reviewing today and one with added habanero chilies. So essentially it’s the same product with two heat levels. Although given the nature of the habanero and its amazing flavor, I can bet that it adds a more complex and earthy flavor to the hotter version. But alas, since I only have the mild it will have to do. So let’s see what they have to say about their own marmalade.

‘Not Yo’ Mama’s Pepper Marmalade

Our original pepper marmalade is made with a blend of red and yellow sweet bell peppers, pure cane sugar, and the finest cider vinegar spiked with orange zest, mango, and Serrano peppers for a little kick. The slightly spicy, sweet and sour marmalade is great poured over cream cheese with crackers for a quick and easy appetizer or with your favorite chicken, pork, vegetable and seafoods for a new twist on old favorites. Try it and you’ll see why we say, “Mama Never Made It This Good”!

First impression: Interesting that they suggest seafood! I just so happen to have some fried fish fillets and some breaded shrimp that would probably be perfect for this stuff. But I’ll still have to give it the initial spoon taste test to see how the description holds up to my impression. Looking through the jar it’s this bright red color, very viscous looking, kind of like any marmalade would look through a jar. Although the color does look artificial, it turns out that there is NOTHING artificial in the ingredient list.

Ingredients: red & yellow peppers, cane sugar, apple cider vinegar, water, mango puree, Serrano peppers (peppers, water, salt, acetic acid), orange zest, salt, pectin, citric acid.

Everything looks pretty tasty. I’d have to pick slightly at sugar being #2 on the list, but hey this is pepper marmalade so it goes with the territory. And looking at the Serrano peppers, it’s obvious that they are using canned or jarred peppers. The water, salt, and acetic acid are a dead giveaway to this. And it shows in the marmalade too. Just looking at the peppers in the mix they have a very dark pickled color to them, so that is another minus in my book. I bet they would get more heat from this marmalade had fresh Serrano chilies been used, instead of the canned/jarred variety. Other than these two minor items, everything looks great thus far! Let’s take a closer look and give this stuff a taste!

Appearance/Smell/Taste: Without further ado, I twist open the lid and give myself a nice hearty sniff of this stuff. Being there are sweet bell peppers and mango puree there is a very sweet very fruity smell to this marmalade. I think that the smell of the sweet bell peppers is stronger than the mango puree, but then again I have never been a huge fan of mango. So my olfactory sense might be off slightly here. It does give me the impression that it would make a great accompaniment to sea food like I read and stated earlier. I give the spoon test first; lo and behold the flavor is very sweet initially. I do like sweet sauces, but if the sauce is overbearingly sweet I’d have to take a pass. Fortunately for Not Yo’ Mama’s Pepper Marmalade it’s not too sweet, it’s just right in fact! There is a slight tartness to the flavor and there actually is a slight tinge of heat at the back of my throat. Very slight. Once this goes on food I can guarantee that the heat will probably be non-existent. Let’s give her a go, shall we?

Prepared meal: Fried Fish Fillet and Fired Shrimp w/rice.

I had these left over from a recent festival. It’s always great working at food festivals. And even better when the Fish ‘n Chips bloke is right next to your booth! That and they love hot sauce! Always a plus for trading. So I walk away with a load of Fish ‘n Chips and fried shrimp. Most went into the freezer as there was no way I was going to get through all of this before it turned. So heating up a lovely portion of fish and shrimp. I then prepared 1 cup of basmati rice with ¼ tsp. of tumeric to give it that nice yellow color. I hadn’t had crispy greasy fried fish like this in ages! Once the marmalade hits the hot food it has a really nice sweet smell. It’s almost a pickly sort of relishy smell, but it goes great with the fish and the shrimp. Enough of me blabbering on here, let’s eat some food!

