Curt’s Special Recipe Salsa Extra Hot

Anytime I get a salsa in a box to review it will most likely be the first bottle opened, I absolutely love it and was excited to see this in my newest package from nick. The label is nothing fancy, just extra hot special recipe curts salsa on a white label, but still I like it though. I shook it around and the consistency is about the same as a store bought bottle of tostino’s salsa which is thick and chunky but with enough juice in it to easily slosh around in the bottle. I take a closer look and see good size chunks of tomato, medium chunks of onion small chunks of green peppers and lots of seeds.

My favorite way to eat salsa is just on some corn chips, it’s a great snack and works good for a review because I don’t really have any other flavors from the food to interfere with the product being reviewed. I poured some into a bowl to dip my chips better and it smelled and tasted great, it reminded me of the fresh salsa that is often served at Mexican restaurants as an appetizer and made me miss chi chi’s. the spice mix in it is also similar to the Tostitos brand salsa that I used to love but this one has something that Tostitos didn’t, the reason I quit eating Tostitos because it didn’t have and that’s the fresh flavor of it.

It really tastes more like a fresh made salsa than a canned one. The chunks of tomato in this salsa seam to just be filled with juice that bursts open in your mouth when you chomp on them. I finished the jar up quick and was sad when it was gone. I looked up the website and they don’t sell it from the website there is just a list of stores in Minnesota and Wisconsin that sell it, but they do have an email address to contact if you want to buy or sell it yourself. I also didn’t see any info about there other products but I see a bottle of salsa labeled hot on the main page so I know they have at least 2 different salsas. I was kind of hoping for a black bean and corn.

Ingredients: tomatoes, onions, peppers, vinegar, habanero peppers, water, salt, spices, phosphoric acid, calcium chloride, sodium benzoate, sodium metabisulfite (preservative), yellow #5.

Email: info@curtssalsa.com
www.curtssalsa.com
distributed by Montero distributing inc Stillwater, mn 55082

Flavor: 9/10 I really liked the fresh taste of this salsa, and would recommend it.

Heat: I was a little disappointed in the heat level but it was still a great product. I know that if my wife eats it with me that its not hot and she loved this stuff.

Thickness/ consistency: just right

Overall: 9/10

Rancho Bravo is a leading Peruvian and international producer and distributor of agricultural products. Their focus is on fresh tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables including carrots, corn, eggplant, green beans, zucchini and onions. What does this mean to you and me? I can tell you hands down that these folks make the best Salsa Picante that you will ever taste.

The label is good. Typical colors for a salsa label, but not bold or festive like most U. S. made salsa’s. At first glance, I immediately know this salsa is not a product of the United States. My only complaint is the print is so tiny, the ingredients and description were almost impossible to read.

This review is very basic. Blue corn chips and Rancho Bravo’s Salsa Picante “Extra Hot”. Add this to other snack foods and my family is set for a quiet New Year celebration at home.

Ingredients: Fresh Tomatoes, Fresh Tomato Puree, Red Onions, Peruvian Limo Peppers (Aji Limo), Red and Green Bell Peppers, garlic, Red Wine Vinegar, Cilantro, Selected Spices.

What an all-star lineup. No water, no sugar and fresh everything. I’m not familiar with Peruvian Limo Peppers, but wow, this stuff is hot…….Read on.

Rancho Bravo’s line of products include ready to eat sauces and salsas totally free of preservatives, stabilizers, artificial colors and flavor additives. Their 5 salsas begin with mild and end with extra hot.

Appearance: Awesome! Thick, chunky, colorful. All you see is vegetables. This salsa is not over processed. You can easily pick out every ingredient listed including the cilantro. A perfect 10

Aroma: Awesome! A good whiff and I can literally smell every ingredient in the jar. There is something about fresh sweet bell peppers, fresh onions and fresh garlic that just sets me off. Add fresh cilantro (a taste that I just recently acquired) and you have a mouth watering concoction that begins with your nose. I also get a throaty type aroma from what has to be the Limo Peppers. I must say that these peppers smell just like a habanero. You can’t really smell heat, but I can tell you from this aroma, this salsa will be hot. A perfect 10

Heat: This is the hottest salsa that I have consumed to date. Keep in mind that I can’t handle extracts or munch on fresh habs. I initially got hit with a tongue burn that stayed with me while I consumed the entire 14.1 ounce jar. After about 10 bites my nose started to run and my tongue kept burning. I equate this burn to a cayenne burn that stays on the tongue as opposed to a habanero burn that hits my throat. The heat disappeared about 10 minutes after the jar was gone. I’ll give the heat a 7 out of 10 on the HSB scale. My personal scale would rate this hotter.

