Review - All Spice Cafe Jolokia Ghost Pepper Sauce
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This is another All Spice Cafe review (the most recent one being their addictive All Spice Cafe Sweet Ghost Pepper Popcorn). Today the spicy specimen being put under the analytical microscope is their Jolokia Ghost Pepper Sauce. I had already touched on this sauce months ago when I did a video report on the KFC Double Down Sandwich, and used it as one of the dipping condiments to help perk up the eatability of the fast food chain's overrated and over-hyped grease bomb.
All Spice Cafe's JD Cowles and John Lesko have typically had a daft handle on flavor profiles, squeezing out great gourmet tones out of what would be run-of-the-mill products in lesser hands, and do not disappoint with Jolokia Ghost Pepper Sauce. I do have to impart that this is a very specialized sauce and is certainly not one that a person can utilize as an all-purpose condiment. If you find the proper uses for it (as I have attempted below) then you can find an indispensable instrument to keep in your flavor arsenal.
Ingredients:
Aged Cayenne Pepper, Vinegar, Water, Canola Oil, Jolokia Powder, Granulated Garlic, Cayenne Pepper, Habanero Pepper, Salt, Xanthan Gum
Aroma:
3 out of 5. Surprisingly pleasant. With a whiff you take in tanginess from vinegar, a dash of smokiness and a dual chile pepper/black pepper smell that's faint.
Appearance and Texture:
2.5 out of 5. If you know me I normally like my sauces thick, and this fits the bill. But its viscid and creamy texture, while being an asset in terms of stickiness and clinginess (more on that later), may be too much on other foods that you want to dollop a few drops of this on without making a knife with which to spread this around a possible necessity. One thing I can say is that its consistently is that it's...consistent. Very smooth and uniform all the way through.
There's also the dark, flat orange color of All Spice Cafe Jolokia Ghost Pepper Sauce that doesn't exactly make my salivary glands kick into overdrive. Although it's strewn with tens of thousands of red and brown pepper particles it still doesn't make for a very pretty sauce.
Taste Straight Up:
4 out of 5. After the initial tangy vinegar jab, a "wall of peppers" rushed at me and knocked me down. I got the base flavor (and quick, medium-level heat) of the cayenne in unison with the smooth character provided by the canola oil. Then a blistering assault from the habaneros and smoked bhut jolokias jumped out and scorched my tongue. It was followed up straight away by an additional offering of twang and pungency along with a rich (and almost sweet) flavor.
Subsequent tastes for me reveal the dominant taste of Jolokia Ghost Pepper Sauce to be the smoked jolokia powder. I don't care for whole, dried naga or bhut jolokias with a heavy and dark smoky flavor (give me the fresh, pure taste of jolokias instead if you have to dehydrate them!) but thankfully that smokiness is not too strong here. Kudos to JD and John (whichever one of them concocted this sauce) for keeping the flavor profile balanced in this elixir.
Taste on Food:
4 out of 5. After taking some mental notes when first sampling, I quickly came to the conclusion that this would work well as a dipping condiment or as a hot wing coater.
After frying up some buffalo wings, I gave several a good shaking-up with Jolokia Ghost Pepper Sauce. Wow, this was some thick stuff! The way it stuck to the wings was nearly perfect. It provided an incredibly hot and smoky bite to these hot wings, and it made me desire to see my local wing joint or a chain like Buffalo Wild Wings employ an incendiary and rich sauce such as this.
Another night we eat fried chicken parts with my special breading. All Spice Cafe's sauce proved to be an excellent food enhancer in dip form. As a condiment I had to be extra careful as too much of this would set my mouth ablaze (hey, admittedly I can't put it in high gear every single night, heat-wise). The overall taste was very, very good.
Heat:
Jolokia Ghost Pepper Sauce does pack quite a hot punch to the tongue. On a scale of 1 to 5, this rates at a super-heated 4. If you crave blistering amounts of fire, this liquid has it in spades.
Label:
4.5 out of 5. Extremely cool! Of course, All Spice Cafe's trademark branding features JD Cowles' visage with chile peppers as facial hair. But with the ghost pepper products made by the company, the face is a reverse negative for an ethereal, spirit-like look.
Overall Rating: 
All Spice Cafe are one of the better spicy sauce and seasoning companies populating an overcrowded market. If you're interested in any of ASC's quality goods including the Jolokia Ghost Pepper Sauce (sold in larger, 8 oz bottles), mosey on over to their online catalog at http://www.allspicecafe.com/catalog. The price tag for the JGPS may sound like a bit much at $8.99 plus shipping, please keep in mind the extra volume of sauce you get plus the "gourmet" aspect of it.
Related Articles:
Spicy Food Reviews - Hot Sauce Reviews, Hot Snacks, Hot Wings, Seasonings, BBQ Sauces, Condiments, and More
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2010-09-27 21:01:17
2010-09-28 09:10:11
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