Complement to meal: Slathering the fish and shrimp in the marmalade it looks wonderful! Once the marmalade hits the hot food the flavor of the orange zest becomes more prominent. It actually tastes more like a tart relish than marmaladelike it does on it’s own. The change in the flavor profile is common in many sauces once it gets heated. I really think that there is a more relishy aspect on the fish, almost like a fruity tartar sauce! The heat as expected has been reduced to absolute zero. Not even a sniffle aftr going through 2 large fish fillets and about 6-8 fried shrimp! I’m curious now to see how this stuff fares with it’s other suggested uses like cream cheese?!? Might be a good addition for making a party platter and some dip of sorts or preparing some hors d’ovures with the cream cheese all mixed up in there. Give it a try! It’s actually quite good as far as marmalades go. And in the past I can’t say that I’ve ever been much of a fan of jams and marmalades. I bet the hotter version of this one would be quite grand on some seafood! Till next time fellow chile-heads! -Lars-

Initial impression: 8/10

Ingredient quality/content: 8/10

Flavor/textue/smell: 8/10

Heat: 1/10

Overall: 6.25/10

Not Yo Mama’s Gourmet Foods
PMB 215
1919 Oxmoor Rd
Homewood, AL 35209
Phone: 205.862.6254

Defcon Creator’s Double Super Secret Experiment X-13

There is no ingredient list on this bottle, but it is basically habanero’s and horseradish, there is also no website or phone number, you can no longer buy this stuff anyway, but you can get Habby horse at http://www.defconsauces.com its $7.00 for an 8 ounce jar. I have never had Habby horse except for a small taste at jungle jims last year and I cant tell you how the heat of this one compares to the Habby horse, but it has a good heat level to it, its not insanely hot but its got a good kick. The horseradish hits you first, then the habanero. This stuff has an excellent flavor and I hope the Habby horse is really similar. I first tried it on a corn chip and I ended up eating half the jar this way, I just couldn’t stop. Every time I think about it my mouth will start salivating.

For my review I bought some Arby’s sandwiches to try it on because roast beef always go’s good with horseradish, and after eating so much plain I was surprised at how little heat it lost to the food, it had about the same burn on the sandwich as it did on the chips. The flavor does not overpower the food at all, I put a lot on my sandwiches and could still taste the roast beef. I also added a little of this to some homemade salsa and I have to say that was probably the best use of it so far, it improved the flavor by 80% and doubled the heat, (it was mild to begin with) and I only added a tablespoon to a full soup bowl of salsa. This is one of the best products I have had in a while and I will definitely be buying some Habby horse after I finish some of the many sauces I have now and have a little more loot to spend.

Heat: 6/10
Flavor: 10/10
Value: since it’s no longer sold I can’t really say, but if Habby horse is half as good as this it would receive a 9/10 for the price it is listed.
Overall: 10/10 this is the first product for me to give a 10/10 on for the overall, and its well deserved, it can be used on just about anything and I highly recommend it, I know you cant buy it but if you like horseradish pick up some Habby horse.

Happy Jalapeño Company
Happy Hal’s – Jalapeño Relish
First impression: There is an old adage or proverb - KISS. This stands for ‘Keep It Simple Stupid’. And even in this day and age of high technology, sometimes keeping it simple is just what the jalapeño ordered. And that jalapeño happens to have a name, and his name is Hal! No, no! I know that all the Kubrick fans out there are asking themselves if this has anything to do with the HAL-9000 supercomputer known from 2001 A Space Odyssey. Unfortunately no it does not. But you can certainly use Happy Hal’s Jalapeno Relish to make up some simple and delicious appetizers while you and your friends and family enjoy some movie time. It’s also great as an addition to some of your current favorite recipes. It’s so simple to use this that it has to be illegal! Lol! Although I’m sure Suzie and Joe would have something to say about their relish causing abuses of authority! Happy Hal’s Jalapeno Relish is the brainchild of Susanne and Joe Spurlock. They are a delightfully nice couple that hails from the wilds of Lancaster, PA. Yes, this is Amish and Mennonite country folks! There are some really great farms and rural locations in Lancaster, PA. And get this, in certain less rural areas Lancaster has a HIGHER crime rate then Philadelphia?!? Go figure! I don’t know what this world is coming to, but the Spurlock’s are trying to make sure that there is a little added love and heat that goes along with any meal that you can dish out. As many pepper heads know, chilies are very healthy as part of a balanced diet. In fact, the Spurlock’s have given us quick links to some of this info on their webpage.

