Spicefreak

What’s up my fellow chilli lovers? This week, we’re looking at the fourth and final product that I picked up from Saucey Lady in reading.

It has the exact same label as her other three so, much as I find Kaz’ logo amusing, I won’t be talking about it again today. And nor, for that matter, will I be mentioning the bottles that you can buy it in, since they were also discussed previously.

This week’s post is going to be all about the flavour, texture, heat and aroma of the sauce inside. The bit that matters most.

So let’s get on with it, shall we?

It’s a thick, gloopy sauce but not one that’s slow to pour. It fills my spoon with little effort on my part and is more likely to come out too fast than to put up a fight at the dinner table. Yet I find it relatively controllable.

The consistency is fine. Nothing too good or bad, on its own, but perfect for suspending the sauce’s fruit shreds and for clinging to meats.

What I’m not so fond of, however, is the colour – A murky, pinkish brown that is anything but appetising.

It’s a shame, really, because the ingredients list does far more to sell its potential flavour. This sauce contains:

strawberries, blueberries, apples, dorset naga chillies, lemon, cider vinegar, sugar

A delicious-sounding, fruit-focussed blend that makes it the first strawberry sauce that I’ve featured in a long long time. Since The Chilli Pepper Company‘s Firebreathing Idiot tie-in, in fact, during my blog’s first year.

That product was as delightful as this one sounds and, while this one lacks the same red pepper notes on the nose, the strawberry is instantly recognisable. I have high hopes for the Nagamor.

Yet, before I try it, there’s another part of the list that I want to address – The use of dorset naga chillies. Because “Nagamor” implies naga morich.

Well, as it turns out, the two are one and the same. Or, at least, they’re very close to it.

As I’ve mentioned 📽️ in the past 📽️, many people think that the carolina reaper may once have been the same pepper as the 7-Pot Primo and that any differences are simply down to selective breeding. Well, in this case, the theory is fact and the dorset naga was openly confirmed to have been bred from the morich and the morich alone.

It is, quite simply, a naga morich bred for consistent heat and better productivity in the UK. A separate sub-strain, adapted to our climate.

It’s certifiably distinct from its indian brethren and, as such, the first superhot native to england, but it’s still one hundred percent naga morich genes that went into it. And, by extension, those are the only pepper genetics in Saucey Lady’s Nagamor.

It is, for most intents and purposes, a naga morich sauce. Not that that’s particularly obvious from the taste.

No, what dominates today’s sauce isn’t the flavour of chilli. It’s the heat of it and the taste of browned berries. A rather indistinct, mushed-down, fruit flavour, with a definite overtone of cooked strawberry and maybe just a tiny touch of blueberry in the tail.

But I find it hard to be sure on that last bit because, while it may be sweet upfront, the Nagamor has a growing, stinging spice that, by then, has grown to a whopping

around the sides and roof of my mouth.

Its harshness and intensity are both on par with, or perhaps even a little above, the sauce that I got from Doctor Burnorium. Which easily makes this Kaz’ hottest and, thus, a better fit for her skull bottles than the Midnight Mischief.

And, to be perfectly honest, I do wish I’d gotten them that way round. A small bottle of this deadly dorset chilli sauce and a whole hundred and fifty mil of her fiery fruit coulis. Because, since writing up my review of it, I’ve been getting through the Mischief at a breakneck pace by mixing it into chocolate pudding.

That coulis was not perfect as a chilli sauce and, in fact, seemed quite lacking in the pepper flavour, but it was an utterly delightful, blueberry-heavy, fruit blend with heat that I wish that I had more of.

Unlike this one.

The Nagamor has a lot more firepower and the way that its crazy burn grows in through the sweetness is rather enjoyable but, aside from on pork and ribs, I don’t see myself finding much use for it. Its fruity taste isn’t anywhere near as special and its pepper only really serves to contribute heat and a little bit of bitterness to offset that sweet side.

As excited as I was for another strawberry sauce, today’s has been my least favourite from the Saucey Lady lineup. I’ll be ordering from her again but this one won’t be on my restocking list.