Review - All Spice Cafe Sweet Ghost Pepper Popcorn
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I've already reported it many times, but I'll reiterate this remark: the highlight of the recent Fiery Foods Show, in my opinion, was the awesome plethora of spicy sweets and snacks. One glowing example that made this segment of the hot food world a star attraction was All Spice Cafe's scrumptious Sweet Ghost Pepper Popcorn. All Spice Cafe has been known to make some very fine products, but to include in their new bhut jolokia-infused line-up a caramel corn-type snack? And then and give some to me to review? Now that's a way to a man's...well, this man's heart.
Ingredients:
Sugar (White Cane), Mushroom Corn, Light Corn Syrup, Jolokia Pepper Sauce (Aged Cayenne Pepper, Vinegar, Water, Canola Oil, Jolokia Pepper, Granulated Garlic, Cayenne Pepper, Salt, Habanero Pepper, Xanthan Gum), Sunflower Oil, Baking Soda, Sea Salt, Soybean Lecithin.
Thoughts:
First, let's start at the bag. It's a brown paper bag with a plastic inside coating with a Ziploc-like seal. The notches for initially tearing the top of this open were placed way too high, so you'll need a good pair of scissors and cut down deep and low just to get to the seal. A small pain.
Anyway, before we dive into the contents of the bag, I'd like to point out the label. It features the usual visage of All Spice Cafe grand poobah JD Cowles with chile peppers as facial hair, only the face sketching is a negative and giving the appearance of a ghost. Very clever for a ghost chile product.
Okay, onward with the snack. Although technically not caramel corn, it's close enough in appearance and texture to be lumped together with other Cracker Jack style munchies. The popcorn has a mostly consistent coating of light brown candied loveliness. This mix contains no peanuts or other complementary fillers; it's just luscious popped corn.
Upon first taste it's mainly just mildly sweet and not heavy with sugariness or caramel-like tributes. One or two seconds in you couldn't tell that this is even a peppery snack. It has affable crunch and the popcorn is relatively fresh. Then 5 to 7 seconds in...wham! Here comes the heat. It's a pretty fine sizzle in your mouth and is residual; eat even more corn and the heat starts to peak above medium levels making this a product chileheads will love. The burn is what I call a "tongue sweater". The fire feels strongest on the tongue and provokes a build up of saliva all along it, thereby making it feel like it's getting drenched with "sweat". Heat rates an easy 3.5 out of 5, where 5 is gonzo nuclear.
What's the overall flavor? A 4.5 out of 5. There's just something minor, some teensy piece of the puzzle that's missing to push this into 5-star territory. Is it an odd flavor or ingredient that shouldn't be there? Well, not exactly, but perhaps this example can describe it better... I'm sure numerous heat fans have experimented with regular crushed red pepper in attempts to get a bit of heat into and onto foods, putting the seasoning on this, on that and on bizarre items such as vanilla ice cream. Some concoctions actually worked yet deep down you know that there was some weirdness to the blending of flavors and the bitter, almost smokey tones of the dried and crushed red pepper flakes didn't fit the dish perfectly well. You might have thought that some other variation of chile pepper heat - whether it was powdered, mashed, fresh cut, or with salsa or hot sauce - might have done the trick.
The same applies with All Spice Cafe's Sweet Ghost Pepper Popcorn...I got the feeling that just a minuscule amount of tweaking with the jolokia sauce contribution could have made this a less savory flavoring and more of a candy-type of taste, which is ultimately what this is.
In conclusion:
That's just splitting hairs. You may find this so additive (as did I) that you could scarf down the bag in one sitting. The taste is great and the burn is phenomenal, just be prepared to end up with numb lips and tongue when snack-time is over.
A 2.5 oz bag of Sweet Ghost Pepper Popcorn will run you $4.99 at the All Spice Cafe website. Also, if you use the coupon code SRspice10 when you checkout on AllSpiceCafe.com, you can get a 10% discount off any product through the end of September 2010.
Sweet Ghost Pepper Popcorn may fall short of the lofty heights reached by my favorite caramel corn, the less-spicy Sunny Gully Farms Fire Corn, it's still a sweet, delectable snack. I highly recommend this stuff.
Related Articles:
Spicy Food Reviews - Hot Sauce Reviews, Hot Snacks, Hot Wings, Seasonings, BBQ Sauces, Condiments, and More
Comments
2010-04-09 07:25:11
2010-04-09 11:11:59
Thanks from the great review and feedback.
We've been working on the popcorn recipes for over a year and were real happy to get them introduced at this year's Fiery Foods Show, with such great reception.
The 1st run is pretty much soldout and we're current running more (and trying to address that low seal on the bag thing).
We hope everyone enjoys our fiery snacks as much as we do.
Thanks again. And thanks for bringing great reviews and info on the whole fiery foods industry to us all the time. Pls keep up the great work!
-john.
2010-04-09 18:23:42
2010-04-09 22:46:43
2010-04-10 20:10:49
Hudd, yes it is indeed addictive. On a scale from 1 to 5 on addictability, it would rate a 10. :-)
2010-04-10 22:09:50
2010-04-12 19:45:20
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