http://www.happyjalapenos.com/health.html

Not only that, but they have also published a neat little cookbook to accompany the Jalapeno relish. This gives you some further ideas on how this relish can be used for cooking or as a condiment.

http://www.happyjalapenos.com/recipes.html

The relish and the book are sold separately, but I happened to obtain some relish recently and then requested a copy of the cookbook so The Happy Jalapeno Company can be listed among the rest of the small manufacturers in the fiery foods industry. A short while ago you used to be able to purchase the relish off the website, yet now I see that they only list retail locations and no web sales. Hmm, that’s odd. But this link will show some locations where you can purchase Happy Hal’s Jalapeno Relish.

http://www.happyjalapenos.com/Purchasing.html

I believe the cost is $7.00 for a 9 oz. jar.

Ingredients: jalapeño peppers, vinegar

Appearance/Smell/Taste: Well, since there are only jalapeños and vinegar in this relish it pretty much smells like you think it would. It has that kind of ‘green’ smell like a fresh jalapeño. Then there is the slightest whiff of vinegar but it isn’t overpowering in any way. In fact, taking some out of the jar, the japs aren’t dripping with vinegar. The Spurlock’s have used ‘just the right amount’ of vinegar to keep from spoiling and to also not overpower any foods you use this relish for. Putting the spoonful of diced japs to my mouth I found them to be very, very mild. I don’t know if it’s just me or if that is just the way it is, but pickled jalapeños are sweeter than they are hot for me. So on the HSB heat scale, this condiment is about a 2. In trying to keep things ‘simple’. I decide to do a little cheese and cracker hors d’ overs using Happy Hals.

Prepared meal: Organic Toasted Crackers w/Apple and Hardwood Smoked Provolone Cheese Topped with Happy Hals

Even though I have the Happy Hal’s cookbook, Susie suggested that I make a little cracker melt to try out the relish. So I passed on making Hal’s Jalapeño Potato Soup, Julie’s Groovy Tuna Tostadas, and John’s ‘Moldy’ Grilled Cheese Sandwich. Which at a glance were some of the recipes that caught my eye. Slicing the cheese up on the board and assembling like you see here..

Sliced Apple and Hardwood Smoked Provolone

Some crackers of choice

A few table spoons of Happy Hal’s

After assembling the cheese on the cracker and then topping with the relish they were sent to the toaster oven for a few minutes on 375 degrees. Just long enough that the cheese started to melt, but the crackers don’t brown or burn. While they are heating up in the oven you can crack open a bottle of your favorite wine. I’m not really a wine head, but when the time comes for me to drink some wine, I prefer a nice Merlot, Cabernet, or perhaps an Australian Bushvine Shiraz which happens to be one of my favorites. Plus, it would go along nice with these little treats!

Complement to meal: I started to pop these little treats into my mouth. The first flavors that came across my palette was the dryness of the crackers I chose. Trust a company like Keebler to fuck up what coupld be a really good organic cracker! This is a new product for them, and they kind of suck! Almost like a graham cracker without any sweetness, totally dry and gross. It’s not even that I heated them up in the oven! Saving the day of course was Happy Hal’s Jalapeno Relish and some smoked provolone! The smokiness of the cheese went along quite well with the diced japs. Although the cheese also cut the heat to a 0 on the HSB heat scale, that wouldn’t deter me in using this condiment in any other dish. Perhaps something without any cheese?!? Happy Hal’s Jalapeno Relish is a quick and easy addition to any meal you prepare. I can see me adding this to some onions and garlic sauteed in a skillet with some vegetables to top off some rice or pasta even! All in all the uses are pretty much endless! Soups, salads, casseroles, drinks, dips, chips, chains and whips! -Lars-

