Review: Blairs Q Heat Blair’s Wasabi Green Tea

Blair’s Wasabi Green Tea offers a lot you won’t find in most [tag]hot sauces[/tag]. Like [tag]Wasabi[/tag] Rhizome. And Green Tea. That bit of truism aside, I was quite excited to give it a try. I love sushi, and wasabi, even the from powder artificial stuff that most sushi joints serve. And since most anything Blair touches turns to culinary goodness, I was anxious to give his creation a try.

Ingredients: Purified Water, soybean oil, jalapeno chilies, cane sugar, white vinegar, fresh tomatillos, Wasabi Rhizome, salt, lime juice, cilantro, ginger, mustard powder, green tea leaf, vitamin C, garlic powder, onion powder, turmeric and citric acid

Now, I must say that I’ve never had real Wasabi Rhizome before, so that alone was worth the experience of trying Blair’s Q heat. If you don’t know the difference, most wasabi served in restaurants is a mixture of horseradish and food coloring. It’s a testament to Blair’s commitment to the quality of his Q heat line that he chose to use the much more expensive and difficult to come by vegetable, Wasabi Rhizome.

On First Taste

Blair’s Wasabi Green Tea has a distinct wasabi flavor, but it’s much milder than what I’m used to. For all the ingredients in the label, there’s not a ton of complexity that I can taste, mostly wasabi and some spices. I couldn’t detect the jalapenos or ginger at all.

On Food

The taste and makeup of Blair’s Wasabi Green Tea seemed custom made on sushi, so I put it on some take out California rolls.

This sauce was a very good replacement for regular wasabi, offering very good, smooth flavor. It lacked much of the pungent horseradish burn I’m used to, though I’ve heard that’s a characteristic of wasabi rhizome over the fake stuff.

All in all, this is a pretty good sauce, especially on sushi. Other than fish, though, I have a hard time thinking of places to use it.

Overall Rating: 8.4 out of 10