Sauce review: Scovilla Excite Mango & Coconut fruit hot sauce.

I am in for a challenge this time, with tasting this sauce, not for the heat but for the taste.
I hate coconut if it is over the top and am not too fond about mango either.
With coconut I do think it is over the top rather fast even if you don’t use too much. Both coconut and the German cuisine can be rather rough or crude maybe, so I am in for something.

I have been a good few times in Germany, and that country is lovely and good fun. Don’t however think you will run over loads of good looking blonds with Lederhosen, you will not.
And if you think it Germany is all about beer, beer bellies and drinking huge Litre glasses of beer? Wrong again.
Germany has got the greatest pilsners in the world, no doubt about that, all super natural and conform their Reinheitsgebot.
Sure they do have beer and wine fests, all for good fun, but you should taste their game meat at the restaurants. . .
Or their salads, their lettuce with a touch of vinegar, onion and and , I need to go to Germany again soon.
Sauce hé, back to sauce. . .

Well, this sauce contains:
Mango, Coconut, Habañero pepper powder, Orange juice, Lemon juice, Passion Fruit juice, Paprika,
Apple vinegar, Coconut essence, Sugar, Starch and Ascorbic acid.
The bottle is a stunning 311ml, normal price 4,99 Euro, so good value for your money.
I especially like the note on the bottom of the label, 100% natural, and: Thanks to Mother Earth

The consistency is great, not too runny, not too thick and it has structure.
Not chunky I mean, it’s got a lovely texture so you feel what you are tasting.
I would say it almost feels like a jelly or jam, in sauce form.
It smells lovely, almost a bit like apricot coconut and well like a fruit bar. Ha I might like this after all.
The taste, hmm.

At start it is a bit syrup like, sweet and sour with sweet being the overtone. Yes it has mango, and it has coconut both not too much, and heat slowly beginning on the middle of the tongue, slowly going down.
At the same time you taste the citrus fruits as an undertone and the apple vinegar does something lovely with the fruit sugars in it. Almost as if you are left with a hot apple syrup taste.
The paprika brings a herb taste in it, together with the habañero peppers. I could swear there is a bit of salt in it to enhance the taste, and there is not.
This is the effect of using great peppers and good paprika, getting a bit of a savoury umami taste.
I like that as a counter to the sweet and sour.
The sauce is not very hot, but has a great bite, 1 out of 5 maybe.

Hihi, I am eating mango and coconut and I love it, this is nuts !
The kids gave it a taste too, and love it, they want to have it on ice-cream.
Now, they are used to a bit of heat, and are giving me the eye that I don’t give them any more.
They simply love it!
1/3rd of the bottle is gone with tasting, and I am 500 words.
So, nice idea from the kids, I am going to use it on ice cream and report about that this week.

O wow, it is on sale I just read at the Scovilla site.
3,99 Euro per bottle, go and get them, maybe take two or try something else too!

Yours sincerely,

Bart J. Meijer

Taste review the Chocolate Cherry chilli

This is one stunning chilli, and odd. This is a cherry chilli that grows upright, not hanging, still it is an annuum, so direct family from the paprika. This chilli is from Hungarian origin, and is used in pickles and fresh. Weird as I have never seen a cherry chilli grow up, and looking cute and this chilli has a real chocolate colour. It is not super seedy, in the inside it really looks like a mini paprika, and is very easy to clean,
All in all the appearance of this plant and its fruits, it makes soo much advertisement for itself that I was sure they would taste like. . . . . .  not so good as they look.

However, the taste is stunning, overwhelming. Not its heat. It took me some time to get how to describe this chilli. It has a very deep and dark paprika taste, so would looks deceive me, no it really has that. It has a very rich and herbs like paprika taste, very strong without the bitter, and the heat of half a peppadew or a thrird of that from a Satan's kiss. Then after eating half and chewing it for about 20 seconds it starts to build a sweet taste like that from light roasted malt before brewing, or like that from chewing wheat in the field. You know for making chewing gum from wheat, what we did like kids on vacation.

Now how can I explain the deep and dark paprika taste? It has at least the taste of 3 times a paprika, but different. You know if you have tasted the yellow and the red bell pepper, and maybe a roasting pepper that is much darker? Well, if there would be a next step, like a black paprika, this is what it would taste like. That and just a lovely mild heat, makes this one stunning cherry chilli !