Initial impression: 7/10

Ingredient quality/content: 9/10

Flavor/textue/smell: 6/10

Heat: 2/10

Overall: 6/10

Happy Jalapenos
http://www.happyjalapenos.com/index.html

Ingredients: Here’s a riddle: The product is called “Habanero Horseradish”. One of the ingredients is horseradish. The other is not. (Actually, there is no ingredient list, but basically, its habanero and horseradish).

I believe it says in the Bible that the third Commandment stated “Defcon Creator Is Wing Sauce”, so I was more than excited when I got this in the mail from Nick. In fact, I opened it right away just to smell it. When I came-to from passing out I immediately took a huge spoonful. Man, what a kick in the rump. The balance is on the horseradish side, with a heavy kick from the red habanero. This is essentially grated horseradish with habanero. So the first culinary use I did with it was making some Bloody Marys. Yowza! What a touch! And around Wisconsin (State motto: “If It’s Not Bland, It’s Not Here!”) horseradish is used primarily for roast beef. So I decided to use it with Jambalaya.

I make my jambalaya from scratch, using beef, chicken, and Guillermo sausage, with red bell pepper rice. Now with all of those ingredients you would think the horseradish would drown itself out. Waaaaayyyy wrong. In fact, the blend really complimented to whole dish with a sharp, fresh tone I was expecting from the horseradish. So, satisfied with that, I added it to some pasta Alfredo the next day. This stuff really made the flavor of the cheeses ring out, and really improved the dish. Other foods I tried it on were scrambled eggs, a burger, and tacos (outstanding).

And what do you do if you have a cold/slight hangover? Mix a tablespoon of this in hot water, stir it up, and drink it like tea. No joke, your sinuses clear right the hell up.

This is fun stuff. So onto my Five Point Scale:
Appearance- Every time I look at this, the theme song from the movie “Terminator” pops in my head. Just gnarly, gnarly stuff.
Smell: 4- Every time I take a whiff of this I see a faint light at the end of a dark tunnel. So strong, wakes you up like hyper-coffee. I just love this, but I also love the smell of raw horseradish.
Taste: 4-I’m really impressed how this stuff lent itself to other flavors without over taking the dishes it was in. Great fresh flavor, lingering heat, clean finish. Strangely reminds me of white Burgundy.
Heat: 3.5-Surprisingly not as hot as I would expect from the Creator, but enough heat to satisfy this habbie-head.
Overall: 4-Even if it’s not a super-hot condiment from Defcon, it still is a great thing to reach for in the fridge. Great to experiment with, fun to eat, and just cool packaging. Remember, this is a Defcon product, so you’re not going to go wrong with this stuff.

Until next time, treat every meal like it was your last!

Defcon Sauces
908-665-2141

I first came across Grandaddy’s Ultimate Marinades at the Fiery Foods Show in 2006 - and ever since then I look forward to seeing their booths at any of the shows on the circuit. At Zest Fest this year, I grabbed Laura and lead her over to the booth to have her try the marinades they were sampling and after that, throughout the weekend,we kept returning for more. Before leaving on Sunday, I made sure to stop by and grab a few jars to take with me. You know you have a winning product on your hands when it’s the first item opened after a long weekend of tasting. And that’s just what happened with Grandaddy’s - Laura & I returned home Sunday night and both wanted some more of their delicious marinade.

