Fermented

This Ain’t Tabasco!

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Hey folks, today I’ve got something a little strange for you. Something that I just randomly came across in one of my local supermarkets and felt I had to feature. Because, while I’ve talked about McIlhenny Co.’s Tabasco Brand Scorpion Sauce and their Chipotle Cola Marinade, I’ve never seen a “Tobasco” sauce before.

Except, of course, when people misspell it online.

Today’s item, however, has the word slapped right across its centre, beneath the “Dipitt” company name, and it looks a lot more like lawsuit dodging than a mistake, to me. But how does it really compare to the original?

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Golden Garlic

Spicefreak1 Comment

Hello again, everyone. I’ve had today’s trio in my back pocket for a little while know and, as I understand it, so have two of the companies involved. Because, despite their products looking completely different, both Hot Pods and Foraged Fire have done their absolute utmost to highlight the flavours of fermented honey and garlic, in these two:

And, though our third item may have been made a little quicker, it still promises the same sweet syrup and bold root, at its core:

It’s Torchbearer’s Honey Garlic and, while it promises to be rather milder than their last garlic sauce, that reaper concoction was far from all heat. If They can bring the same creaminess and garlic kick to today’s product, without the world record chilli, my bottle’s going to be gone in no time!

So, without further ado, let’s take a closer look at the lot and see how all three manage to set themselves apart.

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A Local Last Dab

Spicefreak6 Comments

Just the one, this week, my friends, but it’s sure to be a right doozie. ‘Cause, today, we’re looking at Singularity Sauce Co.’s Reapers & Mangoes. The only independent number ten to grace Hot Ones’ table since the advent of 📽️The Last Dab📽️.

Unlike most of the show’s line-up, however, this isn’t another pricey, american import. And, while I’m grateful to Hot-Headz for stocking so many of those, it’s also nice to see Hot Ones showcase a product made here in the UK. In scotland. The country of my birth.

It’s a rare, local highlight, in amongst their otherwise states-centric assortment, and its spot as the final sauce affords it great clout. So, throw in one of my favourite fruits and you just know I had to get my hands on a bottle.

Yet it wasn’t nearly as quick of a pick up as I’d hoped. Because I wasn’t the only one aboard the hype train.

It was going far, it was going fast and it was going… to take months for the next batch to ferment, back when I got in touch.

I’m afraid that it just wasn’t possible to write this review, back when it first saw that january feature. But it is now and I’m eager to make up for lost time.

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Tropical Trio

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Hey folks, I think it’s time for something tropical. Or, perhaps, somethings:

A trio of tangy fruit flavours from three different companies, each in its own unique colour.

The Somerset Chilli Co. brings us a greenish-yellow, pineapple and passion fruit sauce, in the form of their “La Playa”, with the most unusual addition of kiwi. Whereas Ignis offer up the other end of the spectrum, with their HPPM. A fermented red habanero product which also uses pineapple and passion fruit, to support its pepper, but throws mango into the mix, as well.

Then, in the middle, we have a more normal style of fruit sauce. The Sound System Sauce, from Howl at the Moon. An orange-coloured blend of mango, pineapple and good old scotch bonnet.

All three are different enough to do their own thing, so I’m not sure how much actual comparison we’ll see today, but there’s a consistent theme across the board and I’m definitely looking forward to trying the lot. So let’s give them all a look, shall we?

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A Late Start

Spicefreak7 Comments

Happy new year everyone! I know that I’m a whole month late but, well, twenty-twenty wasn’t exactly the best of years and the post hasn’t exactly been the best. Though I certainly can’t blame everything on Royal Mail, either.

As it turns out, the company that I’d hoped to feature in january is very new and still getting used to the workings of their online store. To the point where my purchase went to the wrong email address and only got noticed when I asked them what had happened.

So, if you plan on buying from Ignis, I’d suggest sending a polite “hello” with your order, just to make sure that it’s been seen. But they’ve been very attentive ever since and clearly care about their products, so I’m not going to let that slip up colour my opinion of their sauce.

I am, however, going to use it as a bit of an excuse to turn this post into a comparison. To show their JGA7 off alongside a second, less clinically named green sauce that I found while I was waiting.

