Orange

Dew-Over

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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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Scottish Syrup

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Another week has arrived, dear readers, and it’s time for another review. But, this time, it isn’t just any old tuesday. It’s shrove tuesday – Now more commonly known as pancake day – and that’s my favourite food-based holiday. So you’d better believe I’ve got something special, sweet and spicy to slather over my breakfast, lunch and dinner:

This is Mack Chilli’s Ginger Ninja and, as much as it may look like a thai sweet sauce, the label assures me otherwise. Because it is, in fact, a chilli syrup, made from the pride of Mack’s home country and mine. The bright, orange, scottish soda that is Irn Bru.

With its appropriately orangey and almost bubblegum fruit flavour, the Bru might not be my favourite fizz but it certainly is an iconic one. And one that I still very much enjoy, despite its touch of bitter quinine.

Yet a huge part of its identity comes from that very quinine and how the subtle bitterness is brought out by the drink’s bubbles. In order to provide a sharp quality which contrasts with its sweet base flavour.

Can today’s chillies do the same?

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Third Hop

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Hello again, everyone, and welcome back to the third and, for now at least, final feature of Hop’t. A company who’s craft beer-inspired, hop-infused hot sauces have really impressed me.

I’d like to say that I’ve saved the best of them for last but they’re all so well made and so different that it really is quite hard to choose. All I can say is that today’s product has grown on me a lot lately.

And, of course, that it’s their Tropical Habanero Lager sauce. Described as fruity, crisp and fiery:

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Single Habanero Jams

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Three, two, one, let’s jam!

Today, I’ve got a jazzy little duo from Single Variety Co. – Makers of simple, straight-forward jams that use only a single fruit. Or, in this case, chilli.

In fact, our new, limited edition pair only have a single pepper between them – The habanero – and are intended to showcase the difference between two of its distinct strains. One made with the most common, orange variety and the other with the richer, darker and more earthy – Yet not in the least bit cocoa-y – “chocolate” colouration. A glossy brown version with rather more heat than most.

You can find a little bit more about these peppers on my encyclopedia pages but, today, I’m going to see what they do to jam and just how much difference the colour of the pepper truly makes to a product. Because these two are, in fact, the exact same recipe.

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Wiltshire Chocolate

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Happy international chocolate day again, everyone! I know I said that last year was my last time celebrating it, because of my disdain for what Milton Hershey did to chocolate, but I just so happened to come in to some very exciting bars this week. And I couldn’t just leave the Wiltshire Chilli Farm’s latest ’til later, now could I?

These are their brand new chilli chocolate line and they range from a medium chipotle and orange milk to the extreme, extra dark naga. With a habanero and lime flavoured regular dark in the middle.

All three sound and look fantastic, wrapped in a mix of black and Wiltshire’s signature action lines. But will their taste and texture live up to that first impression?

There’s only one way to tell.

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Chocolate Hell

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Hello again, everyone, and welcome back to the last tuesday of march. The perfect time for a quite unusual pair.

Today we have two very different sauces, with very different heats and flavours, but one particularly appropriate ingredient in common: Chocolate.

It is coming up to easter, after all, so why not start the celebrations early with Ignis’ CNC9 and Haskhell’s Chipotle?

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Somerset Chilli Choc

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Hey folks, it’s february and I really appreciate all of you, for reading my reviews and making this blog feel worthwhile. Chilli is my love and my passion but it’s you, dear readers, who give my writing meaning. And so, with that in mind, I’d like to share my valentine’s day chocolates with you.

Chocolates which are, of course, very on brand for my site ;).

This year’s come to me from Somerset Chilli Garden – Not to be confused with The Somerset Chilli Co. – and were actually sent to me a little in advance of their public release. Since a friend of mine happens to live nearby and put me in touch, back when they were still just prototypes.

What I have now, however, are the finished release. Just a little bit early, in order to give you all a good look at what’s inside, before you buy.

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Grim Marmalades

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Hey folks, happy tuesday!

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:

YellowHabMarm

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.

BloodOrangeMarm

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The Marmalade Beast

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My god, you lot, it’s tuesday and I’ve only just recovered from this year’s birthday post. I’m going to need something extra mild for today’s review. So it’s pretty fortunate that I’ve got just the thing:

MildBeast

This is the Mild Beast and it’s from a company who’s sauces I’ve been liking a lot, lately. Yet it shows a very different side of them.

You see, while it might be another Hot Pods product, this particular sauce isn’t the work of Stephen Dixon. It’s made by his daughter – The supposed boss of the company – and it’s made for younger palates, like hers.

The Mild Beast is designed to be heavy on the fruit, light on the vinegar and much much milder. Forsaking the company’s usual chilli blend in favour of a single, not so superhot, pepper.

And yes, I picked it up now because I looked at the calendar and knew that a monday birthday spelt trouble. But I was already planning to try it, anyway, because I find the idea of hot sauce by kids for kids intriguing.

Especially when the label is so clearly their design.

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A Chilli Named “Carrot”

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So, last week we shone a light on a rare pepper variety with High River’s insanely hot sauce but, this time around, we’re looking at something a good deal milder.

The shipka – Or bulgarian carrot, to give its common name – clocks in at between ten and thirty thousand scoville units, making it just a little hotter than the hottest of normal jalapeño strains. It’s very fresh, very vegetable and very much an orange pepper.

Yet, despite being so usable and being quite possibly the second most common orange chilli, I’ve never seen the “carrot” in sauce before. Only fresh or in seed form.

So I’m very interested in seeing what Chilli Hills – An actual bulgarian company – have done with it.

BulgarianCarrot

And, if you are, too, Doctor Burnorium’s Hot Sauce Emporium appears to be the main importer of today’s sauce. Though you might want to read on before you order.

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