A Floral Focus

Hey folks, it’s the week after my birthday so it’s time to cool things down a tad. And, while I’m not expecting this week’s sauce to be mild, exactly, I’m definitely hoping for a focus on flavour. Because this one sounds weird, even to me!

This is “Where The Wild Roses Grow”, from Balefire, and its label looks just like their previous product. Yet the sauce inside glows a peachy shade of orange and really shows off the blend of rose water and red habanero within. A pairing which I’ve never even heard of, outside of my own gulab jamun recipe.

“Wild” is right for this crazy take on a sweet chilli but, as I discovered when I was researching for that recipe, there’s science to support today’s flavour combination. So the question is less about the concept and more about Balefire’s execution.

Can the company pull off this one of a kind creation successfully?

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10 Minute Birthday

Alright everyone, it’s wednesday and I’ve just had one of the most disappointing reviews of my career but, today, it’s time for a different sort of suffering. Because it’s my birthday and that means extract sauce:

This is Ten Minute Burn. The original extract sauce from The Chilli Pepper Company, making waves long before their Hell Unleashed made headlines. So I’m not expecting quite the same level of stomach churning heat but I’m still going to be very careful with this one.

It has a reputation to it and I know full well what the company are capable of. So I won’t be underestimating it, despite my eagerness to see how everything began.

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Dalston Double

Hello again, everyone. Today, we’re looking at a sauce that’s been gaining a lot of traction, lately, but that I still hadn’t heard hide nor hair about until it arrived on my doorstep. A gift from my aunt, in london, to whom this week’s product is quite local.

This is Common Sanity’s Dalston Sunshine – The name of the sauce telling you exactly what borough its company are based in and their own hinting at an interest in mental health. With a portion of the company’s profits going to charity for that very reason.

Yet the common “Common Sanity” name, as a whole, is apparently a play on commensality, the act of communal eating. Not anything to do with the word “Common”. Which is just as well because, as much as it may look like a common caribbean mustard sauce, their Dalston Sunshine’s main ingredient is actually the fatalii chilli. An african relative of the habanero which, despite growing popularity in recent years, is still far from “common”.

And it’s not today’s only unexpected fusion flavour, either, since my little care package also contained a second item from the company:

Not a sauce, this time, but a chinese or filipino-style crispy oil. Filled with mexican chillies, seeds and nuts for a beautifully rich sounding, yet equally unorthodox blend that they call Fuego Greeze.

I’m very eager to try them both out.

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Coming in to Port

Hey folks, how’s it going? It’s tuesday again and, honestly, things have been a little rough for my blog work lately. I’m doing a lot of other things on the side and it’s been a bit of a struggle to keep up with even my weekly reviews. Let alone all of the weekend recipes and random thursday things which I feel like I aught to be doing.

But, while I might not be able to offer you any of those extras, right now, I can at least provide you with a bit more than the norm in today’s post. Not the usual one or two sauces. Not even three.

No, the full on five of Spice Island Chilli’s entire range:

Each one a different heat and flavour, wrapped in its own tale of maritime history. Yet the whole lot hailing from a single portsmouth company, with a distinctive style throughout. Meaning that I’d probably just say the same things five times if I were to review them all separately, anyway.

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Dew-Over

Welcome back, everyone! This week, I’d like to return to one of our old favourite suppliers, the Chilli Alchemist. Because they, in turn, have returned one of my old favourite items – The 💀Philosopher’s Dew!

Now known simply as their “Dew” and focussing rather more heavily on its citrus content, so I’m eager to see just how much it’s changed. But, same sauce or not, it won’t be alone in today’s review.

Russell, the current company owner, has added another new product to the range, alongside it. And this one appears to be all his own:

A “Gold” sauce which, rather than taking after the old 💀Aurum, promises to be a fruity, pineapple sriracha. Much like the redone Dorset Punch.

Let’s take a closer look at the pair, shall we?

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Tom’s Teriyaki

Happy new year! It’s the first of february today and it just so happens that that marks the start of twenty twenty-two on the lunar calendar. The chinese new year, if you will.

And, unfortunately, I used up my most tiger-themed sauce last year and don’t have anything too on brand for the holiday, this time around. In fact, I’m fresh out of specifically chinese sauces altogether, right now, but I do have two new asian-style ones from Tubby Tom’s, all the same:

His mild Tubbyaki and a second, slightly more special, test batch, amped up with ghost pepper and yuzu. Both chock full of sweet soy, ginger and garlic.

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Even Further Beyond!

Alright everybody, it’s my last post of twenty twenty-one and we’re now in that weird nothing period between the big winter holidays. So I feel like I’m fighting the inevitable here but I still want to at least try to make this post memorable and end the year on a high point.

To that end, I’ve gathered together three of the potentially hottest natural sauces on the planet:

Daddy Cool‘s Final Destination, made with everything from habanero up to hurt berry – A new FG Jigsaw hybrid, said to far exceed the heat of the reaper.

Chilli Bob‘s Dragons Breath Chilli Sauce, crafted from a similarly named pepper that we’ve already established surpassed that current record holder. Yet haven’t seen in anything pure enough to shift the upper limits of my scale just yet.

And Badger’s Chilli Kitchen’s Armageddon The End, with a whopping eighty percent armageddon chilli, making it the most chilli-centric sauce of the lot.

Any one of these three could be the new top of nature but which, if any, actually will?

It’s time to find out!

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Bonnie Wee Spice

Hey folks, I’m scottish and I’ve mentioned that a few times on here. Especially when highlighting companies from my homeland. But, as much as I appreciate scottish sauce, I don’t actually live there and I haven’t done so in many years.

I only see the high profile stuff. The Singularity Sauce Co.s, who make big internet appearances, and the Foraged Fires, who shock social media with their wild ingredients.

The smaller companies do pop up online, occasionally, but even when they do, they don’t always make a good impression. Like today’s jalapeño and chipotle pair:

Two products from The Bonnie Sauce Co., in edinburgh, who’s website is grey, gloomy, uninviting and full of desaturated, off-colour images of their craft. Of sauces which actually look quite enticing, in real life, yet might well have gone entirely untasted if my relatives hadn’t found them in person, while visiting my sister.

So, before we begin today’s review in earnest, I’d like to take a brief moment to thank my family for their find and remind you all that not everything is as it appears online.

Then we can give them a closer inspection.

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Indian Fruit & Fire

Sup folks, it’s tuesday again and, I’ve held off on this pair for a little too long already. So, today, we’re going to see a couple more mango sauces, from Alkemio Kitchen and Hop’t:

Two rather unique takes on this fruit and chilli combo from two very experimental companies. One featuring green jalapeños, red scotch bonnets and citrussy hops, while the other’s more focussed on indian spices, including turmeric, cumin and nigella seed.

Neither sounds quite like what I’m used to but that’s part of the fun of running a blog like this. I get to try a tonne of unique flavours and, hopefully, find something which I truly love.

Now let’s see if I’m going to do so today.

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Double Dingo

G’day everyone.

Today I have my third fling with Aussie Hot Sauces – The australian import company known for carrying both 🔥Bunsters🔥 and Byron Bay. Of which the first was even featured on Hot Ones.

Yet Bunsters’ Black Label was a number seven on the show and today we’re looking at a full on nine. One of the hottest sauces to ever be made with the current range of record-level chillies.

This is Dingo Sauce Co.’s Widow Maker. A condiment claimed to be fifteen out of ten on the company’s own scale. But I did also pick up a nice six, for those of you who might find that intimidating.

A more medium heat, smoked sriracha, if its label is to be believed.

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