Review: Satan's Sweat Naga Chilli Sauce

Even by the usual standards of the garish novelty designs that adorn most bottles of hot sauce, Satan's Sweat stands out. Again pushing the boundaries of daft sauce names (what next, Satan's swollen ball bags?), the label looks better suited as a Monster Magnet album cover. The sauce itself appears to be fluid without quite descending into being watery; the colour is as bright as the bowels of hell. It seems slightly artificial, like a discount tomato soup gone wrong. As the moniker suggests, it stinks like a bastard just like all good hot sauce should.

The first taster seems weak for a Naga Chilli sauce rated past the 400,000 scoville units mark, but fortunately provides a more naturalistic flavour than the colour suggests. A second dose and the taste spreads like wildfire, darting bursts of flavoursome fire across all corners of the mouth. Compared to HST favourites Who Dares Burns: Second Assault and Spontaneous Combustion, it doesn't have the same killer intensity. Instead the flavour flows through in waves, building up to a long lingering heat.

Satan's Sweat offers an accomplished embellishment to trashy stodge - peri peri wedges and chicken nuggest in particular - but the richer depth of flavour is fully realised with the softer texture of bread. Satan has the best tunes and now an impressive sauce to match.

BUY SOME!

Mr. Ben

Spicy Beer

Spice is the lifeblood of food, but it's sorely overlooked in the grand theatre of drink. Chilli beer is the drink of choice for the God of spice.

People with notoriously bad taste in beer like putting a slice of lime in their Corona. This is wrong. This recipe for chilli beer, however, will make everything right:

1. Buy some beer. This works best with bottles, although cans will work just as well. The beer doesn't have to be good, so you can stick with Corona if you like. Make sure it's a lager; unspeakably bad things will happen if you do this with ale or stout.

2. Buy some chillies. For an optimum balance between heat, price and availability I usually buy the nastiest looking ones in the supermarket.

3. Chop your chillies into extremely fine slices. Basically, the more you chop, the hotter your beer will be. The hotter the beer, the happier the you. I once made the mistake of using whole chillies and the result was so embarrassingly lame that I had to hang my head in shame.

4. Open your beer. Put chillies in. Include the seeds subject to taste. Ok, include the seeds. All of them.

5. If you have a capper and some caps, reseal your beer and just stick it in the fridge. If you don't, just stick it in the fridge. It'll be fine.

6. Leave it a couple of hours.

7. Drink!

8. If after a few sips your lips are glowing with a satisfying burn, you've done it right. Well done! If you haven't... well, how hard can it be?

-Mr. Ben the Spice Boy

Review: Vicious Viper

At the time of writing, I have a pleasant tingle in my mouth. No, not a miniature bell, but the after effect of splashing CaJohns 'Vicious Viper' on my Spaghetti Bolognese.

I acquired Vicious Viper after scanning the Hot- Headz site for the most aggressive looking, sadistic bottle of liquid I could find. I didn't want one with a farting man on, or a massive chilli, not this time at least. I saw the evil, ready-to-pounce viper on the bottle and I fell head over heels.

So there I am, standing in front of my meal, bottle poised at the ready. I shake my wrist a fair few times, and there's a good 4 dollops of the sauce scattered around the Bolognese.

The first taste is an explosion of flavour, which is hardly surprising considering the colossal diversity of ingredients (habanero, banana, guava and mango juices, etc). The heat is fairly intense, but not intense enough to stop the flavours shining through, complimenting the sauce perfectly. This is not to downplay the heat, however. Sweat will drip down your face if you have enough of this. But unlike some other sauces I've tried, flavour is not sacrificed for heat, rather the two are interspersed perfectly, blending an almost tropical tang with a warm sting.

Vicious Viper is certainly not one for the faint hearted, but for those Alpha (fe)males out there, it's a gorgeous addition to any sauce, meaty or otherwise.

-Joe Bish, MD

Hot Sauce Thursday: An Introduction

Hello everyone!

Chances are that if you're visiting this blog, then you already know what Hot Sauce Thursday is all about, but for those who don't, here's a quick introduction...

Hot Sauce Thursday is the brain child of three spice enthusiasts who, to forever invigorate the week at the lunchtime of their Kensington-based mystery record label office, created a day devoted to the sampling, enjoying and consumption of hot sauces and all related articles.

From humble beginnings, Tabasco and Encona, to the hardcore present day, Spontaneous Combustion and Vicious Viper, Hot Sauce Thursday has always had one constant: an overwhelming sense of community. Whether you're commenting on the consistency of a sauce, or laughing at someone sweating their proverbials off, Hot Sauce Thursday brings out the best in people, and always attracts willing participants.

This blog will serve as a place for updates in the world of hot sauce, reviews of the sauces themselves, recipes for hot curries and chillis, and any other stories we can think of!

You can get minute-by-minute accounts of what we're doing here, (make sure to tune in on Thursdays, the big day!) by following us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/hotsaucethurs

Thanks for checking us out, and maybe we'll see you on Thursday!

Joe Bish
MD of HST