Spicefreak

Hey folks, this week we’re continuing on with our recent theme of not sauces that I’ve not paid for. And today’s come to me courtesy of Pembrokeshire Chilli Farm. A company who’s work was highly recommended by one of our previous features.

Yet they got to me before I could get to them and they sent me two of their most exciting products, free of charge.

Here we have their Burmese Naga Pickle and a rather scary looking pack of peanuts – spiced and honey roasted, yet also a vivid shade of orange. Between that and the scorpion, backing up the naga, I’m more than a little afraid.

Even if they do both look and sound delicious.

In terms of appearances, the brown paper bag of nuts clearly dwarfs the small jar of pickle but they’re vastly different product types and both seem like good sizes, for what they are. The packaging suits the contents and the two don’t, therefore, have much in common. Besides the company logo.

That logo being the silhouettes of two chillies, arranged tip to stem to form a small circle, ringed by the company name. It’s simple, it’s effective and it’s the only art on either product. Taking centre stage, in order to tie today’s items together.

Both labels are very clean and to the point, with a uniform style. So, despite their different colours, fonts and printing methods, only one little detail comes off as out of place. And that’s this sticker on the nuts:

But there’s a reason for that. These aren’t the only Spiced Honey Roast Peanuts that Pembrokeshire Chilli Farm make.

That tacked-on “Xtreme” needs to stand out, in order to show customers that this is the super hot version. Not just the regular heat nuts, sold in the same packaging.

Because yes, Pembrokeshire Chilli Farm make two different levels of chilli peanuts and it does seem a little lazy that they use the same bag for both. But, at the same time, simply changing the first word of the “Spiced Honey Roast Peanuts” name wouldn’t be anywhere near as attention grabbing as what we have here. Even if the nuts inside would still be equally neon.

I don’t know what the company’s milder version are like but these nuts look more dangerous than any that I’ve ever laid eyes on before. Their colour and surface texture more reminiscent of super hot chicken wings than of peanuts.

You can clearly see that they’ve been roasted in a thick layer of honey, before dowsing them in enough chilli powder to remove the resulting stickiness. And that amount of chilli is most certainly going to hurt.

Yet this isn’t roasted chilli. It’s not that instant, sharp, stinging and painful burn that I got from Somerset Chilli Co.’s hottest.

It’s more of a deep, slow-growing, scorpion-style heat, peaking around a

Which, combined with the familiar, orange-esque aftertaste of their otherwise dark, dry red chilli flavour, leads me to believe that these nuts might well be using the same pepper blend as today’s pickle. Though the ingredients do nothing to confirm or disprove my suspicions.

They only state:

Peanuts (92%), Sugar, Honey, Chilli Powder, Sunflower Oil, Salt.

Presumably, like the front label, having to read the same on both varieties.

Whatever they’ve used, though, that dry and ever so slightly fruity flavour counterparts the sweet, golden honey perfectly. While the two both work oh so well with the earthy, roasted nuts. A delicious blend of sweet and savoury but definitely not for the faint of heart.

And nor, as you may have already guessed, is the pickle. Here are its ingredients:

Burmese Naga Chilli (68%), Moruga Scorpion Chilli (15%), Brown Sugar, Sunflower Oil, Vinegar, Garlic, Ginger, Cumin, Turmeric.

Starting with a whopping 83% superhot peppers and giving the product an unpleasantly floral, naga placenta smell, when I pop off its lid. Which is only made all the more intimidating by the highly visible chunks of chilli.

Shreds of red that stand out oh so clearly against the otherwise thick, yet pulpy, orangey-yellow paste. It looks like an excellent take on an indian-style pickle but it also looks like it’s going to hurt. And, indeed, it does.

It starts subtly enough, with a delightfully earthy mix of naga and spice flavours. Entirely free from those floral notes that I got on the nose. Yet the hint of sweetness quickly fades and leaves me with a burning, at the back of my mouth, that grows and grows. Soon spreading around the sides and to the tip of my tongue, where, instead of fading away, it gradually builds to a fearsome

fire that I just can’t seem to extinguish. Even stronger than the nuts and far less forgiving on my stomach.

But, once again, I really enjoy it. Despite the aroma suggesting otherwise.

Not only does the blend of cumin, turmeric and well-cooked garlic complement the earthier, drier side of the naga but it also works wonderfully with the blood-orange like finish, from the scorpion. Pembrokeshire chilli farm have hit upon the perfect blend of spices to bring their two superhots together, in this pickle, and I absolutely love it.

But I am going to have to relegate it to use in cooking, sadly, because eating it straight does not sit comfortably with me and I don’t want to risk it doing the same as A Bit of a Pickle‘s 📽️Tân y Ddraig📽️.

Still, it’s going to work its way into a lot of different curries and make an amazing base for my home-made phaal. So, if you can handle your moruga scorpions and burmese nagas, I’d definitely recommend it, as an ingredient. And I’d recommend the nuts, as well.

Both of the products that Pembrokeshire Chilli Farm sent, for this review, were utterly top notch. Yet I might have to try their milder stuff, next time I work with them…