Spicefreak

Hello again spice lovers, today’s product is the first of my freebies from Mahi Fine Foods. Their garlic peri peri sauce.

It’s a pale one, with garlic way up in second on its ingredients list, and it’s the first sauce of its type that I’ve looked at. I can’t help but be a little curious.

But, before we truly try it out, let’s take a look at its labelling.

What we have here is a tan bottle-front with far more subdued colouring than its online digital mock up. In fact, it takes a pretty close inspection to tell that there’s any colour on the front at all, since the purple text below the “Peri Peri” heading is so unsaturated as to be almost grey.

We do, however, see a bolder, bluer version of this colour to the sides, framing their blurb and ingredients sections.

Out of this is cut a variety of traditional items, including spoons, globes, penny farthing bicycles and what appears to be a peacock. All of which are also lined up at the bottom beneath the label’s text.

These, the muted colour scheme and the banner and brush strokes used in the company logo combine to give the product itself a finely crafted, traditional feel that just isn’t present when we see it on their website.

I’m usually all for bold colours but, in this instance, I prefer the real deal.

And, while the discrepancy could just be them saving on ink, the custom printed, gold lettered “Mahi Flavours of the World” heat shrink seems to suggest otherwise. They certainly haven’t skimped out there.

But I’m afraid we’re going to have to break it. Tear that shrink wrap and unleash the flavour that they’re so proud of. Here goes:

It’s a thick sauce with an almost jellied texture to it, just like The Chilli Alchemist’s Magnum Opus. Only even more so. This is, it seems, what happens when you rely on starch and xanthan gum, instead of using less liquid ingredients.

Not that it’s necessarily a bad texture, just one I’m not used to and one that clings a little too well to the bottle neck.

It flows fine once it gets going but it did put up some serious opposition at first and will do so again after each time you let it rest. You may even need a cocktail stick or skewer to break through the small blob that clogs the bottle when you first open it.

Yet, despite that hardship, there was something even more noteworthy when I opened this sauce. The smell.

Its aroma is an intense one, heavy on both vinegar and puréed garlic, as opposed to the fresh sort, with just a hint of its rapeseed oil coming in behind.

It’s powerful and unusual but oh so similar to how the sauce tastes.

In the mouth, however, it seems a little saltier and is accompanied by a mild,

1.5/10

Heat

Not to mention some interesting citrus undertones from the lime.

It’s nothing stunning heatwise and I find its flavour too strong to use as a pour on sauce but I could see it being a great chicken marinade or a stir in sauce for risotto, paella and other seafood dishes.

I’d also expect it to work well for a quick garlic mayo and I made some great garlic bread with it.

Definitely more for those who love pickled garlic than the cooked variety, though.