Tropical

10 Minute Birthday

Spicefreak3 Comments

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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One Two Punch

Spicefreak3 Comments

Hey folks, welcome back to another of my rare thursday reviews. Reviews that I do specifically when I have an exciting item not sold in the UK, something which is claimed to be inedible or something that has undergone a major recipe change.

Today, I believe that what I have for you falls into the third category. Though the situation is a little weird, this time, because our new, fruit-based “Punch” doesn’t quite share its name with Dorset Chilli Shop’s old one. And the ingredients and design are so vastly different from that 💀“Dorset Punch”💀 that it could easily be considered a whole new product. Even if it doesn’t seem like its makers actually see it that way.

To show you what I mean, here’s a brief look at the bottle before I get into what’s changed:

And I should probably also mention The Chilli Alchemist‘s new Gold, which seems like it very may well be the same sauce in a bigger, prettier bottle.

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Third Hop

Spicefreak1 Comment

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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Indian Fruit & Fire

Spicefreak2 Comments

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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Alkemio Yellow

Spicefreak6 Comments

Yo, what’s up, peeps? We’ve been on the rich and dark for a few weeks now and I think it’s time for something bright and fresh, to shake things up.

So, today, we have a couple of vibrant, yellow sauces from Alkemio Kitchen, down in surrey. A highly experimental dinner club restaurant who are pretty new to the hot sauce scene but sure do seem to have some crazy flavours. Like the Jalapeno, Lime, Mustard, Turmeric and Pineapple, Shiso Leaf, Calamansi, Sugar that you see here.

And, while their names are a mouthful, they’re also pretty informative. If you know what all of those ingredients actually are.

For those of you who don’t, however, I’m more than happy to help. Since I am, after all, very excited to get into these two before the launch of their their crowdfunding campaign, later this month.

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Tropical Trio

Spicefreak2 Comments

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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Price’s Pair

Spicefreak2 Comments

Sad new year everyone. I’d say “happy” but it’s not.

Not for me and my blog.

The year that’s just gone has taken away both of my usual new year’s traditions – The night of partying and the green sauce for my first january review. So, while my special jalapeño product is still stuck in the twenty-twenty mail backlog, I’m afraid that I’m going to have to show you something else. A pair of red and yellow items from Prices Spices:

Their Reclus Red chilli jam and their El Salivate Ador sauce. Both of which will hopefully have the great taste to live up to their fake stickers’ claims and kick off this year, if not “right”, at least well.

After all, Prices Spices have managed to wow me many times before, including with their use of pineapple, so I definitely have reason to expect great things from the fruit in today’s sauce.

But it’s actually the jam that I’m really excited for. Because, despite its simple, red and black labelling, its chilli of choice is quite unique.

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September Smoke

Spicefreak1 Comment

Sup dudes.

Now that it’s september, summer is practically over but I reckon that we can still eek out a just a touch more time from our british barbecue season. Which is great because I just got my hands on two new sweet and sticky sauces from Hot Headz:

But, if I’m wrong and the recent rain is here to stay, they should still pack enough smoke of their own to bring the barbecue indoors, metaphorically speaking.

I love sauces from this genre over ribs, chicken, baked beans and macaroni cheese, to name just a few uses, so they certainly won’t go to waste. Not even out of season.

And, after how much I enjoyed Hot Headz’ medium barbecue blend, I am super excited to see what they do with their mild and extreme versions.

I have very high hopes for today’s review items. Let’s see if they can hold up to them, shall we?

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The Death Star

Spicefreak2 Comments

Hey there everybody, it’s thursday again and time for me to review another freebie from Heat Hot Sauce. A sauce shop situated outside of the UK – Hence it not fitting into my usual tuesday feature – but one with far better international shipping than some and a wide selection of interesting sauces at reasonable prices.

Today’s item was apparently made with them in mind but its actual producer is a company called “Spicy Ninja Sauce”, based in Hawai’i.

So, given their island home and the fertility of volcanic soil, it’s only natural that it contains tropical fruit. Yet we’re not looking at anything as ordinary as mango, papaya, pineapple, coconut or even lilikoi – A local breed of yellow passion-fruit used in some of their sauces.

No, their weapon of choice, for this one, is something that I’ve only ever seen once before, on import from germany. It’s the legendary star fruit, or carambola, which almost everyone has heard of but few have ever tasted. A fruit that apparently blends hints of grape, citrus, pear and cantaloupe melon.

My history with the carambola has it pegged a little differently, though – As a blend of pineapple, unripe lemon and cucumber that was absolutely disgusting when skewered and chocolate-coated. Yet I’m pretty sure that I didn’t have it at its best.

After all, my fruit was green and Spicy Ninja’s sauce is anything but:

DeathStar

It’s a bright orange blend of carrots, star fruit and ghost pepper, themed after the Death Star. And, while it’s purely coincidence that this product caught my attention right now, I definitely appreciate Heat Hot Sauce getting it to me in time for The Rise of Skywalker.

I could not have asked for a better time to show off the D_ _ th S_ ★r O.G. “Weaponized Star Fruit” sauce than alongside the release of Star Wars episode nine!

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Heat on the Beach

Spicefreak10 Comments

Hey there everyone, it’s tuesday again and time for a little more in the way of hot stuff. Hot stuff that I picked up down at the Brighton Fiery Food Fest.

BHSBunch

So what more apt name could today’s company have than “Brighton Hot Stuff”?

Now, personally, I do view it as a little uncreative but anything that these guys lacked in inspired naming was more than made up for by the sheer personality and passion that they had on-stall. They were one of the most engaging groups that I’ve ever come across at a festival and, even after the official closing time, there were non-stop crowds around them.

So, do their products live up to the hype? I’m going to take a look at three of them and find out.

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