Review - Diane's Sweet Heat Habanero Jams
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Here's more sweet with heat with the appropriately named Diane's Sweet Heat Habanero Jams. I gave Raspberry Habanero Jam, Mango Habanero Jam, Peach Habanero Jam and Blackberry Habanero Jam a test run and was very pleased with what I found.
Unfortunately one of my review jars shattered in the package while being shipped from Diane's Sweet Heat. While it got a couple of the other jars got quite sticky from the mess, luckily it was a duplicate jar that broke, and I had all four of my test subjects intact. So without further ado, I'll go through them one by one with my assessment.
Raspberry Habanero Jam "HOT"
Ingredients: Sugar, raspberries, red bell peppers, habanero peppers, vinegar, pectin.
I was sent the hotter of two different variations of the Raspberry jam that Diane's Sweet Heat offers, so it's the more fiery perspective of this version that I'm looking through.
Out of all four jams I reviewed, it was the Raspberry that had the strongest aroma, with the bluster of fresh habs that shined against the berry scent. It possessed a nice, thick, beautiful consistency with lots of pieces of fruit, peppers and seeds. Taste-wise, this was very sweet and very, very hot (on a scale of 1 to 5, the heat was a solid 3.5). The fire produced in my mouth by this jam was very quick to build. I was just a touch disappointed that the distinctive flavor and tartness of raspberries (one of my top 2 or 3 favorite fruits) didn't bust out more; I've had other store-bought raspberry jams and preserves that explode with awesome berry taste in comparison to this. But that was a minor gripe; this was still a highly satisfying and tasteful jam. Overall, it gets 4 out of 5 for more.
Mango Habanero Jam "HOT"
Ingredients: Sugar, mangoes, red bell peppers, habanero peppers, vinegar, pectin.
This was the hotter of the two Mango jam Diane's Sweet Heat sells.
This had a less pungent smell; I barely sensed any mangos or chiles, but they were there. The texture was a tiny bit smoother but still chock full of fruit, red bell peppers and chiles. The flavor was mild, smooth, and very easy-going in terms of fruitiness. Unlike the Raspberry Habanero Jam, the heat was gradual to grow to full force (typical of habanero peppers). The heat level is similar to the Raspberry's. Overall, this merits a respectable 3.5 out of 5.
Peach Habanero Jam
Ingredients: Sugar, peaches, red bell peppers, habanero peppers, vinegar, pectin.
The aroma had a light peach smell, but had probably the strongest habanero scent, smelling distinctively fresh n' fruity as habs do. This jam was a bit runnier. Terrific taste! I was highly pleased with the peach flavor, and it blended well with the peppers. The burn was milder than the previous two, but it was still teetering around 2.5/3 out of 5, and slowly built up on my tongue and gums. Taking everything into consideration, this may have been my second favorite jam of the group and rated 4 out of 5.
Blackberry Habanero Jam
Ingredients: Sugar, blackberries, red bell peppers, habanero peppers, vinegar, pectin.
The plainest aroma of them all, and this had the gelatinously-chunky consistency of the Raspberry Jam. It only took one spoonful to convince me that Blackberry Habanero Jam was a winner. This was hands-down my favorite of the four jams. The bright flavor of freshly-picked blackberries were dazzling. Although this was the least hot (2.5 out of 5) of the bunch, a good balance between heat and sweet was achieved. If there were any negatives, it would be that the jar was too small (these come in 4 ounce containers) and a heavy user of jams or jellies would tear through this rather quickly. Since I'm feeling generous today, I'll award this 5 out of 5 overall. I give this my highest recommendation.
Taste on Food
I made some lightly-cooked toast, as this would be a very common, basic usage for jams. Here's what I thought on each one on toast:
Raspberry Habanero Jam "HOT" - Decent. As much as I love raspberries, this was the plainest of the jams. And of course, this is good and hot, for experienced chileheads only.
Mango Habanero Jam "HOT" - Interesting and pleasing. The great mango flavor was somehow amplified while being on the bread. The scorching heat and flavor of habs was highly apparent.
Peach Habanero Jam - More habanero taste comes through than eating it by itself. Still an admirable toast topper.
Blackberry Habanero Jam - All-around excellent stuff.
Suggested Uses
Any one of these would go well with your typical bread-based breakfast items (toast, biscuits, muffins, and so on). I also think that a good "anytime" snack would be Diane's Sweet Heat jams on crackers; just dollop a spoonful of the stuff on a Ritz or soda cracker and you've got some good spicy and sweet munching food while watching a ball game on TV. One of my favorite prior uses of raspberry preserves was to mix it in with vanilla ice cream; I can imagine doing the same with the Blackberry Habanero Jam to create some truly fiery and fruity ice cream. The Peach and Mango jams could possibly be a nice glaze for baked pork or chicken.
Labels
It'd give these a 4 out of 5. Very colorful. A friendly little cartoon chile wearing a sombrero adorns each label. A "HOT" sticker (which looks like something your local supermarket would slap on packaging) is applied to the label and is the only indication of whether or not a jam is the spicier version.
In Conclusion
All are worthy of trying out, but the Blackberry steals the show. Diane's Sweet Heat also sells a Blueberry jam. You can pick up four-ounce jars at http://www.dianessweetheat.com for five bucks a piece, and although the jars are small and won't last you very long, the excellent taste of each justifies the price.
Note: James Beck of EatMoreHeat.com and I had previously decided to split up the reviews of Diane's Sweet Heat jams, with James testing out the Strawberry and Blueberry jams and me trying the ones above. You can read James' review here, and also see what he thought about the Blackberry variety here.
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2009-07-24 07:38:29
2009-07-26 17:41:10
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