Yours sincerely,

Bart J. Meijer

Taste report Cumari se Crescente

I got this chilli from Dilly's Chilis Seed Co in the US to write a report about. In fact I got a good handful off 2 different ones all the way from the US to taste and write about. Now travelling half the world didn’t affect them, isn’t that cool?

the Cumari is below the knife

One of them was a bit of a disappointment, taste wise, but a stunning looker called the Capezolli di Skimmia. But this one is superb. It is a dead ringer for the Aribibi Gusano, but deep yellow. The Aribibi has one flower per axil and this Cumari with 3-5 flowers per axil. So it will give you more chillies, and maybe even better looks. This chilli grows up, erect so to say, hihi.
So I had to taste it and would not make the same mistake with this one as I did with the Aribibi, so I only tasted the very tip of it.

This going to be one short taste report for once, get it, you need this one as bad as you need the Aribibi Gusano.

top Cumari, bottom Aribibi

The taste to the Cumari se Crescente is close as I said, but more subtle. It has the chinense taste I talked about, a hint of citrus and the same heat. If you think the Aribibi is over the top, this is a step down in taste. Odd thing maybe, but I think these will combine with chocolate very well.
Handy little bugger to use, as it is easy to dose in a meal. Never eat a handful though, unless you are Ted Barrus !

Yours sincerely,

Bart J. Meijer

Chocolate, me and chilli - Grimreapers Chilli Chocolate !

I am not really one for candy or sweets, in the sense like eating a bag in a day or a chocolate bar in a day. Sure I do eat a candy once in a blue moon, or a piece of chocolate if my wife puts in on the table. But really, I seldom see myself raiding the fridge for something sweet. One exception is drop; that is what is Dutch for Salty Liquorice (in North America called black Licorice), a candy made with salmiak and Liquorice root. Dear readers, you can say anything about that stuff, but it is wonderful. It has a nice balance between sweet and salt, and got an odd rich taste. I can eat a box a day easy, but I try not to. While writing this I just could not help myself, or did help myself with a good handful. Really if I would be send off to Alcatraz, I would take Sambal, a pen and some paper and a box full of Liquorice with me! Ok, where was I, sorry for rambling. . .

So, I am not one for candy, chocolate and so on. What made it worse I think is having kids. At times I get a so-called lovely sweet from the kids when they are sharing. Some of it is so sour it feels like my teeth are eaten, awful. And the stuff with chocolate, boy, everything seems to have chocolate in it. Crispy whatever chocolate things for breakfast, cookies with chocolate, even cruesli bars with chocolate.

Believe me, after weeks not being able to eat a cookie without chocolate, or breakfast without chocolate you get sick off the stuff . . . 

Worst of it all, it is a cheap excuse for a chocolate containing very little chocolate if at all. So I get this big box in from Grimreaper food UK, Russell Williams and guess what is in it? Chocolate. . . .

 But as this is work related, I will have to eat the stuff, thanks Russel.

I tasted the bar of Hellraiser, the milk chocolate version. But first, this is not simply chocolate in wrapper; no this is really nicely looking packet with a ribbon in it. A ribbon that my daughter fancies rightaway, and I do have to admit, this looks stunning! The kids wanted to dig in, and told them not to. They were a bit surprised and started protesting; “You don’t even like chocolate !!!” So I took a little myself to see if it wasn’t too hot first, and was stunned with the taste. This is one chocolate with a capital C! The taste is superb and extremely well balanced, I can even taste the liquorice tones that you have in the dried Naga Jolokia chilli which is used to spike this chocolate. I hoped that I did not spoil the surprise that it was one good chocolate, with the kids looking at me to try and see if I liked it. So I offered them a piece and told them to take care not to take a big bite at once. They both took a good bite, and even my wife wanted some. We all agreed it is superb, and the kids wanted more. . .

We compared it with another very good chocolate, and that really surprised us all, the Grimreaper chocolate is by far better in its chocolate contend and taste!

This chocolate has the classic combination of cinnamon and orange, with a twist of garlic that is hardly noticeable but complementary and the full taste of Naga chillies. Surprisingly you can taste the herbs and fruit tones that you can find in the real Naga Jolokia, unbelievable! I don’t think it is too hot really, no, it is well spiked with the full array of tastes the Naga has without going over the top.

Now my daughter wanted to make a video review for Grimreaper foods, and that was not done in one take. So after about 10 tries thus eating 10 pieces, it was on video. Half an hour later or less I got the buzz of eating Naga chillies, almost a high I would say, that I also got from eating a wild chilli from the Galapagos Islands. The video was received with great comments, and the chocolate was received by us with great joy!

This chocolate I think is one to recommend, not only for hotheads for sure. No, this is one I can recommend for anyone that wants to try something different, something new and great !

Yours sincerely,

Bart J. Meijer