Chilli Sauce Reviews - Page 009

Reviews of chilli sauce products by an former industry-insider

Traffic Light Scoring System

0-3/10 = crap, 4-6/10 = average, 7-10/10 = great!

Blair's Death Rain Habanero

Name: Blair's Death Rain Habanero

Manufacturer: Blair's (Gardner Resources Inc, New Jersey, USA

Style Classification: Dry Spice Rub

Appearance: 8/10

As with most of Blair’s packaging, this is a product that is designed to catch the eye and I think you’ll agree it does that quite successfully. High quality gloss labelling and the ever-present Death Sauce skull give this product a premium look.

Sprinkling some out into the bowl shows a multitude of ingredients are present.

Some dry rubs exhibit over-processing by having all the ingredients of the same size. I'm unsure as to why some people think this is important, but fortunately, as you can see from the photo, it hasn't occured here.

Ingredients: 9/10

Some people may look at or taste this as it is and say it has too much salt, but that's really not the case. Dry rubs are meant to have a high salt content as the salt causes the proteins in the meat to unravel, to a degree, which is what then allows the flavours of the rub to penetrate into the meat.

Aroma: 8/10

Certainly, as soon as I opened this you can smell the ingredients straight away, which bodes well for the quality of the product. As spices age they lose their oils, particularly when ground up, which are a significant component of their flavour. For the mathematically inclined, here's a little formula, No aroma = little flavour.

Chillies, garlic and rosemary were easily singled out.

Flavour: 8/10

The real way to test a dry rub is to rub it on some meat, let it sit for a few hours or overnight, and then grill or roast the meat. For this review I rubbed it on some chicken thigh fillets and a T-bone steak and let them sit for about 8 hours before grilling on the BBQ.

Bang ! Significant amount of heat up front but not over the top, and then the spice flavours start coming through. This tastes really good. Nice, very nice.

Overall: 8/10

Good product. Well presented, good ingredients list and flavour that works well.

Improvements: You could make it less hot so more people can enjoy it, but there's plenty of mild rubs out there already. Leave it as it is.

Matching it with food;

• If you can stand the heat, this stuff on any meat to be grilled (except fish) is the bees knees !
• Sprinkle a little of this under the cheese on any pizza to add a real kick.

Heat: 7/10 (doesn't affect Overall Score.

Coming Soon.

Ingredient Alert: None