Month: March 2010

I’m putting my foot down: I will NOT partake in the current bacon craze/meme/fad. If you’re unfamiliar with what I’m talking about, it’s the trend where seemingly everyone is going bonkers over bacon-flavored and bacon-themed everything. Just move two inches on the internet and you’re sure to bump into some website touting something as ridiculous as bacon-flavored Kool-Aid, bacon-wrapped bacon on a stick, or bacon-scented cologne with hordes of commentors and forum members applauding along in approval like zombies. Sure, bacon has its place in the culinary world, but there are numerous other foods and tastes I’d select any day over these cured strips of pork.

That having been said, I still wanted to give the new Captain Thom’s Slappin’ Fat Bacon Ketchup a shot. Captain Thom Edwards usually has a good handle on what makes sauces taste superb (his Thai Monkey sauce is one of my faves), so naturally I was intrigued with what he could pull off…

Ah, we have another Scovie Award Winner here; this one has snatched up both first and second place honors in the Mustard category. The name is NunDunBetter Gourmet Chile Mustard Sauce and Dip. I’ve confessed before that I’m not the biggest fan of mustards, but when a mustard is rich, bold, complex, balanced and a bit on the sweet side, there are very few condiments or sauces on earth that can touch them. Let’s see if NunDunBetter Chile Mustard can fit that description and please my humble ol’ palette…

The annual Snowmass Chili Pepper Brew Fest in June attracts some of the best chili cooks in the state to an International Chili Society-sanctioned cook-off. It also attracts beer geeks looking to sample some of the best brews made in Colorado.

So you would think that Twisted Pine Brewing Company’s Billy’s Chilies beer, which combines the best of both of those worlds, would have been cheered.

Instead, says Twisted Pine spokesman Mike Burns, people wanted more. “The reaction from the crowd there was, ‘Don’t you have anything hotter?'”

Be careful what you wish for, chiliheads!

Earlier this month, a brewer at Boulder’s Twisted Pine bought some dry ghost chilies – you know, the hottest peppers in the world — from…

After listing Hot Sauce and Hot Pepper Sites You Should Not Miss and More Hot Sauce and Hot Pepper Sites You Should Visit, one would figure that there could not conceivably be any additional chile blogs on the web. Not on your life! As the fiery foods industry continues to grow, so do fan sites exhorting their most beloved spicy products…

Wow…talk about a story that won’t die. Well, this may be a terrible example of a “recurring rumor” type of news bulletin, but for some reason a nine-month-old report that India was planning to construct ghost chile grenades came back to life the past couple of days as if it were a fresh, breaking news story. I even blogged about it last June, pointing to the aforementioned link on the BBC website.

After scanning through the June 2009 and March 2010 articles, there appears to be little if anything differing between them. One Twitter friend speculated “I think it was just an idea last year. Since then, testing has been done and the military is committing to the new weapon,” so that may be the case. It’s still interesting to see the majority of hardcore chileheads collectively having “amnesia” about this news bit and act as though they had never heard the idea of the weaponization of the mighty bhut jolokia to be used as pepper spray-type deterrent.

I’ve been trying to ignore this baffling resurgence of this news report, but God Almighty, I have been inundated with e-mails, Facebook inbox messages and Tweets concerning this! It’s as if the planets have aligned and everyone is out to notify me of this.

Please don’t get me wrong. I love hearing from all of you people and I appreciate any and all tips you have given me over the years. I certainly don’t want to have a condescending attitude towards anyone.

Anywho, for the few of you who still haven’t seen this, here’s the Yahoo news link from this morning:

Indian Military to Weaponize World’s Hottest Chili.

It’s been noted by myself and others that the true breakout products at the 2010 Fiery Foods Show were the sweets and snack products. Yeah, there were plenty of new sauces worthy of your hard-earned dollars from manufacturers ranging from Golden Toad to the All Spice Cafe. But the sheer volume and quality of fiery munchies was too much not to ignore. One such was goodie in this sub-genre of spicy consumables was the Phoenix White Cheddar Jalapeno seasoning produced by Anthony Spices, a company hailing from Arizona that specializes in dry spice mixes and seasonings (they also churn out BBQ and wing sauces as well)…

It has been billed as “The Habanero Hot Sauce with the Angelic Flavor and a Halo full of Feisty thrown in.” Does I’m No Angel Hot Sauce provide the best of Heaven and Hell in a handy 5 oz. woozy bottle? Is this review full of Biblical references? Well, on that last part I tried to keep them to a minimum, but read on to find out what I thought of this sauce…

Ingredients:
Tomatoes, Habanero Pepper, Water, Honey, Tic Gum, Spices

Aroma:
2 out of 5. A solid whiff of this will reveal tomatoes and honey. This may sound pleasant or interesting, but it’s really, really bad – the combination produces an overly bitter, medicine-like odor. If you can imagine what a V8 Juice-flavored Nyquil would smell like, you’re pretty close to the scent of this…

It’s back for the fourth year!