Ingredients: Italian Dressing (Soybean oil, water, red wine vinegar, high fructose corn syrup, white wine vinegar, Romano and Parmesan cheese (pasteurized milk, cheese culture, salt, enzymes, powdered cellulose to prevent caking), salt, red bell pepper, spices, xanthan gum, onion, garlic, sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate (as preservatives)), water, chicken base (chicken meat, salt, monosodium glutamate, sugar, malodextrin, chicken fat, onion powder, food starch-modified, turmeric, oleoresin turmeric, flavoring, oleoresin paprika), Worcestershire sauce (water, distilled vinegar, salt, sugar, caramel color, malic acid, molasses, citric acid, onion, garlic, food gums (Arabic, xanthan, guar, cellulose), dextrose, liquid smoke, salt, molasses, apple cider vinegar, chipotle pepper, salt, spices, garlic, brown sugar, onion powder, apple juice concentrate, chili pepper, sugar, malodextrin, monosodium glutamate, autolyzed yeast exract, natural flavor, modified food starch, corn syrup solids, tricalcium phosphate, citric acid and FD&C Red #40. Contains Milk.
(did you get as tired reading that list as I did typing it?)

I’m not big on ingredient lists on products as long as it tastes good - but damn, that’s a long ingredient list.

Sunday night after Zest Fest and a 3.5 hour drive home - we weren’t very motivated to fire up the grill and make something that required more then 20 minutes of work, so we decided to go with what we had seen at the show. At the show Granddaddy’s had been sampling their marinades with meatballs and that’s about it. So out of the freezer came the meatballs and into the pot they went with the Smoke & Fire Marinade. Add some rice and you’ve got dinner - that’s it!

Straight to the Tongue: The marinade contains just enough chipotle to make the tip of your tongue notice. Flavor wise - well, it’s fantastic - the ingredients mingle together to create an array of flavors that compliment the meat, not overwhelm it. The marinade makes your mouth water and instantly visions of marinated steaks danced in my head.

Overall: Well, honestly - I should have known that was too simple of a recipe to be true. Dinner turned out to be a salty disaster. But it’s not the fault of the product - it was the end user, me. At the show - in small quantities, meatballs and the marinade were delicious. And at home, the same was true - the first 2-3 bites were amazing and the rest was a salty creation that wasn’t fit for even the biggest salt lover (like myself). Next to the Meatless MeatLoaf this will go down as one of the better cooking disasters in our household - a recipe never to be repeated.

But make no mistake, I’ll be opening up my other jars of Granddaddy’s very soon - and using them to the specifications on the jars. “Directions: Prior to cooking, marinate any type of meat or vegetable for 30 minutes to 4 hours.” And don’t let my dinner disaster influence your purchasing of this product - when used properly, Granddaddy’s Ultimate Marinade will rock you tastebud world. In fact, I think I’ll be trying their Garlic & Herb version out on some chicken or pork next weekend.

Ultimate Seasoning, LLC
8817 Creede Trail
Fort Worth, TX 76118
(888) 590-8240

I usually do not buy just anything that has “Habanero” in its name, especially when I’m at the grocery store. But, I’ll be honest, this was on sale, so I took a look. It’s made in Wisconsin (my bland home state), and my family and I took a visit to the Mustard Capital in Mount Horeb (WI), so, what the hey, why not???

Ingredients: Distilled vinegar, Water, Ground Mustard Seed, green chili peppers, Habanero Peppers, salt, Paprika, spices, dehydrated garlic, calcium chloride, sodium benzoate (preservative).

Essentially, by looking at this list, this is basically a grain mustard with chiles added. I poured some on my trusty tasting spoon, took a whiff, and smelled…..mustard. Just regular mustard. I took another look at it: no visible pieces of chiles, no seeds. I took one more sniff and LO AND BEHOLD! All I got was plain mustard. Habanero mustard my !**!

Then I took the taste. Yeah, mustard, and then out of the blue: POW! It hits you blind-sided. The heat didn’t really stick around, but what it did do was accentuate the clean flavor of the grain mustard. I was really taken aback-this was some pretty decent mustard!

