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Now, I may not like tomatoes, but I sure do love a good batch of salsa. Here in NYC, if your order chips and salsa with your meal you are playing Russian taste bud roulette. You never know what the chef’s in the kitchen will try to pass as salsa.
So I’ve turned to mail order salsa. No more risking a good meal with mediocre salsa, no sir, not when I can get good salsa delivered to my house for less then the cost of two cocktails. I’ve been a devote fan of Salsa de Rosas fresh salsas, frankly I love having 64oz. containers of salsa in my fridge - they never stick around long.
A little while back, Sean Sorrin from Epic Valley Salsa contacted me about reviewing his new line of salsas.
“Salsa from Colorado?” I thought to myself, “oh well, can’t be as bad as the stuff here in New York“.
Then, low and behold, 2 jars of Epic Valley Salsa show up at my door - one Mild and one Hot. Naturally I went straight for the hot one.
Now that’s what a good salsa should have in it. Not anything fake, just real honest ingredients. The habanero provides just enough heat to make you sit up and take notice - but not enough to scare you away from another chip. In fact, the entire jar won’t last you long, so it’s best you order two.
Once I polished off the HOT, I moved onto the Mild - but that was where I went wrong. The Mild has the same great flavor as the Hot - just not enough heat for a chilehead like myself. The wife loved the Mild so much that before I could add a little bit of heat to it, she took the jar and forbade me to modify it.
Sean & Corey started bottling their salsa in the winter of 98-99, producing about 6 cases of salsa a day. These days the guys are making 100 cases of their Epic Valley Salsa a day - selling to health food stores, specialty stores and gourmet food stores within 100 miles of their Crested Butte Location. Fortunately the guys also sell their salsas online, which allows folks outside of Colorado to enjoy these fresh (and preservative free) salsas around the world.
Epic Valley Salsa
PO Box 615 | Salida, CO | 81201
970-209-7699
Chilehead Comments:
Posted by: Nick Lindauer - Categories: Uncategorized
Permalink: Epic Valley Salsa
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31 Comments »
I thought Salsa de Rosa was good, but weak. Can’t seem to get off their e-mailing list now either.
Anyway, this one sounded interesting– but their site won’t work without cookies. It’s like not being let to browse a store without them first xeroxing your driver’s license or something. Forget it.
Has anyone ever tried MERZ salsa? It is made in south illinois and is probably the best salsa I have ever had. You can polish off an entire bottle and not even realize it!
After going through the trash to find yet another empty jar,here is the web address senoritamerz.com
I get mine in the local grocery store since they make right over the river. It is very popular!!!
If you have not tried it,you are missing out.
eric
The website hasen’t been updated lately but they have several kinds now.
sorry about the cookies but i’m just learning web work. you can order epic valley salsa at http://www.gourmetfoodmall.com. epic valley is under the fiery foods and salsa floor. thanks for the great review nick.
salsa sean
nick,shoot me your address and I will hook you up with some bottles
eman1stkc@earthlink.net
peace out bro!
(ok,thats corney)
eman, even though i think my product, epic valley, is the best i always love to try a great salsa so i will be ordering merz and giving it a shot. i will let you know what i think.
salsa sean
I am going to get some epic valley too and post back here my thoughts.
eric
Just ordered the epic valey and nick,I am sending the salsa probably tomorrow.
eric
Got it today.WOW,this is some good stuff. The mild is even quite “peppy”. My hats off to you. Did you get some merz yet sean?
eman,
i ordered the salsa but has not arrived yet. glad to hear you like my product.
sean
sean, did you send me some jerky?
eric
eman, it is on the way. my biz partner, corey, forgot to drop it in the mail. sorry, salsa sean.
oh yeah, still waiting for my merz too. i’ll let you know what i think when it gets here.
I jot the jerkey. That stuff will open your eye’s a little!! Good stuff!
finally got the merz. l bought there hot, medium and balck bean corn. pretty good. the black bean and corn was one of the best the i have had. the others were pretty good too.
[...] HSB’s Review Article at the Gourmet Food Mall [...]
already went through the hot and mild i got from you……mmmmm, me want more!!!!………
anyway, did you ever think about making your mild even milder! The moms and wife said it was too hot
Who is selling jerky?
the jerky is a product that i had picked up at in oklahoma city at the beef jerky emporium and was selling it in a epic valley salsa gift box. however i ran out and am not selling it anymore. you can get it online though through http://www.tbje.com it is called the extreme hot shoppe beef jerky. real good.
salsa sean
eman, i have not really considered to make the mild more mild, because it is salsa and not ketchup. however because i use fresh ingredients sometimes the heat levels can very due to the vegetables and peppers. i just did a batch that came out real mild(no heat) and unfortunately it was a jar that got sent to thehotzoneonline.com for review. they say that we took the word mild to literally. oh well. that’s life. i do not have the consistency of pace.
salsa sean
One of the interesting things about so many different brands of salsa is that there is a pretty broad definition when it comes to ‘mild’ and to ‘hot.’ There was certainly no way to know that the bottle of EV Mild that Sean sent to us was a batch that came out milder than expected, but someone else tasting it might think the heat level was just right. Consistency is in the eye of the beholder…or rather the taster.
There is some Excellent habanero jerky on ebay. Just search under hot sauce jerky. It is a guy in Arizona. The stuff is excellent. Great cut of meat!!!
Yeah, i know what you mean! You never know how hot a pepper is actually. I have hade the same problems when making my own salsa. Just thought you might like the feedback. Keep up the good work!!!!!!
I buy this jerky off of Ebay from this guy named Ed his habanero is extemely hot, but if you ask him for green habanero, it is even hotter. I am addicted to this stuff. I blow through a pound in one day.
Definitely
sounds good to me, how about some salsa? (wink wink)
I wanted to find out how I could get some of the salsa and if there is a retailer in the Raleigh NC area. I also wanted to see if Corey Folks is still involved in Epic Valley.Corey turned me on to it abuot 5 years ago when I was skiing in Crested Butte CO.I just found his numbers and wanted to get in touch with him. Thanks Bert (919)669-6087
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Im eager to create my own salsa also, the recipee is in my head. This one looks good. Is it more like a jarred up salsa from a grocery store, or a resturant style salsa?