Mark your calendars for July 31st and August 1st, and join the manufacturers and diehard chileheads who make the pilgrimage to Jungle Jim’s annual (four years and running) “Weekend of Fire”. The annual hot sauce show event is held inside The Oscar Event Center, located adjacent to the Jungle Jim’s six and a half acre megastore in Fairfield, Ohio, just north of Cincinnati.

This year they are planning something bigger, hotter, and even more fun. Prepare yourself for up to 75 booths of fiery foods of all kinds – hot sauces, barbecue sauces, salsas, marinades, mustards, jerkies, peppers and more from the all ‘cross the USA.

Other Highlights:

• The Defcon National Deathmatch Wing Eating Championship
• The Intensity Academy Lollipop Lick-a-thon
• NEW W.O.F. Best in Show Award
• NEW Eat the Heat! Cooking with Hot Sauce Class
• Get Your Face on a Label
• And More!

Saturday, July 31, 2010 – 10:00am – 7:00pm
Sunday, August 1, 2010 – 11:00am – 5:00pm

Additional information is forthcoming, so go to the Official Weekend of Fire Website for periodic updates, or stayed tuned to this blog.

For us chileheads, the Weekend of Fire is of course the show started…

This review was a long, LONG time coming. The genesis was actually about one year ago when Big Orson’s submitted the Hot and Extra Hot versions of their patented Citizen Cajun Mango Habanero Salsas for the chilehead bloggers contest that culminated at last year’s Weekend of Fire hot sauce show in August. I was impressed with their usage of sweet components and de-emphasizing the tomato (the later of which is what most people in America envision when they hear the word “salsa”) in their one-of-a-kind, chunky blends. Big Orson’s did very well in the aforementioned contest – the Hot variation claimed the Second Place slot out of roughly thirty entries, remarkable for an unconventional, dessert-type salsa – and put them on the radar for many online pepper fans. When it came to me doing a review…well, as determined as my intentions were, I just simply never got around to doing one.

Flash forward several months later. Big Orson’s owner and president Jason Clabaugh shipped to me all four types in his Citizen Cajun line – Mild, Medium, Hot and Extra Hot. It provided me a second chance to tell you all about these unique products, and I’m not about to waste the opportunity this time…

Looking for a great summertime event in the Colorado area featuring chili (the dish), beer and chile peppers? Then this may be for you…

The 7th Annual Snowmass Chili Pepper & Brew Fest, held Friday and Saturday, June 4-5, 2010, is the hottest event of the summer! This exhilarating festival is set against a breathtaking mountain backdrop in Snowmass Village, Colorado, just 9 miles from Aspen.

Guests from Colorado and surrounding states head to Snowmass for International Chili Society (ICS)-sanctioned and Locals’ chili and home brew competitions. Over 50 microbreweries, European and exotic beers from…

It was Thursday, 3am, and The Defcon Crew awoke. Outside of the Defcon Compound lay multiple feet of snow. The area had been turned into a nuclear winter for the past few weeks. However, there was a platinum lining around this Orwellian scene. The Defcon Crew was to embark on our annual pilgrimage to Albuquerque, New Mexico, home of the Fiery Food Show. This glimmer of hope kept the team alive, as the daily shoveling of the solidified water had taken its toll. I, the Defcon Creator, knew I was going to be in Heaven as I brought individuals, one by one, into their own personal Hell. We gathered our belongings and headed to the airport. The Defcon Pallet of Doom had arrived at the field of battle in New Mexico, and the homunculi had eagerly transported the newest yield of Zero a few days earlier, life was good.

We arrived at Newark Airport, globally known as one of the worst airports known to man, at about 4am, and stood in the TSA Line of Stupid Human Tricks. I have to admit, I did find a little joy watching the frustration grow in others, as they were forced to march lockstep by the orders of the $8/hour TSA guards, who moonlight as fryguys at the Waffle House. The high-maintenance women, forced to obey the decrees of the TSA Minions was worth the wait, as they all knew if they stepped out of line, a cavity search would ensue…

Finally! Here’s my diary from the 22nd Annual Fiery Foods and Barbecue Show which took place between March 5 – 7. I probably should have broken it up into days and slapped together several blog posts out of it; but you know me, always doing things the hard way.

Thursday

The weekend began Thursday morning. Thursday of course was a setup day for vendors at the Fiery Foods Show but a travel day for hot sauce aficionados from all over the country and the world. My flight from my hometown of St. Louis to the connecting airport of Dallas-Ft. Worth was pleasant but landed later than scheduled, so I had to literally run like O.J. Simpson in the old Hertz Rental Car commercials to reach the other side of the airport (with a short tram trip in the middle) where my connecting flight to Albuquerque awaited. I had literally three minutes to spare before takeoff.

Because of the marathon-caliber dashing to the gate – I had not run like that in years – I developed…