Posted September 17, 2007 by Lars in Reviews

Review: Maui Pepper Co. – Apples Ass Hot Sauce

Maui Pepper Co. Apples Ass Hot Sauce

First impression: Just looking at such a silly label always makes me snicker. Apples Ass is yet another offering from Maui Pepper Co. via Tahiti Joe’s Hot Sauces. If one looks close enough you can discern a smiling chile pepper and a smiling apple sitting on the beach, just chillin’. And this must be that kind of hot sauce! A hot sauce that says, ‘chill out man, just crack open a beer and let’s throw a few shrimp on the barbie!’ Well it isn’t exactly going to be put on shrimp, but I am using a barbie to cook up some chicken and beef shish-kabobs. Also take note that Tahiti Joe is another manufacturer that doesn’t put any crap in many of his sauces. He uses fresh ingredients and no preservatives. With the mixture of sweet fruitiness, some habanero heat, topped off with rum and vanilla extract. I can tell that this will be an entertainingly different but most likely delicious hot sauce! Let’s take a closer look at what Tahiti Joe stuffed into this woozie bottle”¦

Ingredients: apple butter, water, vinegar, apple juice, mango, onion, brown sugar, honey, habanero, rum extract, garlic, vanilla extract.

Appearance/Smell/Taste: Okay, I’ve stated as such before that I’m not one much for the smell of apple butter. My co-packer makes this type frequently, and the smell sort of permeates the place in certain areas. This is kind of what I smell upon opening the bottle and giving a sniff, sniff. Although it isn’t straight up apple butter, there is the smell of fruits, and the finish of rum! Yeah, it’s not dominant, but it’s definitely there. I get a slight whiff of it at the end. The appearance of the sauce is almost like that of a duck sauce for Chinese foods, but more towards the brown side. It’s actually very chocolaty brown and very smooth. Looks a tad like apple butter with ‘some other stuff mixed into it’ kinda sauce. I put a little on my tongue, and I taste the apple butter, but with a nice extra bit of sweet fruitiness. Then the heat is actually quite nice on the tongue. It’s definitely a solid 5 on the HSB heat scale. So it’s down in the lower ranges, but it doesn’t fade so quickly that you forgot it was even there. I then get a quick mental flash of Captain Morgan as the slight yummyness of the rummyness finishes off at the end. Let’s try this on some fresh grilled meats!

Prepared meal: Chicken and Beef Shish-Kebobs (yellow and red sweet peppers, red onion, yellow onion ““ marinaded in a well known Habanero Balsamic Vinagrette)

Shish-kebobs is another meal that I haven’t made or eaten in ages. And finding some real nice free range beef steaks and some vegetable fed chicken tenders. I soon realized that my grill was going to get used tonight! Plus, kabobs are relatively simple and easy to make. Just cut up everything into similar sized pieces. Keep the meats as square as possible and all around the same size so everything cooks evenly on the grill. Previous to skewering onto the sticks, I marinaded everything that was cubed in a Habanero Balsamic Vinaigrette for roughly 45 minutes in the fridge. Once you have everything skewered, put them on the grill and cover. Turn over kabobs every 2 minutes and recover each time. They shouldn’t take longer than 8-10 minutes to completion. You can tell once the veggies start to get nice and browned around the edges. Dare I say ‘burnt’ almost”¦ At any rate, the smell coming off the grill is amazing. I can’t wait to try some Apples Ass as a dipping sauce for these kebobs!

Complement to meal: After removing the kebobs from the grill and letting them rest for about 3 minutes, I take a 2 beef and 1 chicken skewer onto my plate. Everything is perfectly cooked, the beef is plenty rare in the middle! YUM! Adding a nice sized blob of Apples Ass to the edge of my plate, I first try the sauce with a slice of beef. Hmmm, this is very good! The apple butter melds well with beef. Because of the nice smoky flavor from being grilled, the sweetness of the fruits and the back draft of rum seals the deal for me! This is actually pretty darn good. Like I said, the heat is a nice mid to low range of tolerable. It could be used when you want something mild, and kinda sweet for grilled meats. After trying with the chicken, the rum flavor stands out a bit more on the chicken than it does with the beef. I think the apple butter flavor tastes better on the beef, but it’s still decent on the chicken. Kabobs were a good match to try this sauce on some food. So next time you have the hankerin’ for some kebobs. Get yourself a bottle of Apples Ass for dipping your kabob chunks! ““Lars-

Initial impression: 8/10

Ingredient quality/content: 9/10

Flavor/texture/smell: 7/10

Heat: 5/10

Overall: 7.25/10