I needed a food item that was truly made to pair with this, so I started with the standard pretzels. I bought pretzel sticks (dipping kind), gave a handful to my two year old daughter, and went to town. And I gotta say: pretty good. The saltiness of the pretzels complimented the saltiness and vinegar of the mustard while bringing out the crisp taste of the mustard grain. Then I took it to a hallowed Wisconsin tradition, an institution so sacred that the mere mention of it brings awe and confusion to those outside of this fine mid-west state. Yes my dear friends, I’m talking about: The Bratwurst. Yes, the fat little sausage that German immigrants made this region famous for. Famous if you’re a Wisconsinite, I guess.

Anyway, I grilled off some fresh brats, sautéed some onions, and put it all together. In a word: Divine. The fattiness of the brat and onions played well against the sharp mustard/habanero contrast, all the while without losing too much heat from the chile duo. This stuff was really going down well, so I cooked off another brat for a friend of mine, didn’t tell him about the mustard, and just watched him eat. My friend isn’t a chile head, so after a few choice words and gulps of drink, I concluded that to the uninitiated, this mustard delivers what it says.

So let’s get to my Five Points Scale:
Appearance: 3. This is a mustard first, and there would be no warning if you didn’t know there were chiles in here. Ask my friend!
Smell: Again a 3. See above.
Flavor: I’m going to give this a solid 4, only because-again-this is a mustard first with chiles added. The habanero adds secondary notes, and is not the main star in this. But a great, clean mustard flavor.
Heat:4.5. This mustard was made for the masses looking to spice things up a little. For the masses, this wouldn’t spice things up, it would blow things up.
Overall: 3.75. This is a really good mustard (and remember, mustard is a sauce). Silver Spring Gardens did what they intended to do-for regular folks. For the rest of us, this would be a slightly spicier mustard, which I like every now and then. Try it with fatty sausages, cheeses, and especially cold-cut sandwiches.

Until next time, treat every meal like it was your last!

Silver Spring Gardens, Inc.
Eau Claire, WI 54701-0360
www.silverspringfoods.com

“Eating Multiple pieces within a short time period may cause a temporary irritation to sensitive tongues and mouths.”

Ingredients: Sugar, Corn Syrup, Malic Acid, Citric Acid, Artificial Flavor, Cayenne, Artificial Colours (Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Red 40)

Flavours in Package:

Lemon-Lime Lava
Cherry Combustion
Tangerine Torcher

These little candies are brought to us by the same company that brought us the infamous War-Heads. And just as War-Heads were sour these are hot. Granted over time I became accustomed to the sourness of war-heads, but it was\is always fun to see how many you can cram in your mouth before you suck your face in. I have had quite a few “Hot” candies and these rank up there with the best of them. The heat mind you is very short lived, about 30 seconds worth, but you are left with a very nice fruit flavoured candy after the fact. Unlike an atomic fireball which will sustain heat for over ½ an hour, but can become quite cumbersome as a treat after the first few minutes.

Just like their Sour War-Head counterparts the level of heat is very inconsistent. You can go from one that has almost little to no heat, to one that lives true to it’s namesake. This is particularly annoying for when you are about to prank someone as they may get a dud and just enjoy the candy it self.

The ingredients list cayenne as the heat generator, but there is no actual cayenne taste. Quite unlike some of the Habanero candies that I have tried that have a very pronounced hab flavour to them. For me this is a good thing cause as much as I love my peppers, sometimes it’s just the heat that I want without the pepper flavour behind it. I think the heat factor on this for the general consumer would be considered pretty high, albeit short lived.

Should you walk into a specialized candy store and see these, I think they are worth a pick up just for novelty sake. The price point is cheap ($1.29 in Toronto) and there is a fun factor too them. Even if you don’t get walloped by heat, the candy still taste’s quite good.

The Foreign Candy Company
1 Foreign Candy Drive
Hull, IA 51239-7499