Consistency: This goes hand in hand with appearance. The texture is perfect. The thickness and ratio of ingredients is perfect. A perfect 10.

Overall: I have found my perfect salsa. We eat a lot of salsas in my house. Types include the normal Chi Chi’s, Tostito’s, Peppers Blue Crab, Marco’s Salsa’s and even Sam’s Choice Black bean and corn. Rancho Bravo’s Salsa Picante ” Extra Hot” goes to the top of my list. Once I started eating, I could not stop still it was gone. Overall a 9.25 out of 10.

There is one problem with this salsa and that is availability. There is nothing worse than having a great product and not making it available to the masses. It cannot be purchased from their site either. www.ranchobravo.com. It is distributed by:

RB Distributers, 6132 Maxie Street, Houston, TX, 77077. I have emailed them at ccu@ranchobravo.com, but have not heard back. If anyone has information on where to buy their products, please post. I’m gonna buy a case.

Just over 2 years ago, I first reviewed the entire line up of Salsa de Rosa Fresh Salsas. Since such time has passed, I thought it would be time to bring these salsas back into the limelight. About a month ago, after going through most of the salsas I had in the house, Salsa de Rosa popped into my mind and I promptly ordered 3 of the 32oz jars. I’ll spare everyone writing the entire review again (you can read the original here & below)

From the original review:
Now, if I received this salsa in a restaurant, I would be very impressed. Receiving this salsa in the mail bowled me over. Not too hot (the wife can eat it) but just enough heat so that your sinuses will open up - but not run. I cooked up some hamburger, added a can of rinsed black beans to the pan and a 16oz of the Salsa de Rosa Hot. Then I took the mixture and spooned it over nachos. Simply, easy and delicious. Highly recommended to all chileheads, although beginners may only be able to take a little at a time.

Ingredients: Hand selected tomato, tomatillo, onion, jalapeno, cilantro, garlic, lemon juice, wine vinegar and salt.

Up Close

On Nachos

Shortly after opening it

In short - these salsa are fantastic. In less then 3 days, then entire 32oz jar was empty and I moved on to the next one. And if you are worried about the shipping of fresh salsa, don’t. The salsas a shipped with an ice pack and even after shipping from Washington to Texas, the ice pack was still frozen and the salsas were nice & cold. Order yourself some today and don’t be shy. Go for the 3 pack and sample each of the heat levels to make sure you find the one that works for you. Enjoy!

Salsa de Rosa
13941 NE 85th Street
Redmond, WA 98052

Peppers Original
Blue Crab Salsa

First impression: Right from the get go I was hemming and hawing about doing this review. It’s just that crab salsa didn’t seem to appealing to my palette. But read on folks, and you’ll see what I found out about Peppers Original Blue Crab Salsa! The label itself is quite unassuming on its own. But it sure let’s you know that you are picking up a jar of salsa with crab meat in there… See I just found this to be an odd combination at first. So seeking out a dish that I felt would make me really taste this salsa, I decided upon something simple. NACHOS! I just happened to have some shredded cheese in the fridge and half of a bag of jalapeno tortilla chips! Heating up the toaster oven and preparing my foil dish, I glanced at the ingredients and took note that it was relatively clean, with the exception of the HFCS in the Worcestershire sauce and the hydrolyzed soy and corn protein. I won’t go into detail here about these additives but you can follow this link and read up more on the subject if you prefer…http://www.deliciousorganics.com/Controversies/soy.htm

You can find this salsa on the Peppers website, at $5.99 for a 12 oz. jar…

Ingredients: diced tomatoes, crab meat, diced green bell peppers, lime juice, chili peppers, Worcestershire sauce (vinegar, molasses, high fructose corn syrup, anchovies, water, onions, salt, garlic, tamarind extract, cloves, natural flavorings, chili pepper extract, hydrolyzed soy and corn protein), special blend of herbs and spices, salt.

