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.
Hey folks, it’s been almost a month since the intersection of international chocolate day and national curry week, when I featured The Chilli Alchemist‘s Dark Matter Chocolate, and, in that time, I had hoped that I’d also be able to show off their sauces.
Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case.
Major computer problems have slowed down the release of the video in question and, while I’m working on a solution as we speak, it may still be a short while before I can properly feature the company’s main range. So, for the time being, you’re going to have to make do with their dessert toppers, instead:
An indulgent-sounding pair of chilli chocolate and salted caramel spreads, wrapped in equally dark and decadent-looking labels which have only heightened the excitement that I already had for them.
I’ve been looking forward to these two for quite some time now and, if they’re even half as good as I imagine, they’re going to be utterly amazing. So let’s see how they compare to my mental image, shall we?
Hey folks, today’s going to be a bit of a weird one.
You see, I’m celebrating international chocolate day, for the very last time, but it’s also the end of national curry week. The same bizarre blend of food holidays that we saw in twenty eighteen but, this time around, it falls on a tuesday.
So, instead of a recipe, I’m bringing you a thematic review. Or two, since I have nothing on hand to match both celebrations and haven’t had since Monteƶuma’s satay bar.
That said, though, I still think I’ve got some pretty exciting products to share with you today:
Fire Foods’ Tandoori Butter and The Chilli Alchemist’s Dark Matter chocolate.
One’s a blend of indian spices with a peanut butter base and the other’s a seventy percent dark chocolate with mint and popping candy, in tribute to the Alchemist’s Melliculus range. The first thing to come from the brand since Russell, of Grim Reaper Foods, took over.
Though it’s taken me a little while to get to it, because I wanted to hold off on writing about this one until its second batch.
I’ll explain why that is and why I won’t be celebrating international chocolate day again in my main post but first, I want to quickly mention the one thing that links today’s two products: Their use of ghost pepper.
Probably not a tonne of it, judging by everything else that I’ve had from Fire Foods and the Grim Reaper. Just enough to provide a pleasant, medium warmth and maybe some of that delicious, full-bodied, red chilli flavour.
Happy thursday, everybody! It’s the twentieth of august and you know what that means? Absolutely nothing.
Today isn’t anything special. It’s just a normal, everyday thursday. But I do have some news for you, at last, regarding the reopening of the Chilli Alchemist. And that, my friends, is far more special than any day of the week!
As you should be able to tell from the above image, mind you, their sauces aren’t exactly as they were before and they aren’t reopening with all of them right away.
As I mentioned in 📽️a recent video📽️, there was a bit of a mix-up with my last shipment from Grim Reaper Foods. Everything that I’d ordered arrived on time, intact and of the high quality that I’ve come to expect from Russell but the free challenge chocolate that he’d promised me mysteriously morphed into something else:
A lemon and yellow habanero marmalade, infused with gin and tonic.
A product which has only just made it onto his website and was, at the time it arrived, just as unreleased as his upcoming “Chocolate by Death”. Yet it’s not nearly of the same challenge calibre.
Russell’s spiced-up gin marmalade is a flavour-focussed preserve, not an extreme heat item, so it’s far more suited to a serious, written review. One which I intend to give it, today, alongside its blood orange brother.
Happy tuesday again, everyone! Today, I’d like to show you another import sauce, brought into the country by my good friend Russell, of Grim Reaper Foods.
We talked about his import business, some time ago, back when I had a look at Crazy B🔥stard’s range. He grabs some great german sauces but this one’s different. It’s dutch.
El Jefe, based in amsterdam, are a mexican-themed brand with the usual three colours – Mild green, medium red and hot orange. Yet, unlike most actual mexican brands, the pepper in their orange “Volcán” isn’t habanero. It’s a close relative known as the “suriname yellow”.
Or, more colloquially, the “madame jeanette” – In reference to one of brazil’s most infamous hotties.
The official rating of this pepper puts it at around the same heat as an average hab but its flavour and the way in which it hits are said to be quite different. I look forward to trying it.Continue reading →
Hello again spice lovers, today I’d like to look at Russell from Grim Reaper Foods’ latest:
Terracotta and black, with his classic flame patterning and smoothed-foil, metallic finish. It’s unmistakeably one of his but this artwork feels a little busier than the rest.
The twin sets of flames behind its skeleton are more complex than his usual sort and the figure has traded in its smooth, rounded cloak for the harsh lines of a shirt and waistcoat. Attire that fits with his character, of course, but it’s the cut-throat razor, dripping with blood, that actually sells his identity.
The undead form of Sweeny Todd.
Everything else just overcomplicates the label to the point where, for once, I’m not thrilled by Grim Reaper Foods’ design. I actually prefer its other label – The simple one made for Whitbread’s Cookhouse and Pub restaurants.
Which brings up an interesting point. This isn’t just a Grim Reaper sauce. It’s a Grim Reaper sauce made for a mainstream food outlet.
How will that affect the bottle’s contents?
Well, Russell claims that this is his mildest sauce yet but I think we ought to judge that for ourselves, don’t you?
Happy white day, everyone! I wasn’t planning on doing a thursday post this week but then some rather exciting news reached me and I just had to write one.
Today’s post is, as today’s holiday is, a direct follow up to this year’s valentine’s day feature on the Chilli Alchemist. Because, I’m delighted to say, that post no longer properly reflects the situation.
Hey folks. Having branched out to a second hot sauce importer fairly recently, I feel obliged to follow up on that post with a few more. To really show the full spectrum of suppliers.
But, of course, this post isn’t going to do that. No one post can.
Today, I’m just looking at one such company. One that brings over delicious sauces from germany and one that’s already quite close to my heart.
Today, I’m looking at Grim Reaper Foods but I’m looking at what they import, not what they make, for a change. Just be aware that the company that they stock is another slightly sweary one before you click through to read this article in full.
Spicefreak 