Review - Elephant Pepper Seasonings
This is part one of my review of Elephant Pepper products. There's a future one that will feature Elephant Pepper chile pepper sauces, but this one will focus on their seasoning grinders.
I most interject right now that the Elephant Pepper Development Trust is one of the most fascinating associations of which I've heard that has ties to the spicy food industry. They are an African company that both helps in preserving the endangered elephant populations and aiding rural African farmers. You may be wondering what exactly is Elephant Pepper's connection to hot food, or if you visit their website, see that their slogan is the bizarre "Elephants Hate Chilli"?
As you may know, many African people live solely off of food that is grown by local rural farmers. Elephants also love to munch on these small-scale crops. This produces quite a problem for everyone relying on these crops for subsistence, but there is an answer - chile plants! Since the pachyderms detest the smell and taste of chile peppers, many farmers will create a buffer zone of pepper plants around their main crops, minimizing the need to harm wild elephants looking for food. And what do the farmers do with all these excess chiles? Put them in sauces and seasonings, such as the ones sold by elephantpepper.com, the organization's commercial arm. It's a nice little win-win situation for everyone
Now for the seasonings. I absolutely love using spice and herb grinders, so these coming in grinder bottles automatically gives these a few points in their favor.
Close-up of the grinder
Clockwise from upper-left: Zanzibar Orange, Mozambique Masala, Baobab Gold and Zambezi Red
Zanzibar Orange - Ingredients: sea salt, roasted sesame seeds (14%), cinnamon, black peppercorns, fennel seeds, ginger, coriander seeds, chilli (6%), cloves (4.7%), garlic, aniseed, onion, star aniseed
A taste of this and I sensed a good deal of sweetness, plus sesame, coriander and funnel flavors. I thought it was a touch sweeter - thanks to the cinnamon, ginger and aniseed - and brighter than the other three seasonings, and a little salty.
This may not go on red meat as well as some rubs, but vegetables would be fantastic with this stuff sprinkled on, as well as lighter, "flakier" meats such as grilled fish or chicken.
Heat-wise, there's not much to this. I only detected enough flaked chile to round out the flavor; there's no burn from this.
Overall: 3.5 out of 5.
Mozambique Masala - Ingredients: sea salt, sugar, black peppercorns, chilli (12%), coriander seeds, bell peppers, lemon peel, coriander leaves, lime peel (2%), lime oil (0.75%), coconut flavor (0.15%), citric acid
This Elephant Pepper offering was very fragrant, containing olfactory notes dominated by sweetness and coriander scents. Tastes salty, with a medium complexity. This would be an all-around decent shaker to put on veggies, seafood, and perhaps even pork. I found nothing too terribly spectacular about Mozambique Masala.
This contains a tiny more heat from the chiles than what the Zanzibar Orange contains. It certainly wouldn't turn away any dinner guests with the small amount of fire. In fact, it more turn them on to spicier things, as this seasoning presents a good application of how to properly add a peppery heat thereby giving a dish an extra dimension of complexity.
Overall: 3 out of 5.
Baobab Gold - Ingredients: sea salt, coriander seeds (14%), brown sugar, black peppercorns, garlic, onion, fennel seeds, yellow mustard seeds, chilli (5.4%), cumin, bay leaves, turmeric oil, baobab powder (0.5%)
I must admit that I had never heard of baobab before reviewing this. After a bit of research, I found out that this fruit comes from one of those odd "upside-down" trees that you might have seen pictures of, or perhaps seen in person at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Florida.
The aroma of coriander and fennel were delightful. It tastes light, sweet, savory, almost lemony in a way, with lots of complexity. This may be the most versatile seasoning of the four, and would be nice on a beef pot roast, ham sandwiches, a burger, or on grilled chicken. Baobab Gold might be the most "Americanized" of all the seasonings in terms of flavor.
There is very little heat to speak of in Baobab Gold.
Overall: 4 out of 5.
Zambezi Red - Ingredients: sea salt, chilli (20%), tomato, black peppercorns (15%), garlic (10%), onion, paprika oil
The overall smell and taste is more non-descript, darker, and is very much like a glorified crushed chile and black pepper blend. Not that that would is a bad thing - I believe the addition of tomato, garlic, and onion is a good one and goes well with the peppery mix. I'd say any item on which you would apply crushed red pepper would also be good with Zambezi Red, such as pizza, chili (the dish), and seasoned beef with cooking Mexican food.
This does pack some flamage, and would rate a 2.5 on a heat scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being an all-out burn. If you're cooking for chileheads, add more of this; and if your dinner guests tend to shy away from heat then use about two sprinkles of Zambezi Red.
Overall: 3.5 out of 5.
On Food
Chicken breasts seemed like a food item that was relatively compatible with all four seasonings, so I gave it a go as a rub:
I pan fried them and carefully removed the grease as to avoid intermixing the spices between breasts.
Close-up of Zambezi Red
Verdict: all four were nice, but the Baobab Gold really jumped out at me as being both unique and satisfying. It was my favorite.
Where to Buy
Elephantpepper.com has multi-bottle packs for sale in different configurations. The most inexpensive is the 4-pack (which contains one each of the above seasonings) starting at $19.99 for U.S. customers.
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Spicy Food Reviews - Hot Sauce Reviews, Hot Snacks, Hot Wings, Seasonings, BBQ Sauces, Condiments, and More
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