Review - Chile Boys Mango Chile Jam
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If you've never encountered a jelly or jam made with peppers, stop reading this and find some immediately, and you'll see that the combination of chile-injected fire and sugary goodness is a match made in heaven. Don't worry, I'll wait.
Back? Good. See what I mean? And even if you happened to have picked up a middle-of-the-road chile jam, chances are it was still okay.
Next up at the review table is Chile Boys Mango Chile Jam, made by a New Mexico outfit with roots in chile pepper agriculture dating back over 40 years. Jacob Gutierrez, owner of Chile Boys, had submitted a jar of the Mango Chile Jam to get my take on it.
It is proclamed on the label, "Jam with a Kick! 100% Real Fruit. No Artificial Sweetners, Colors or Flavors". I'm no food snob who poo-poos chemicals and mass-produced products, but it's hard to go wrong with Chile Boys' "homestyle" process. The question is, does this jam have what it takes to stand apart from the rest? Read on to find out...
Ingredients:
Sugar, Apple Cider Vinegar, Distilled White Vinegar, Mango, Pectin, Hot Chili Pepper
Aroma:
2.5 out of 5. Immediately a fragrance of dried peppers hit my nose, backed by a tart sweetness. It's almost too vinegary for is supposed to be a sweet product.
Appearance and Texture:
4 out of 5. This is a nice, thick, almost "churned" and somewhat chunky consistency of a dense chutney. The label is unclear of what chile peppers are employed in this recipe, but it's clearly visible that a large amount of red pods are used here, skin, flesh and seeds. A deep red and orange blend of ingredients along with the hefty density give this a look and spreadability I look for in a jam or jelly.
When eating Chile Boys Mango Chile Jam, there were chewy pieces o' plenty in the gelatinous mix, from the fragments of chile skins and seeds. This didn't seem detrimental at all to my enjoyment of the product. I did not find it anywhere near as annoying to chew, say, fresh raspberries. If you prefer a smoother consistency, this may not be for you.
Taste Straight Up:
3 out of 5. I've consumed a lot of chile pepper jams and jellies that were straight up sugar and gelatinous mass, with only a rare speck of a jalapeno or habanero thrown in for measure, and with the only real evidence of it being a spicy product was a touch of burn in the after taste.
Not Chile Boys Mango Chile Jam. The standout flavor is strong chile peppers, tasting somewhat like dried peppers with a near bitter-like quality. I think if Chile Boys were able to reduce this attribute and are able to ramp up the naturally sweet and fruity taste of chile peppers, they would have a real winner on their hands here.
That having been said, they did do a respectable job of coalescing the peppers along with the sugar, pectin and the mangoes. It's not the greatest product of its kind, but it does it nicely.
Taste on Food:
3.5 out of 5. The real test of Mango Chile Jam is how to use it with food. The label suggests to, among other things, to eat it with "cream cheese and crackers". That sounded great to me. I shmeared Fat Free Philadelphia Brand Cream Cheese (trust me, it doesn't need the fat to taste good) on some Wheat Thins, and then topped each cracker with a good dollop of the Chile Boys' concoction.
This proved to be a great snack, and something that was right down my alley as being something "sweet with heat". The bitterness I had sensed before dropped back dramatically and the entirety of the Mango Chile Jam flavor was astutely balanced with the cracker and cream cheese. This was nothing that knocked my socks off, it was more more than suitable as some quick and easy munchies with which to watch a DVR-ed rerun of Mythbusters.
Suggested Uses:
Mixing a few tablespoons of this with vanilla ice cream would make a tasty treat. Those who adore glazes may find it worthy of covering a smoked or oven-baked whole chicken, pork tenderloins or some fish fillets.
Heat:
On a heat scale of 1 to 5, this may drop in somewhere around a 2. This possesses a quick, medium heat but eating it with food (especially cooling ones such as cream cheese) shouldn't prove to be too nefarious even for fair-weather spicy food fans.
Label:
2.5 of 5. This features a pale yellow label adorned with part of the New Mexico state flag. It's nice enough to get the point across, but seems semi-amateurish like something one would see at a local fair and not on a supermarket or specialty store shelf.
Overall Score:
I love the spicy sweet genre of products but Chile Boys Mango Chile Jam fits in as being somewhat average among them. It's still tasty and snack-able enough to recommend, so I'm giving this 
This and many other jams are available at the Chile Boys website, where they also sell green chiles, red chiles and spices.
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