Review - Jake Albert's Fuego Azul
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Fuego Azul Wild Blueberry Habanero Glaze is Jake Albert's Specialty Foods' latest invention. It's Jay Calvert's, the company's founder, follow up to the overall admirable Fuego Rojo Pomegranate and Habanero Glaze. I honestly believe that everything promised by Fuego Rojo (Spanish for "Red Fire") has been fulfilled by the newer Fuego Azul ("Blue Fire"). It certainly does not mean that the older product is not worthy of your attention; it might have had tiny little deficiencies here and there, most of which might have partially stemmed from the fact that I'm not bonkers over pomegranates.
Not Fuego Azul. With this beauty of a sweet and spicy glaze, it's as if all the truant puzzle pieces have been recovered and fit snugly into place. What's that mean? This is a solid, complete sauce, with nary a metaphorical crack or flaw in it. I love it!
An odd thing happened. While the Fuego Rojo straddled several classifications, I would consider the brand spankin' new Fuego Azul more of a full-fledged dessert sauce. Read on to find out why....
Ingredients:
Fair Trade Certified Organic Cane Sugar, Spring Water, Low temperature extraction Wild Blueberry Concentrate, Red Peppers, 100% Canadian Honey and Fresh Habanero Peppers
Aroma:
4.5 out of 5. Very tasty and dominated by blueberries and honey. It smells like there's a dash of that ol' familiar but vague spicy aspect thrown in without directly having the fruity aroma of habaneros.
Appearance and Texture:
4 out of 5. Thick with the consistency and pourability just a touch thinner than honey. Fuego Azul, like real-life blueberries, aren't blue at all but are closest to purple in color. This glaze is actually boasts a reddish tint possibly contributed to by honey and peppers. Unlike smooth honey, there are numerous pieces of ground up fruit and habaneros.
I have to mention that like Fuego Rojo, Feugo Azul is extremely messy! As careful as one can be at pouring this out of the bottle, this sticky liquid still manages to scamper its way out and cover the cap and drip down the sides. A damp wash cloth is essential to using this product and not feeling like you've been rummaging through cords of sap-heavy lumber all morning.
Taste and Heat:
5 out of 5. Jay hit the balance of sugariness, fruity sweet and fiery kick dead on target with his product. If you've liked any blueberry pancake syrup before, you're going to find all of those taste bland compared to this.
Upon a lick of this, I sensed fresh blueberries with a honey-induced rush. Almost immediately a pure, unadulterated heat arose out of the sweet base and built to a screaming high. Oh, it was wonderful! One spoonful conjured up the need to taste it again, and again, and...well, let's try this on food.
Taste on Food:
5 out of 5. A few days ago I whipped up a couple of waffles with light margarine. Granted, I'm not a huge waffle fan, but if anything can make these bad boys taste scrumptious it would be Fuego Azul. It did not disappointment.
I then drizzled Fuego Azul over that old sweet n' heat standard component, vanilla ice cream. I frequently add a raspberry or blueberry jam to ice cream to spruce it up, and while Jake Albert's blueberry-based sauce lacked the gelatinous texture of a jelly, it may be even better since it carries a lovely fire. If you're searching for a fruity and spicy sauce for ice cream I can't think of anything better than this; your old standbys of chocolate or strawberry syrup may be soon forgotten.
I had my wife give Fuego Azul the old college try. She absolutely loved it! After a taste sample, she promptly dashed off to the kitchen to make dry and peanut butter toast on which she would put the sauce:
As you can see in the photo, a relatively scant amount of the glaze was poured across the toast slices (she didn't want to blister her tongue from the heat, I assume). Heat, shmeat. The flavor was so delicious to her that an extra heavy dousing of Fuego Azul was needed. I took a bite and wholeheartedly agreed with her overall assessment of the toast. Killer stuff!
Suggested Uses:
Bagels (my favorite with the older Fuego Rojo, is even better with the Azul mixture), this could also fare terrifically as an incendiary topping for cheesecake, pancakes, and apple pie.
I'm really convinced this excels best as a dessert glaze, but I don't want to unfairly pigeonhole this product. How about pork tenderloin? Could be interesting. You can even try chicken wings, but by the time you get around to making some your bottle of Fuego Azul may be empty from enjoying it on so many breakfast or sweet dishes.
Overall:
Highly recommended. This has to be one of my favorite new products of the year.
The price this this here in the States for this 8.8 fluid ounce Canadian-bottled item is roughly $9.00 in US dollars. With shipping across the border that may run pretty close to $20. A bit steep but worth it. You can purchase or learn more about this product at the Jake Albert's website.
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Review - Jake Albert's Fuego Rojo
Chilehead is Making His Dreams Come True - Jay Calvert of Jake Albert's Specialty Foods
Spicy Food Reviews - Hot Sauce Reviews, Hot Snacks, Hot Wings, Seasonings, BBQ Sauces, Condiments, and More
Comments
2010-06-27 00:50:04
2010-06-27 11:05:22
2010-06-27 19:17:56
2010-06-28 05:26:00
Thank you so much for this awesome review!!!!!
We are so pleased you liked it
-Jay
2010-06-28 19:35:58
2010-07-28 04:34:33
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