Appearance/Smell/Taste: At first glance through the glass jar, this salsa has a medium red color, and visible are some various chunks of the previously listed ingredients. You can even see little strands of crab meat in there. Hmm, this is going to be an experience for me I can tell you that! So I crack open the lid and take a large inhale. It smells initially of fresh tomatoes! Towards the back I get hints of the sweet green peppers, Worcestershire sauce, and a slight seafood smell. Mind you it’s not an overpowering seafood smell at all. It’s probably right where it should be for a salsa with crab meat. And surprisingly this salsa is actually pretty hearty and thick. I wasn’t sure before I twisted off the cap, it seemed looser in the jar before I opened it. Peppers gets a big thumbs up for this!
So scooping a heap out onto my tasting spoon, I sniff sniff one more time before I give it a taste. Just making sure that I’m matching up what I smell and taste together. The initial flavor that hits my tongue is the tomato flavor, sweetness from the bell peppers, and then a slight tickle of heat that fades in about 5 seconds. I’d say roughly a solid 3 on the HSB heat scale. I thought I saw chili pepper extract in that ingredient list someplace, didn’t I?!? Almost immediately following the dissipating heat is the slight hint of crab meat. It’s very subtle, which is probably why I’m actually enjoying this salsa thus far. But let’s give it the food test to see if it stands up to its initial taste test.

Prepared meal: Nachos w/Peppers Original Blue Crab Salsa

Spreading the remaining chips out, then covering them with about ½ of the jar of Peppers Original Blue Crab Salsa, topped off by some shredded white cheddar cheese. After slapping them in the toaster oven for roughly 5-8 minutes, depending on how ‘done’ you like your nachos. The smell is very mellow and pleasant coming off the plate of hot nachos. Let’s see how they taste…

Complement to meal: Initially the flavor is almost the same as it was cold, with one exception being that the heat has been notched up 1 unit to a solid 4 on the HSB heat scale. I wonder if this is the added kick of that chili pepper extract (probably added more as a flavor enhancer than concentrated oleoresin would be added for heat) showing it’s head a little once heated?!? Still not sure about that ingredient because I don’t ‘taste’ extract in this salsa. And I also detect that the the bell pepper and crab flavors have been enhanced slightly too. Yeah, most definitely they have. I think that this is what gives Peppers Original Blue Crab Salsa it’s appeal. It doesn’t have too much of a ‘seafoody’ flavor and the tomato and bell pepper mixture is just right, with a nice thick and even consistency. Overall I feel that Peppers has a nice product here. It’s not something that would grab my attention on the shelf, once I read ‘Blue Crab’. But honestly after trying it, I would definitely have it again and won’t snub my nose immediately at a salsa that contains shellfish or any other seafood until I actually give it a try. Go for it! I did… -Lars-

Initial impression: 8/10
Ingredient quality/content: 6/10
Flavor/texture/smell: 9/10
Heat: 4/10
Overall: 6.75/10

Peppers
www.peppers.com
Tanger Factory Outlets
36445 Seaside Outlet Drive
Suite # 1815
Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971
302/227-4608
peppers@peppers.com

Marcel de Wit, a chef by trade, his wife Connie and brother Alex run The Chilli Factory in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Note the Australian spelling of chilli, with two L’s. Living in that part of the world afforded the de Wits the opportunity to travel to parts of Southeast Asia that many consider the world’s “cradle of capsicum”, where they discovered the pleasures of hot chillis. Now it is their livelihood, and my first taste of their product line would indicate they are very good at it.

Ingredients: Tomato, onion, carrot,” chilli”, vinegar, sugar, herbs and spices.

I usually like to decide what I’m putting my sauce on before I review it, based on its appearance in the bottle and my “gut feel”. The label offered some possibilities, saying it was a great condiment for any BBQ or as a dip, or to try it with pasta (?!!). But this one looked so much like a salsa, I decided to just use the good old roasted corn tortilla chips.

