Review - Coal Gulch Trading Company's Chipotle and Ancho Herb Seasonings
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Out of the many local New Mexican exhibitors I met at the National Fiery Foods and BBQ Show this past March in Albuquerque, Scott Reilly of the Coal Gulch Trading Co. proved to be one of the most fascinating with consistently admirable products across the board. Even though quick tastings of vendors booth samples is by far from being rock-solid reliable, during my time at Coal Gulch's stall I didn't encounter a single weak product.
Since my New Mexico trip, Scott was kind enough to supply me with his entire product line for review, which now at over six months later I am finally getting around to posting (sorry, Scott).
In this first of a multi-part review on Coal Gulch's spicy food concoctions, I will be tackling the Chipotle Seasoning and the Ancho Herb Seasoning mixes.
Label and Packaging:
Both this Chipotle and the Ancho Herb come in 3.5 oz. tins with metal and clear plastic lids, allowing one to see the contents inside. There are no portioning restrictors such as a lid or cap with flow holes, and unless one is extremely careful they could potentially dump out a larger amount than they would desire. I happen to like this type of open container. I to enjoy sprinkling on generous portions of rubs and seasonings on foods, so as long as I'm using a steady hand it doesn't personally bother me.
The labels have a nice Western-style look to them, appearing not too dated nor too modern. The different spice combos are very distinctively color-coded as to avoid accidentally mistaking one for the other.
Now I'll break down this review by product...
Chipotle Seasoning
Ingredients:Black Pepper, Granulated Garlic, Paprika, Chipotle Chile, Minced Onion
Aroma:
3 out of 5. Smells a touch salty, spicy and herb-like. Moderately appetizing.
Appearance and Texture:
3.5 out of 5. Coal Gulch Chipotle Seasoning is a wild blend of lovely colors: red, maroon, white, yellowish and green, and many visually interesting and varying sizes of flakes and granules.
One very noteworthy thing I spotted almost immediately was the presence of numerous green herbs. Nothing resembling that is listed in the ingredients list, nor was there the vague catch-all category of "spices". I fished out a couple of these mystery herbs and the flavor (or lack thereof) made me think this was parsley added in for color.
Taste Straight Up:
2.5 out of 5. There's lots of bitter, herb-like, and spicy tones at play here. Sampling a seasoning by itself is hardly an accurate way of judging the overall taste, but I already knew that I wasn't going to expect anything overly salty or sweet from this concoction.
Taste on Food:
3.5 out of 5. I grilled up some pork steaks (a mainstay of Eastern Missouri barbecuing) with a pre-cook rub with both of the Coal Gulch spice blends I'm reviewing today. As I've repeated many times before, it's hard for me to go light on a rub, with the exception of an ultra-hot chile pepper blend. I coated these meaty slices of pork shoulder blade with a healthy coating of Chipotle Seasoning and Ancho Herb Seasoning approximately a half-hour before grilling time and placed them in the refrigerator.
I placed the pork steaks on the grill and applied an extra (but minimal) sprinkle of each seasoning on each side of their respective steaks after flipping them over once.
After they were done, I transported the pork steaks inside for some chowin' down with a baked potato. I cut sizable pieces off of each one to review both. Here's what I thought of the Chipotle Seasoning...
There was nothing I detected (other than a small smoldering of chipotle heat) that jumped out taste-wise; no strong garlic, pepper or onion presence was there. The spices did a nice job of "mellowing out" during the cook and softly melded with the natural juices of the meat. The seasoning was not at all blustery or dominant. This could be a good or bad thing, as sometimes you expect and hope that the flavors of a food enhancer will pop out at you more. I didn't mind that they didn't in this case, and instead they played just enough of a supporting act that it made the overall steak very tasty. Good job.
Heat:
2 out of 5. A medium amount of smoky burn is found in Coal Gulch Trading Co.'s Chipotle Seasoning that warms the tongue. If you normally don't care for a little heat I would use this sparingly, but spice fans would be easily comfortable with the sizzle.
Ancho Herb Seasoning
Ingredients:
Paprika, Granulated Garlic, Ancho Chile, Spices
Aroma:
2.5 out of 5. This has a very earthy, bitter and "dark" aroma. Not exactly something that would stir up interest with your meal guests.
Appearance and Texture:
3 out of 5. Coal Gulch Ancho Herb Seasoning is less varying and more containing red-tinted components than the Chipotle one does. There are more detectable pieces of herbs and spices and almost reminds me of an Autumnal landscape in appearance.
Taste Straight Up:
2 out of 5. Again, a seasoning should not be judged by tasting some straight. But that having been said, it truly matches it's aroma: very earthy, grassy and bitter with a low-end burn.
Taste on Food:
3 out of 5. On the pork steak, the Ancho Herb Seasoning was marginally tasty. I liked the tastes provided by the ancho chiles (which are simply dried poblano peppers, some of my very favorite chiles in fresh form) and there was a hint of Italian-style herbs. The overall flavor profile was very uncongenial and earthy but thankfully any bitter notes were quieted down with the flavor of the meat, as it was with the Chipotle Seasoning. Yet this could have still used a bit more punch and sparkle, perhaps by introducing a touch of something more savory or sweet.
I wanted to get more out of this. On a later date, I stirred in a teaspoon of Ancho Herb Seasoning to some cream cheese to create a makeshift dip. This fared a lot better than it did on the pork steak, with the flavor profile really hitting it's stride with the additional sweet elements.
To balance out the scores - I would have given Ancho Herb Seasoning a 2.5 on the pork steaks and a 4 as a dip - I'll award this 3 out of 5 overall.
Heat:
1 out of 5. There's just enough mild burn to give this spice mix a bit of spicy depth. Kids and wimps needn't fear this too much.
Overall
In closing, these are a couple of spice entries worth a try for fans of flavor and fire.
As of now there's not much of a website http://coalgulch.com, but hopefully one can be up and running soon so that you can order Coal Gulch Trading Co.'s products.
Coming soon, reviews of Coal Gulch's glazes and an interesting mustard.
Related Articles:
Spicy Food Reviews - Hot Sauce Reviews, Hot Snacks, Hot Wings, Seasonings, BBQ Sauces, Condiments, and More
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2010-09-19 16:02:54
2010-09-20 07:02:41
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