Spicefreak

Attention: This is an old post reviewing a product which has since received significant updates. It will remain on my site, for posterity, but does not reflect the new recipe. For up to date information, please refer to this post, instead.

Another tuesday, another sauce review, welcome back to my Chilli Pepper Company month.

Today I have for you their Dragons Breath, missing apostrophe and all. It too claims to be a “very hot” sauce but we’ll soon see if it compares to the amazing Ball Breaker.

First off though, the packaging. Let’s get a good look at that.

Again we see their logo in purple on a bold-coloured cracked earth background. Again the name is in scuffed white lettering, all caps with a very effective black outline and shadowing. But no more little imagery. No, all that’s unique to this sauce’s packaging is the blue colouration and the words “Caribbean Style”.

Personally, I’m a little disappointed as, while the blue does contrast well with the light, bright and mustard coloured sauce, it doesn’t really tell us anything about the flavour.

It’s still well printed and it’s still simple and elegant but it doesn’t give any real character to the product, which is a shame.

But first impressions aren’t everything and it’s what’s inside that really counts.

First off, this is an awful lot more liquid than the last sauce I showed you. This isn’t a spreading or dabbing sauce but a dip, glaze or marinade. And that’s what it’s intended for, with chicken or lamb.

Flavourwise, it strikes me as mainly apple and mustard, cooking apple perhaps because, while not exactly sour, the taste is a little tart still. In fact, it’s a lot like a more natural version of “sour apple” flavouring.

But, of course, that’s not the only flavour to it. The onion, basil and thyme all come through and, despite there being none in here, I can definitely see where the makers were coming from when they described it as tasting of mango. The actual ingredients do indeed combine to give it a smooth, almost fragrant flavour that is quite reminiscent of the fruit.

And then there’s the citrus tones. These aren’t just from the lemon juice content though. No, as is sometimes the case with ghost pepper sauces, this one picks up  touch of lemon-esque flavour from its signature chilli aswell.

But, while the ghost flavour remains fairly subtle, its content is relavively high. At a whopping 25% bhut jolokia (the proper name), you’d think this “very hot” sauce would rival the Ball Breaker in heat but no. For some reason I can’t get my head around, this sauce is milder than even the 2% ghost stuff I’ve tried. It’s not super hot. It’s not even hot. The long, slow build is definitely that of the bhut but the peak it reaches is a decidedly medium

2.5/10

Heat

Not a bad heat per se and great for the enjoyment of the general public but far less than I expected for something labelled the same as the last sauce I reviewed.

This is a sauce almost anyone could enjoy, not a sauce for those with extreme heat tolerances. It has a great fruit and mustard flavour but, unless the love of mustard is far more widespread than I’ve realised, I can’t really see why Dragons Breath would be the Chilli Pepper Company’s best seller. Their website claims it is but to me, this product is for the medium heat mustard lovers, not for all.

If that sounds like you then I’d be very surprised if you didn’t thoroughly enjoy this sauce but if, like me, you’re rather more indifferent towards mustard, I don’t see this being a must buy like the Ball Breaker was for those able to handle it.