Sweet

A Floral Focus

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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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Three from the Lab

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What’s up everybody? We’ve played it safe these last couple of weeks but, today, I think it’s time that we branched out to someone new, once again. A company so fresh that they don’t even seem to have a website yet. But they still feature prominently in my local hot sauce shop.

Meet Heat Lab. A small, york-based business with three different flavours and a science-themed aesthetic that’s very much after my own heart.

The wrinkled heat shrink around their bottle necks may show their lack of experience but it says nothing about the quality within. And honestly, I have high hopes for this trio.

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Sweet Chilli Beast

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Happy tuesday again, everyone!

This week, I’m looking at another old friend of ours, The Chilli Pepper Company, for what is supposedly a “sweet chilli sauce for psychos”. Though, to me, it looks a lot darker and more barbecue-like:

Hence my decision to feature The Beast now – Right after The Wicked Chilli’s sadly lacklustre naga barbecue – in the hopes that a company who’ve proven themselves in the past can do a better job.

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Beast of Birmingham

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Happy tuesday again, everyone! It feels like forever since I’ve said that simple line but here we are, back again with another transparent label item. A growing trend, it would seem, and one which I rather appreciate. Given that it puts an extra focus on the look of the sauce, itself.

Just like last time, however, the company behind today’s sauce use web photos that look quite different to what I see in person. With my own bottle, on the right, appearing far lighter and yellower than the dark green sweet chilli which I’d been led to expect:

Neither looks bad, this time around, but their photo suggests something deep and chlorophyllic, while my in-person shade boasts the potential for a more vibrant and tangy flavour. So I’m very curious as to what Pip’s Fuego del Verde actually tastes like.

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Swooning Chimp

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How’s it going everyone? I know we just had a holiday post for the lunar new year and valentine’s day isn’t until next week but, please, allow me to get a little ahead of schedule with today’s review. Because, as is often the case, my special showcase for the fourteenth of february is a limited edition that you’re going to want to grab in advance.

And, this year, it comes from the Screaming Chimp:

A delightfully jammy-looking hot sauce by the name of “Let Me Be Your Phantasy”, which they put out late each january and which holds a certain special interest for me, since it features the rare ají fantasy chilli. One which I’ve only come across once before.

Plus it just looks so inviting!

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Three Green Kings

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Hey folks, I know that it’s the fourth today but it’s still my first review since december. So happy new year!

This time around, the postal service has been a little more on point and I’ve been a little more prepared, as well. Meaning that I’ve got not one, not two but a whopping three different green chilli sauces to show off. Each from a producer who’s work is entirely new to me and who uses a highly unusual ingredient, as well.

For the start of twenty twenty-two, I bring you Great Scott Hot Sauce’s Apple, Gooseberry & Serrano, Orriss & Son’s jalapeño and nettle “Fresh Tendrils” and Mack Chilli’s Jalapearno. Which is an awful portmanteaux but definitely gets its key ingredients across.

Here’s how the lot of them look:

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Mexican Sky

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Hola, mi amigos! Tomorrow is mexican independence day. So, today, we’re going to take a little look at something thematically appropriate, imported by Mex Grocer.

This huge bottle holds Ki’ Gourmet’s Cielo Rojo. Or “Red Sky”, for those of you who don’t speak spanish. A blackberry and chipotle morita sauce, which sounds unlike anything that I’ve had before.

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Summer Sillyness

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Hello again, everyone. We’ve been looking at some serious hot stuff lately and, if I’m honest with you, I really have been suffering from it. It’s been hard work, assessing the flavours of and writing about such brutal products. So, this week, I’d like to swing the pendulum back the other way and show you something incredibly mild, instead:

This is Silli Chilly – A weirdly spelt chilli jam from our good friend, Stephen Dixon, over at Hot Pods. And it’s quite unlike anything else that I’ve ever tried.

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Watermelon Sugar Spice

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Happy Star Wars day, everyone!

Unfortunately, I didn’t find anything as amazingly on theme to show you as the D_ _ th S_ ★r O.G, this year, and a look at Disney’s Galaxy’s Edge show’s that they’re only serving drinks and snacks, right now. So no inspiration there.

But, from what little I saw of their old menu, they sure seemed fond of their charred meats. And I do, at least, have a sauce for that.

This is Alkemio Kitchen’s Watermelon, Cucumber, Lemongrass, Sugar and, if you’re thinking that you’ve seen it before, you might well be correct. Not only does it use the exact same packaging as the rest of the brand but it also featured lightly in my recent overview of the company. Which you can find here.

Today, however, I’m going to give it far more thorough look.

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Sweet and Sour

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Alright, everyone, we’ve just seen a whole bunch of fruity flavours and I was planning to bring you another one. But then Brighton Hot Stuff went and shipped an unexpected extra in with my order and it felt like a far better fit for today.

So, this week, I’m putting that flurry of fruit-based products on hold, real quick, in order to add a little more variety to my line-up and show off their Extra Hot Sweet Chilli:

A brand new addition to the company’s range, which combines their delicious red habaneros with a mixed superhot blend, for a far fiercer take on the thai classic.

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