First Impression - To begin my organoleptic examination, I opened the jar. I took a whiff – it smelled like salsa, somewhat “tomatoey”. I poured it out on a plate – it looked like salsa. Before the chip test, I took several spoonfuls to see if it would behave like salsa. It had the texture all right – with nice small chunks of the onion, tomato, and whole basil leaves, stem and all, plus flakes and seeds of whatever secret chilli they put in there. So the look and the texture passed the test – rustic and pleasing.

Flavors -when you taste Outback Storm, you have (I timed it!) about 4 seconds to figure out the flavors before…wham!…the chillis start doing their job. More about that in a second…well, 4 seconds. I like the flavor a lot. Tomatoes predominate. I guess to compliment the basil, they have used Roma tomatoes in this relish. That’s a great choice because when they are treated right, Romas taste wonderfully fruity in a sauce, a salsa, or a relish. The way to bring that fruitiness out is to have just the right amount of sugar in the batch – not too little, not too much. Marcel got it right – sweet like a ripe plum tomato – that’s my first taste, along with a pleasant garlic flavor.

Now to the wham! Consider this: in Southeast Australia, they have been making great wines for generations, but only in the last 10 or so years have the wines in this region really caught on with Americans. Why? The Aussies understand the needs of the “me generation” of wine drinkers. That’s why they began to produce and export more “fruit forward” wines – those that have almost exaggerated flavor characteristics that are most pleasing to wine drinkers who are looking for instant gratification.

So, too, has The Chilli Factory done it with this “fire forward” relish! No waiting. The heat starts…tick, tick, tick, tick…NOW! It burns first your lips, next the interior of your mouth from top to bottom, then the top of your tongue, and the back of your throat (the latter lasting a mercifully brief period of time). But the mouth burn sticks with you, even after a swig of a cold liquid. Mind you, it’s a tolerable and, for me, altogether pleasant attack on the mouth. I know not from where the chillis come, but the activity of my various sweat points (in this case, eye sockets, side of nose, top of forehead at the hairline and back of skull) would indicate that the variety comes from one of the exotic Asian ports of call the de Wits visited in years past.

So, do use this like a salsa, but don’t limit yourself. Use it as a true condiment, maybe in the same way you would spoon Sambal on your Satay or other grilled meats on a stick. The company website suggests you dip it along with sour cream and that’s a fine idea too. This relish would surely perk up that ubiquitous 7-layer Mexican party dip. You know the one – you invite 10 couples over and tell them to bring an appetizer, and 9 of them show up with that mess! Well, keep a few jars of Outback Storm around, just in case that happens!

SUMMARY:
Initial impression: 6.5/10
Ingredient quality/content: 8.5/10
Flavor/texture/smell: 8/10
Heat: 5.5/10
Overall: 7.5/10

The Chili Factory
1 Ironbark Rd
Morisset NSW 2264
Australia

Ingredients: Diced tomatoes, blue crab, sweet yellow corn, finely chopped green bell peppers, lime juice, smoked chipotle peppers, minced green chili peppers, Worcestershire sauce, a special blend of herbs and spices.

I LOVE CRABS. Ok, that may not be the way to start this review…What I meant to say is that I really enjoy partaking in fine food that comes from water, particularly crustacean type animals. I also love chipotles and sweet yellow corn. But I’ve never had them together, so when Nick sent me this bottle, I was excited to go tongue surfing with this Chipotle Blue Crab Salsa!

The secret to making really good salsa is watching the salt. The reason you have to be careful with it is because what’s the #1 vessel salsa uses to get to your gums? Chips, and 99% of store bought chips are salted. So you want a salsa that’s not too high in the sodium with enough to bring out the flavors of the other ingredients. This salsa delivers that fine balance. What really impressed me with this salsa is that they took, essentially, “sweet” ingredients (blue crab, yellow corn) and married them with very subtle chipotles.

And the aroma is great. My instructions were to chill this before using, so that somewhat muted (is that the right term?) the smell, but I got a great whiff of the green chiles. And this is a nice chunky salsa. Why doesn’t anybody make salsa this way, where you can actually SEE what’s in it?