Two sauces which look quite different, yet still both put a thai twist on a classic green chilli.

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Rad Dude Food

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What’s up my dudes?

Last week, we had a very surprising find from a large, supermarket brand and it was packed full of absurd, carolina reaper heat. So, today, I figured we’d turn things around a tad and try looking at a rather more sensible and flavour-focussed product from a friend of a friend’s ex. An item that even I wouldn’t know about, had I not stayed in touch with Lord Grim’s former girlfriend.

This is the Fermented Chilli Hot Sauce from Rad Dude Sauces and its artwork sure is intense, despite its lack of colour, but that’s not how it came to me.

No, Rad Dude Sauces are, in fact, a part of a larger company – If you can call it that. A two man business, known as Rad Dude Foods, who run a sandwich shop in sheffield.

The sauce is – Or was – their side project. A nice, artisan alternative to Tabasco, made to spice up their already rather stacked-looking subs. Yet now, with the state of the world being what it is, sauce sales have gone online and appear to have become their new focus. Wrapped up just like their lunches once were.

A fun little nod to the origins of today’s sauce.

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Ooft! That’s Hot!

Spicefreak1 Comment

So, folks, I talked a bit about Carrington’s Flaming Chup in last week’s harissa review and I thought that that would be a great excuse to follow up with another of their products, today. A post on their Chillichup, which I’ve had in reserve for a while.

Then Encona came along, however, with an even more ketchup-y rework of their old “Carolina Reaper Sauce”. And I just couldn’t do it.

Two ketchups in a row was too much. So, instead, here are couple of other sauces that I’ve had on the back burner for a bit. The original and chipotle versions of Ooft!, from Island Girl Ltd:

Another small company, run by a couple in scotland, using an old, trinidadian family recipe. Though not, perhaps, the mustard-based one you might expect.

No, today’s sauce gets its extra zing from a large, white radish, known as either daikon or mooli, depending on your region. And that, my friends, is utterly unique.

I’ve never seen that ingredient in any other chilli product and I’m very curious to see what it does for Ooft!

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Encona do Fear the Reaper

Spicefreak7 Comments

Happy thursday again, everyone. Recently, it has come to my attention that Encona have made some rather drastic changes to their old carolina reaper sauce and, as a result, I cannot, in good faith, leave my previous review of it alone.

That post will remain accessible here and through my search bar but it will, from now on, be prefaced with a warning that it does not reflect the new version of the product on the market and it will be removed from my review catalogue, in order to replace it with today’s updated article.

So, read on for my opinion on the updated sauce but do be warned – I’ve not got the best of expectations for this one. Especially given its atrocious new label:

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Trick or Trinidad?

Spicefreak5 Comments

Happy halloween, my fellow heat freaks. It’s trick or treat time and I’m really hoping that today’s seasonal special is the treat that I was promised.

CauldronSauce

This “cauldron” sauce has come to me, quite last minute, from the lovely folk of Brighton Hot Stuff. Too late to make my usual tuesday timeslot. Yet the company’s previous products have earnt my respect through their flavour and I’m willing to fit them in, where I can, with that rare thursday review.

There is, however, a nagging voice in the back of my mind which can’t be ignored. One that’s more sceptical of this sudden freebie, thinking “This would be the perfect time for a company to prank you with another Hell Unleashed.”. And it’s not just BHS’ work, either. It’s a collaboration with a company who I can find very little about online. One by the name of Lazy Scientist.

So, while it’s likely no more than my own paranoia, I’m going to be taking things a touch more cautiously with today’s review.

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Cocoa Loco

Spicefreak6 Comments

Happy national chocolate week, everyone. A celebration that, for some reason, falls on the week after curry week this year. Not that I’m complaining, though, since I only had that one idea for chocolate madras and it means that I can dedicate the entirety of today’s review to cocoa without worry.

Both in it’s bar form and as a probiotic, living barbecue sauce:

Choc19

What exactly that means, you’ll have to wait and see, however. I want to look at Montezuma’s recent limited edition first. Their “Peanut Butter Centre with Chilli & Lime”.

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