Spicefreak

Alright everyone, there’s been a little bit of sweetness in these last few weeks but all the sauces therein were still predominantly savoury. So today, that’s going to change. We’re going to look at something that’s sweet to its core but, for once, it’s not a sauce. Or a jam. Or even a chutney.

It’s something new.

Today, folks, we’re looking at a chilli lemon curd.

And this isn’t the first such curd I’ve seen. Several other companies, the chilli pepper one included, produce a spiced up version of the standard spread. Yet A Bit of a Pickle are the first that I’ve found to actually state their pepper.

Albeit only in stickers on the side of the jar, because this product is that new to market.

With that in mind, I don’t have a tonne to say about the company’s packaging. Their fonts are pleasant and so is their fruit art but none of it’s particularly reflective of this special chilli product and only the yellow background to the words “Lemon Curd” even indicates that part of it.

Aside from the stickers, this jar looks professional and friendly, yet also quite generic. So let’s see if the contents stand out as much as I hope:

They’re thick, creamy and almost custard-like, in both texture and colour, aside from some chunks of less-pastel yellow that make the pepper apparent. It is, quite obviously, an egg-based spread with chilli.

But it’s more than that when it comes to my tasting. It’s smooth, sweet, creamy and tangy, like a curd should be, but the juice of the lemon-like chilli has seeped out of the actual pepper pieces to mingle with the real fruit and provide a far more layered citrus flavour than I’m used to. Which is the highlight of the product, for sure.

It’s not the slow, high, roof and back of the mouth

3/11

Heat

that sells me on A Bit of a Pickles creation. Or even the low

1.5/11

warmth that it becomes, when dulled by my morning toast.

It’s not the burn of the pepper that matters to me but how well its flavour blends into that of their product and adds even more depth to an already delicious, high quality spread.

Its ingredients list is simple:

*Eggs*, Sugar, *Butter*. Lemon.

And chilli stickered on at the end.

Yet its flavour is a complex, multi-faceted citrus blend sure to delight any curd-lover who can handle a bit of spice. Just watch out for the whole pod that its maker likes to include to infuse.

I highly recommend A Bit of a Pickle’s Lemon Curd and I’m sure it’s great, even without the chilli, but the added taste of the lemondrop (or aji limo, to use its proper name) definitely makes this the definitive version. So I’d recommend seeing what else it can improve, as well, over on my encyclopedia page.

And seriously, give this one a go if you can!