For the times when it’s just not hot enough! Have you ever been to a restaurant and the hot sauce is wimpy? You have the answer.

This is a great idea – a keychain vial filled with [tag]jalapeno[/tag] pepper powder that goes anywhere.

I go to great lengths to make sure that I have good hot sauce nearby wherever I go. A few bottles at work, one in the glove box of my car (my wife hasn’t let me stash one in her car yet) and a bottle in my briefcase. When I think ahead, I often bring a bottle of hot sauce with me to restaurants. But, with all those efforts, there are still times when I want to spice something up and don’t have a good sauce at hand. In comes Captain Thom and his fantastic Jalapeno Chili Head Survival Kit.

The jalapeno powder has an excellent pepper flavor and a nice kick. The container can be easily refilled, so this is a purchase that will continue to be useful for a long time. The top is threaded on with a sealing o-ring that does a very good job of keeping any powder from escaping while the vial is closed; but the one complaint I have is that it would have been awfully nice to locate the o-ring below the threads rather than above. As it is, a tiny bit of powder escapes every time I unscrew it. But that’s probably a picky point from the mind of an engineer. The vial seems durable enough, which is important – I wouldn’t want it to break at an inopportune moment and send a cloud of pepper dust into the air.

I gave Captain Thom’s a try at the local J. Alexander’s. They have a great pasta dish called Rattlesnake Pasta that consists of grilled chicken and bell peppers in a cayenne-cream sauce. It has a little zip to it, but not nearly enough for my liking (unfortunately, the pictures I took of the meal didn’t come out.) Their only hot sauce option is tabasco, and the vinegar in that ruins the dish for me. So, I whipped out the Captain Thom’s Jalapeno Keychain, and dumped a bunch in.

The heat addition was great. This powder must have squeezed every bit of capsaicin right out of those jalapenos – the heat is impressive for the variety. And the mixing of jalapeno flavor with the cayenne was simply delightful. The use of the vial was simple, clean and unobtrusive. Resealing was simple. And since the vial is big enough to hold a good amount of powder but small enough to fit right in on a keychain, it really can go anywhere.

Captain Thom’s Jalapeno Chili Head Survival kit is a great idea. It will be a mainstay on my keychain for a long time to come, ensuring I never again have to deal with bland food.