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review The Unusual Chutney Company's Fiendfyre

This week's post from my blog is reaching you a little late, sorry about that, I've had a lot of things going on and I completely and utterly forgot to copy it over. That's fixed now.
 
Also, potentially of interest here, is that this is an award winning product. I briefly mention such in the review but I actually looked into it a bit more behind the scenes and opted not to talk about it. I like to steer clear of any major chilli controversy and there certainly seems to have been a fair bit surrounding the World Hot Sauce Awards on this forum.
 
As Lucky Dog says, the quality of the show's management does not reflect the quality of the sauces that competed but this may explain why the Unusual Chutney Company fails to name the award it won. Or, more correctly, the award it got 3rd place in the "Ultra Hot" division of in 2013.
 
Anyway, without further ado, here's my post on the product:
 
Hello again spice lovers, this week we’re looking at a rather hot but also rather different sauce that I got for christmas, back when I still had a backlog of product samples to showcase.
 
Now I’ve just got a backlog of products I actually paid for. That I picked up because they were exciting to me in some way but couldn’t be talked about at the time due to scheduling.
The same reason I’ve left this review so late.
 
But that’s enough behind the scenes chitchat, it’s time to finally bring you the Unusual Chutney Company’s Fiendfyre:
 
fiendfyre.jpg

 
An unusually green coloured product for something that claims to be mostly reaper, though it’s clearly not entirely green chillies as there are brown and even some slight reddish notes to the sauce.
 
Contrasting this, we see a glossy label depicting a flaming red chilli atop a bold, high print quality black background, the smoke from the flames giving off a slightly mystical purple glow where they and the black meet. Add to that the sparks coming off the left hand side of the pepper and you have a very cool looking image.
But, while the image may be impressive and its colours contrast excellently with the product, that contrast is also its downfall.
 
You see, the generic red chilli has absolutely nothing to do with the jalapeño, reaper, scorpion and ghost that go into the Fiendfyre sauce.
Just as the flames, while suitably mystical, do nothing to suggest either the sauce’s jalapeño content or the serpentine form of the Harry Potter spell with the same name.
 
No, there is nothing unique about this picture and nothing what so ever to tie it to the product. The only hint the label gives us of the green chilli content within is the subtle tip of one, hidden behind the Y and R of the bold white name. And it cuts off abruptly near the left hand edge of that Y for no clear reason.
 
A name that, I might add, is never completely in view, thanks to it wrapping roughly three quarters of the way around the bottle. It looks good with its red outline and speckles, as well as the shadow it casts, but I had to clip together two pictures just to show you the full thing. This bottle was clearly not designed with display purposes in mind.
 
But, to be fair on the label’s almost complete lack of green chilli, the jalapeño was never meant to be the focus point of this sauce. I spoke to its creator at the end of last year and, in his opinion, it was just a base ingredient that would go with anything. Something he could build the main flavours of his sauce on top of.
And it thus featured heavily in a huge number of his other products aswell.
 
Personally, I disagree with this approach but does it really matter? So long as it’s getting good results, is the theory behind the sauce actually important?
Of course, we’re going to have to put those results to the test. Just because this sauce is “World Award Winning” doesn’t mean it can get off without a tasting.
 
2017-02-08-12-25-42.jpg

 
This sauce is thick and comes out in blobs, giving it a chunky appearance, despite all but the seeds inside being blended very finely.
 
The aroma it gives off is slightly sweet but, for the most part, a savoury one. Not tart but still heavy on the vinegar and onions, with just a hint of the rapeseed oil and the chilli mix.
It smells pretty good but I’d be disappointed if it tasted like that. From something that’s a mix of jalapeños, carolina reapers and other superhots, I’d like that chilli to come through rather more. And it does.
 
In small quantities, this sauce has a two stage flavour, where the first is a slightly more jalapeño tinged version of its relish-like smell. As the heat begins to take hold, however, so too does the reaper’s sourness, which brings alongside it notes of trinidad scorpion and a strong, green, herb-free jalapeño burst.
But you can, should you want, skip straight to this second stage, since it overpowers the first right away when eaten in greater quantities. Not that I’d really advise that with a first ingredient reaper product of any kind.
 
Because yes, this product is hot. Very hot. Super hot, even. At minimum, a high
[SIZE=300%]4.5/10[/SIZE]​
[SIZE=300%]Heat[/SIZE]​
[SIZE=medium]that starts at the tip of the tongue and roof of my mouth but soon takes over more or less everywhere.[/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=medium]And I say that that’s a minimum because, while this product averages about a five on my scale, placing it alongside the hotter ghost pepper products, it can be a little inconsistent, regardless of how much you shake it. At its highest, it is, in fact, the very top of what I’d call a[/SIZE]
[SIZE=300%]6/10[/SIZE]​
[SIZE=300%]Heat[/SIZE]​
[SIZE=medium]It hurts if mishandled![/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=medium]But, if used sensibly, its tartness and green taste will do excellently for cutting through fatty cheese dishes or allow it to transform pesto into something crazy.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=medium]A chunky cream cheese, I think, would pair especially well with it.[/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=medium]This sauce certainly has its uses but I do find it to be a little bitter, as though it wasn’t just the ‘peños that were picked green.[/SIZE]
 
[SIZE=medium]It’s a decent sauce by any standard but I find it excels more in its unique combination of super heat and mild chilli flavour than in its actual quality.[/SIZE]
 
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