Saturday, October 27, 2007

Review: Crazy Ed’s Cave Creek Chili Beer Brand Hot Sauce

Hey Foodies what’s shakin’? Well I’ll tell you what’s shakin’; this bottle of Crazy Ed’s Cave Creek Chili Beer Brand Hot Sauce. Got any idea why it’s shakin’? It’s shakin because Crazy Ed put this silly little flip top restrictor cap on a nice thick hot sauce and the only way to get enough of the darn stuff out is to shake the shit out of the jar.

Initial Impression: The fist thing I noticed about 100% Natural Crazy Ed’s Cave Creek Chili Beer Brand Hot Sauce is that it looks remarkably like Tabanero sauce. The big difference being that Tabanero is 10 words less than 100% Natural Crazy Ed’s Cave Creek Chili Beer Brand Hot Sauce. Beside the extremely verbose title I think this packaging look cool. I like the clear label; it really shows of the amazing orange color of the sauce. The visual appeal of this sauce made me feel joyful, as if something good was about to happen. Now if you could only figure out what you actually want to call it.

Ingredients: Fresh carrots, selected red peppers, fresh onions, key lime juice, garlic & salt.

Hmmm? Carrots are listed before peppers; and where is the beer? The name says Chili Beer in big letters remember; 100% Natural Crazy Ed’s Cave Creek Chili Beer Brand Hot Sauce. I guess in all fairness it does say “Brand” after “Chili Beer”. I gotta say though, I was actually expecting to see beer in the ingredients list. I suppose I have to let this one go since I don’t have baboon listed as ingredient in my stuff.

Appearance: Boy this 100% Natural Crazy Ed’s Cave Creek Chili Beer Brand Hot Sauce is bright orange and nice and thick. It sticks to the sides of the bottle and it also sticks to whatever you put it on. Now I am really getting anxious to taste this practically glowing orange sauce.

Aroma: When you smell 100% Natural Crazy Ed’s Cave Creek Chili Beer Brand Hot Sauce you might find yourself smiling. I know I did. The crisp fragrance of habanero peppers is dominant here. Upon taking another generous snoot full of this pleasing perfume I noticed the onion is gently lingering in the background. I found the bouquet of 100% Natural Crazy Ed’s Cave Creek Chili Beer Brand Hot Sauce to be simple yet well balanced.

Taste: I always like to have a taste before trying any sauce on food. How else will you know with what foods a particular sauce might combine well? When I tasted 100% Natural Crazy Ed’s Cave Creek Chili Beer Brand Hot Sauce I noticed that the peppers were not the star of the show here. The acidity of the lime juice seems to jump out at you first. The next thing to happen is a little onion flavor comes forward and finally the peppers show up in the form of both flavor and heat. I would rate the heat of 100% Natural Crazy Ed’s Cave Creek Chili Beer Brand Hot Sauce at about a 3-4 out of 10. This sauce, however, is so nicely balanced you might not mind the absence of blistering heat here. Of course this is Hot Sauce blog!

The Food Test: When I first saw 100% Natural Crazy Ed’s Cave Creek Chili Beer Brand Hot Sauce I thought Beer. And what goes great with beer, pizza of course. But I was in the mood for some more than just pizza tonight, so I decided to test 100% Natural Crazy Ed’s Cave Creek Chili Beer Brand Hot Sauce on a Mediterranean Falafel pizza complete with tahini sauce. Well, I managed to kill about 4 pieces of pizza and I consumed about ¼ of the bottle of 100% Natural Crazy Ed’s Cave Creek Chili Beer Brand Hot Sauce. I could not think of a better sauce for the job. It’s like they were made for each other. This tangy, oniony, pepper sauce has won over my palette with or without the beer.

Conclusion: 100% Natural Crazy Ed’s Cave Creek Chili Beer Brand Hot Sauce is obviously suffering from some sort of multiple personality issue or perhaps even an identity crisis. Regardless of the name I like this sauce! Even though on the back it says “use chili beer hot sauce…” and there is no beer in it, I like this sauce. If you want a great flavored sauce that won’t burn your face off, you’ll like this sauce too!

Packaging 7/10 – 100% Natural Crazy Ed’s Cave Creek Chili Beer Brand Hot Sauce?
Aroma 9/10 – Fresh, Habanero & Onion
Appearance 9/10 – Bright Orange
Taste 9/10 – Well Balanced
Heat 4/10 – Not Habanero Hot.

Overall 8/10

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