Review: Crazy Ed’s Cave Creek Chili Beer Hot Sauce (Authentic Mexican Hot Sauce)
The first thing I noticed on this bottle, somehow, was the lack of the word “vinegar” in the ingredients list. Could it be possible that someone was making an all natural hot sauce the Old Skool way? Come on, let’s go for a ride!
Ingredients: Fresh Carrots, Selected red peppers, Fresh onions, Key lime juice, Garlic, Salt. If you can’t have this memorized by the end of this review, oh man. Oh man.
Here’s the thing: Making a sauce without the use of vinegar is tough. Vinegar acts not only as a tart flavor agent, it also pulls duty as a natural preservative. But what our hot sauce making fore-fathers and mothers knew over 4, 000 years ago is that citrus juice (ala lemon or good ole lime) worked just as well, but for a shorter period of time. I was more than excited to try this sauce because this is how the stuff was made years ago before mass-production sauces were the norm. As a history buff, this was taking a gastronomical step back in time. And this sauce takes you on a trip.
Out of the bottle, right onto my tasting spoon. A bright orange, very smooth with specks of what I’m guessing to be chile seeds. And the smell I can only describe as the perfect balance of sweet carrots, fresh chiles, garlic and lime, with the onion speaking up in the way back. I could tell this sauce was going to rock. Then I tasted it. I was left speechless. I tried another spoonful, really letting it coat my tongue. So much flavor, like I just threw the ingredients into a blender and poured it right into my mouth. And the heat was there: this was not a knock your socks off, but enough heat that balanced-dare I say it?-PERFECTLY with the flavor. I literally consumed half the bottle before I remembered this was made for food.
So I decided to commit sacrilege: I mixed Texas-style chili with pasta. I know, I know: true chili and pasta go together like the Middle East and Peace, but I wanted to see if there would be a contrast with the spice of this sauce and the chili, and how the starch of the pasta would temper it. I was not disappointed. This sauce held up to both, complimenting without over taking, which is what hot sauce is supposed to do (in my opinion). Let me just say, I had Crazy Ed’s Chili Beer over ten years ago when it first came out. I thought it tasted like spicy water. These guys have really come around.
So here’s my Five Points Scale:
Appearance: 5. Yes, that high. This sauce is so bright and smooth, it pours very well, and it’s not too thin.
Smell: 5. Yep another 5, this smells like you fell into a garden. The only smell missing is dirt.
Flavor: 5. I can justify this by telling you after I had it on chili and pasta, the sauce went on everything else I ate for the next three meals. That’s how long the bottle lasted. It always complimented, never over powered.
Heat: 4.5. The heat was there from the beginning to the end, without a lingering burn (which affects the overall flavor). The heat won’t last forever, which I like, but it lasts for the whole meal it’s used on, which I think is more important.
Overall: 4.95. This sauce speaks for itself. The label says “the best hot sauce you ever tasted”. All natural, with a shelf life printed on it. Nice touch. Clean, smooth, full flavor, all I can say is get this sauce. Even a Hardened Habbie Head will like this.
Until next time, treat every meal like it was your last!
Buying info: Order online at www.chilibeer.com
Mexico ph: 52-844-427-0070
USA ph: 1-866-762-1395
Imported by Black Mountain Brewing Company Cave Creek, AZ USA
