Review - Intensity Academy Chai Chipotle Q Barbecue Sauce
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My good friends at Intensity Academy certainly have a way with their chai tea and green tea-infused sauces and have added a brand spankin' new one to the line - a barbecue sauce appropriately called Chai Chipotle Q (you know, short for BBQ). Debuting yet another barbecue sauce in an already flooded market can be a risky proposition, so this had better be an outstanding product. Read on to see what I thought...
Ingredients:
Tomato concentrate, vinegar, organic brewed Chai tea, corn syrup, salt, onion powder, Worcestershire sauce, honey, brown sugar, Chipotle peppers, natural smoke flavor and natural spices.
Aroma:
4 out of 5. Zesty and tangy, with a dash of smokiness.
Appearance and Texture:
4 out of 5. Chai Chipotle Q is a glossy, brownish-red, middle-of-the-road-colored sauce. It contains few visible flecks of spices or chucks of ingredients. It looks beautiful and appetizing. I do prefer a sauce that is a bit thicker and denser but Chai Chipotle "is what it is" with its medium-thin consistency and it works pretty well.
Taste Straight Up:
4.5 out of 5. A few licks off my finger and I could tell that this would be a delicious sauce. The dominant flavors are the usual suspects of true barbecue heaven - tomato, brown sugar, onion, garlic, Worcestershire and others. They're all done superbly. The highlighted ingredients of Chai tea and chipotle peppers weren't too strong and overpowering. In fact, they were buried somewhat in the mix, only to add small supporting roles in the overall flavor, and that was fine by me. So I'm glad this did not stray too far from it's base BBQ sauce roots.
Taste on Food:
4 out of 5. Beef ribs were on the menu tonight, providing me with an excellent opportunity to see what this sauce could do with meat. I slow-roasted the ribs, and about two hours in I liberally covered them with the Chai Chipotle Q. A half-hour later after the initially coating got nice and sticky, a second application of Q was given until it was time to chow down.
I must note that I took photos of these ribs at every stage of the cooking process, and this picture was the only one suitable enough to post online with this review.
The sauce was very, very good. The tea flavor was a bit more pronounced at times but never steered the sauce in the wrong direction. Heat-wise, the chipotles were slooooowwwww to build up (I almost forgot they were amongst the ingredients) and when they did they left a pleasurable warmth in my mouth.
There's nothing mind-blowing about this sauce, there's nothing punchy about it. This is just a good, all-around, all-purpose, mellow yet tangy BBQ sauce.
Suggested Uses:
I couldn't imagine any meat not benefiting from Intensity Academy's Chai Chipotle Q. Whether it's grilled, baked or just used as a dip or condiment, this stuff could be a good candidate for a "go-to" sauce.
Heat:
If you're a wimp to hot sauces, this wouldn't be bad at all for you. This probably rates as hot as a medium-level grocery store-bought salsa would be. There's just enough of a low-burning flame to add an extra dimension to the flavor, and nothing more. 1.5 on a scale of 1 to 5.
Label:
Much nicer than the one for Intensity Academy's Hot Cubed Hot Sauce, it's use of cool colors, easy-to-read text and distinctive graphics get a thumbs up from me.
Overall:
Chai Chipotle Q is an admirable effort from Intensity Academy and is very enjoyable. It's got the classic base flavor that most barbecue sauces should have and adds just enough of the other goods to make it a very nice, distinctive sauce. The product should soon be able to be purchased from the Intensity Academy website.
Related Articles:
Spicy Food Reviews - Hot Sauce Reviews, Hot Snacks, Hot Wings, Seasonings, BBQ Sauces, Condiments, and More
Comments
2009-08-27 06:21:03
One thing jumped out at me though....the ingredient "Worcestershire sauce" is a big-time issue on labels. It's not an ingredient, but itself is made up of many different ingredients and ALL MUST be listed on the labels. This can cause a recall from the govt or worse, make someone sick from an "unlisted ingredient" like anchovies or wheat/gluten.
Lea & Perrins has 12 different ingredients in its sauce.
Even "brown sugar" is sugar mixed with molasses.
I am not trying to be a jerk or know-it-all, just trying to help.
jon
2009-08-27 08:56:34
2009-08-27 09:06:01
2009-08-28 07:20:37
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