But what’s important is taste. Again, I chilled it before using, and with my trusty tasting spoon I took a huge bite. To say it is mild is like saying the Pacific Ocean is wet. Very, very mild, almost to the point of being sweet. Almost too sweet for me. So yeah, I did the chip thing, store bought tortillas. Good. Not great, but good. Then I thought: Pasta. And when I think of seafood and pasta I think of Ramen noodles (hey, what the hell). After adding just a touch of sea salt, I had a gourmet meal, it really worked. When you add a little bit of heat to this, all the flavors really come to life. This is a fun salsa.

So here is my Five Points Scale:
Appearance: A clear 5. I like seeing what I’m chipping.
Smell: 4. Clean, fresh green chile smell.
Taste: 3. OK chilled, but I think this is a better topping on hot foods.
Heat: .05. And that’s really pushing it.
Overall: 3. This is a nice salsa for everyone. Just add your own heat, that’s really all it needs.

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

Awards:
2005 NBBQA National Champion! Won 1st Place - Best Salsa
2004 National Barbecue Association Award of Excellence, National Champion in the Salsa / Any Thing Goes Category.

Peppers
1815 Ocean Outlets Seaside,
Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971

Opinions are like elbows, everyone has two. And sometimes reviews blur the line between opinions and facts. That was the inspiration for the “Face Off”. Here’s how it works: Two reviewers, one sauce, identical meals, and zero conversation. Ethan and Newman tried “Hillbillie Sweet Gormay Salsa: Hot” on Identical meals at the same time, and then without any discussion, separated and wrote two reviews.

Ingredients: Tomato Sauce, Ketchup (tomato concentrate, high fructose corn syrup, vinegar, salt, onion powder, spice, and natural flavors) diced tomatoes, jalapeno peppers, onions, green bell peppers, brown sugar, distilled white vinegar, tomato paste, habanero peppers, garlic.

Newman’s Take
On first look the packaging of Hillbillies Salsa looks pretty common. There’s nothing particularly bad, just nothing particularly special. But just like books and their covers, packaging can be deceiving. Prior to Ethan’s arrival I cheated, and tried some of the salsa on a plain ol’ tortilla chip. I didn’t hate it but, I didn’t love it. I read up on Hillbille’s with the provided materials, and the manufacturer suggests it be used as a ketchup substitute. So we went and picked up some burgers.

Bouquet: You open the jar and the dominant smells are sweet pickle relish, and tomatoes. Overall it’s pretty pleasant as salsa aromas go.

Texture: This salsa is by no means thick and chunky but it does “hold together” nicely, and you don’t need to look too closely to find a pepper or onion chunk.

Taste: On a chip it’s nothing to write home about. But on a burger it’s dope. Ethan and I started eating and about two minutes later the burgers were gone. The sweet relish taste is subtle, the tomatoes are perfect, and the heat is deceptive and delayed. I ate most of the burger before the heat crept in and bit a little. I plan on buying again, and use this as my “first choice” ketchup replacement.

Medal Round:
Package: A Bronze
Heat: A Bronze
Taste: A Gold
Overall: A Silver (taste can carry you a long way, baby! )

Ethan’s Take
I love salsa. It’s common for me to eat half a jar in one sitting without even realizing what I’ve done. Of course, the more salsa I eat the more demanding I become. I almost can’t eat mass-produced store bought salsa anymore. It all tastes the same: tomatoes and onions. When I opened Hillbillie salsa, that’s what I smelled. In fact, it smelled a lot like ketchup. So when Newman suggested we try the salsa on hamburgers (which the salsa’s promotional flyer suggests) I agreed.

But first things first. The packaging, including the overalls-wearing pepper-toting “hillbillie,” is cute, but certainly wouldn’t get me to pick up a jar off the store shelf. As I mentioned, when I opened the standard 16 ounce jar I smelled ketchup. The salsa’s consistency is a lot like most of the major brand salsas I can find at my local grocery chain. It’s well blended with a few chunks to improve the appearance. The liquid part of the salsa always seems mysteriously, unnaturally thick. Nothing out of the ordinary here; it looks a lot like any other salsa.

