Spicefreak

Happy tuesday, everyone! I don’t know if any of you follow my youtube channel but, today, we’re doing a little bit of a follow up to my 📽️ Exhorresco video 📽️.

That sauce was one of the hottest and most painful natural products that I’ve had but it wasn’t a bad taste at all, so I thought I’d try something else from its makers, Burns & McCoy. Something on completely the opposite end of the heat spectrum.

It comes packaged in far paler tones and what colour it does have is almost entirely green. You can immediately see that it’s not being sold on its heat and for good reason. It’s probably the mildest

1/10

Heat

product that I’ve had, just barely tickling the back of my throat when I eat a full spoonful.

So today, we’re going to be focussing far more on the flavour of this Avocado Fire Roasted Poblano vinaigrette, to find out if the company can still hold their own when they’re not melting my face off.

The first thing to note about today’s item is that, being a vinaigrette, it comes in two parts inside the bottle – Oil and water based layers that separate out as it sits on the shelf. It’s going to need a good shake before serving.

Once shaken up, though, the healthy fats of the avocado do an amazing job of binding everything together, meaning that you won’t have to reshake with every use. In fact, if you refrigerate this product, it doesn’t seem to separate out again at all. Likely because of the oils becoming less liquid at low temperatures.

This product’s a lot more convenient than your average salad dressing but, on top of that, the fact that the oil and water based parts stay bound means that a true emulsion is formed. A fine interweaving of particles that fundamentally don’t mix, which should result in both the flavour and the sensation of creaminess as they smoothly glide across the tongue.

So, even before I open the bottle, it’s clear that the avocado does a tonne for the texture of today’s dressing. A fact that’s immediately obvious once I do crack the thing open and pour myself a spoonful:

It’s silky smooth, yet made of tiny droplets, with only marginally smaller flakes of pepper, dill and shallots suspended more or less evenly throughout.

Yet, despite its clear presence to the eye, that avocado doesn’t come across on the nose at all.

No, its aroma is lightly green but that’s more from the dill and shallots. There’s a hint of mustard there, along with some honeyed sweetness but what really stands out is the combined, raisin-like fruit quality of the white wine vinegar and poblano peppers.

Peppers which are, for those who weren’t aware, the fresh form of the even more raisiny ancho – A very mild but also ever so rich and flavourful dried chilli that I recently used for a particularly special chocolate cake.

I’d also thoroughly recommend checking out Wiltshire Chilli Farm’s Chipotle Salt for a demonstration of how they can really enrich a simple product, if you’re interested in them. You won’t regret it.

Getting back to today’s review, though, I think it’s just about tasting time.

This dressing is, indeed, smooth and creamy. It’s a little bit green, a little bit sweet, a tiny bit tart from the vinegar, lime and mustard, and livened up in flavour, if not particularly heat, by the randomly distributed flecks of pepper – Green, red and black.

It has something in the way of herbal tones but they seem to come more from the dark green, roasted poblanos than from its actual herb.

Burns and McCoy’s Avocado Fire Roasted Poblano Vinagrette is a gentler flavour than a lot of what I’m normally into and, even with my salad dressing, I’d normally use more vinegar. Cider vinegar, in particular, for that aged-apple tang.

Yet, despite that, I really enjoy the product. The flavour it does have is a pleasantly nuanced one that utilises a green chilli without overdosing it in herbs. It’s creamy and it carries with it the same fruitiness that I smelled. It’s delightful over a salad that has a similar touch of fruitiness from, perhaps, being a little heavy handed with the tomatoes. Yet, there are also plenty of other places for it to shine.

Unlike your standard vinaigrette, this one has enough going on that I really could enjoy just dipping fresh, warm bread into it, but why stop there? Let’s make it garlic bread to compliment the greener tones.

Or how about drizzling it over fish and chicken? Why not add it to new potatoes, where its own earthy, roasted garlic content comes to the fore? Or use its fruitier notes to bring out the best in a potato salad.

I’ve even been enjoying it on the wild garlic pasta that my relatives like to make around this time of year and I know that, before I polish off the final third of the (354ml) bottle, I’ll find even more ways to enjoy today’s dressing. It might be gentle in its flavour but its fantastic creaminess still manages to add so much to so much.

It’s so impressive, in fact, that I was a little shocked when I read the back and discovered that it was vegan. Here’s what goes into it:

Canola Oil, Water, Fire Roasted Poblano, Vinegar, Avocado, Shallots, Fresh Lime Juice, Roasted Garlic, Dijon Mustard (Water, Vinegar, Mustard Seed, Salt, Turmeric, Spices), White Wine Vinegar, Orange Blossom Honey, Salt, Aleppo Pepper, Black Pepper, Fresh Dill.

And that first ingredient, “canola oil” is just rapeseed or “vegetable” oil by any other name. Apparently the rapeflower has a poor reputation, stateside, so it’s common practice to rename it.

It is also common practice, however, to bold allergens like mustard and this ingredients list definitely doesn’t do that.

Still, if I’m nitpicking such minor details, you know I’m having trouble finding anything wrong with today’s product. The only other aspect of it that I take issue with is the sketched pepper in the back of its art.

I have no idea what that pepper is but it’s not the poblano or aleppo from the dressing. Both of those are lightly lobed, like a bell pepper, while the art shows something cylindrical.

Yet, even if the labelling isn’t perfect, it still does a good enough job of distinguishing itself and telling us about its delicious contents. And, in the end, isn’t that all that it really needs to do?