Now for the good part: it tastes much better than your ordinary salsa! My first bite was underwhelming. Hillbillie Sweet Gormay Salsa tastes quite a bit like ketchup, which I’ll admit disappointed me at first. It claims to be sweet, and it certainly is. In fact, the overall flavor was quite a bit like sweet relish mixed with ketchup. The heat was practically non-existent. But I kept eating, and the taste improved. The heat built up over time, never becoming anything unbearable but definitely making itself noticed. I’d still consider it a mild salsa, maybe a 4 on the HSB heat scale, but those less accustomed to the heat might call it a medium.

On a cheese burger, the flavor really took off. The relish/ketchup combo complemented the beef perfectly. As I warmed to the sweet flavor, I started dipping my fries in the salsa. I devoured the burger, trying to eat it quickly so the salsa didn’t drip out of the bun and onto the wrapper below. Try as I might, I couldn’t catch it all. Luckily I had enough fries to mop up the leftovers.

When all was said and done, I was left wanting more. A lot more. Hillbillie Sweet Gormay Salsa comes highly recommended from this reviewer.

A&I Sauces
624 West Church Street
Galion, OH 44833
419.468.5053

2006 Houston Hot Sauce Festival
1st Place: Specialty Salsa-Amateur Competition

2006 Texas Tornado Hockey Salsa Shootout
1st Place: Best Hot Salsa-Consumer Division

It’s been a while since we’ve done a salsa review here on the HSB, so I was happy when Wayne Brawley’s 2 Brothers Fire Roasted Chipotle Salsa came across my desk. Made under the name ‘2 Brothers’ - the company is actually ran by one brother (Wayne) as a dedication to his brother Wes who used to love Waynes’ homemade salsa. Wayne started making salsa over 10 years ago when his mother had an excess of tomatoes available after a harvest and as the familiar story goes, everyone loved it and before Wayne knew what was happening, he was packaging his salsa creation and entering it into a few local contests and events. Needless to say, Waynes family and friends were right and Wayne has gone on to take 1st place at the 2006 Houston Hot Sauce Festival

Ingredients: Tomato, Jalapeno, Chipotle Peppers (Tomato puree, Vinegar, Onions, Sunflower Seed Oil, Sugar, Salt and Spices), Citric Acid, Cilantro, Garlic, Salt and Spices.

The ingredient list is simple and straight to the point and when you look at the salsa, that’s exactly what you see - fresh & fire roasted ingredients. Just by looking at the salsa, I would venture to guess that this is a salsa that’s similar to one you can find in a nice Mexican restaurant. 2 Brothers Fire Roasted doesn’t have that typical “out of the jar” salsa appearance. The salsa is nicely blended to a consistency that creates a nice “stick to your chip” dip.

So it looks nice, but how does it taste? Three words: emptied the jar. I killed the entire 16oz. jar in two sittings. And just to see how well the salsa held up - I opened the jar in early June - ate half and then stuck it in the fridge to see what would happen to the flavor after sitting refrigerated for a while. Flash forward to July and I took the jar out again - consistency and smell were the same and the flavor was spot on. After a month of being opened and refrigerated, this salsa held up and tasted as fresh and excellent as it had on day one.

Now, granted, this isn’t a hot salsa by any means. On the HSB Heat Scale, it comes in at a 3-4. Not hot enough to cause you to sweat, but just a tingle to let you know that you are eating a nicely chipotle inspired salsa. Give 2 Brothers Salsa a whirl for yourself and you won’t be disappointed. And expect to see 2 Brothers Salsa taking home more awards in the upcoming months.

Brawley’s Foods
4318 Eastside Avenue
Dallas, TX 75228
http://www.twobrotherssalsa.com
Fire Roasted Salsa - $5.49 per 16oz. jar

Ingredients: Tomato Puree (Water, Tomato paste), onion, high fructose corn syrup, green pepper, vinegar, canola oil, celery, salt, sugar, molasses, garlic, cayenne pepper, spices, natural hickory smoke flavor, food starch-modified, black pepper.

Packaging: E.W.’s Creole All Purpose Sauce comes in a straight sided 9-oz jar with gold cap, and a smiling photo of Chef EW on the front. A no-nonsense presentation, for a no-pretentions sauce. On the back of the label is the standard nutritional printout as well as the claim “Delicious as a Salsa/Marinade”.

E.W.’s Creole sauce is a chunky orange/brown concoction. Medium-sized lumps of vegetables are evident throughout. The aroma is low-key hickory with subtle honey-notes.

Flavor-wise, EW’s is simply a delight. I found this sauce to be smoky, subtly sweet, and mellow. The vegetables are generously proportioned and well cooked - not too crunchy, but in no way soggy. The label claims that this sauce can be used as a salsa, and I wholeheartedly endorse that notion. Perfect proportions of smoke and sweetness means that you can confidently dunk chips, nachos, chicken fingers, heck you’ll probably end up dunking YOUR fingers… It’s flavor stands alone. Looking at an open jar, I find myself fighting the urge to eat the remainder with my spoon.

For all it’s depth, E.W.’s Creole is not a very hot sauce. Despite the word “Hot” on the label, the cayenne pepper only provides a momentary tingle on the lips. EW sells a “Spicy Hot XX” version of its Creole sauce that figures to provide more punch to those of you who are so inclined.

E.W. has a winner here. I’m hard pressed to think of a food that wouldn’t taste better with a little (or a lot) of this sauce spooned onto it. While I didn’t get a chance to try it as a marinade, I imagine that it would work splendedly with grilled chicken. Stacked high on a cheeseburger, E.W.’s was a smoky treat.

I also drizzled it over pizza, which greatly enhanced an otherwise mundane experience.

Packaging 6/10
Appearance 9/10
Aroma 8/10
Taste 9/10
Heat 2/10

Overall 9/10 - Superb!

http://www.ewcreolefood.com

Peppers Zesty Blue Crab Salsa - Enjoy the bounty of the Chesapeake Bay! The sweet flavor of the Blue Crab combined with fresh ripe vegetables and zesty horseradish makes for an exquisite salsa.
Use it as a dip or to enhance seafood dishes, omelets, salads & grilled meats.

This National Champion Salsa was seen on “Roker on the Road” on the Food Network in 2004.

Crab salsa? Seriously? Seriously. As a salsa lover at heart, I’m always willing to give a new salsa a whirl - but when I first came across Peppers Blue Crab Salsa, I wondered if it was going to be any good. But after heading down to Peppers last October, I witnessed first hand just how popular the Crab salsa was - it’s one of the stores best sellers and just about everyone that walked into the store tried it and bought a jar.

There’s no skimping on the crab in this salsa - you can see it mixed in the salsa along with all of the other spices and seasonings. And it’s real blue crab, not that fake Krab stuff.

Ingredients: Diced tomatoes, Crab Meat, Roasted Chiles, Horseradish, Chili Peppers, Diced Green Bell Peppers, Lime Juice, Worcestershire Sauce, Jalapeno Peppers, A Special Blend of Herbs & Spices, Salt.

I decided to give the salsa a try by pouring it over a dish of nachos. When you first open the jar, you get a strong whiff of crab - followed by a scent that reminds me of cocktail sauce. So over the nachos the salsa went and I proceeded to dig in. Talk about a strong flavor - which is to be expected considering the powerful crab smell. The flavor of the crab overpowers the other flavors of the salsa, with the exception of the heat - after a few bites, a small tingle of heat starts on the back of the tongue.

I don’t think I’d use this salsa on nachos again, but I would be happy to serve this on it’s own as a stand alone salsa or as a killer cocktail sauce. I struggle with the strong crab flavor, but I can definitely see the potential and the wide variety of uses that it can have. Crab salsa - yep, don’t knock it until you try it and make sure you keep your mind open to the possibilities and potential uses. Peppers Zesty Blue Crab Salsa is definitely a step out of the normal salsa that we’re all used to, but I’m sure the change will be welcome to your taste buds. Give it a whirl and expand it’s uses!

Peppers
1815 Ocean Outlets Seaside,
Rehoboth Beach, DE 19971