Smoke Potion Hot Sauce by the Chilli Alchemist

I’ve gotten used to receiving food related gifts at Christmas by now, but this year I got something from two of my friends that I’d never heard of before; ‘Smoke Potion’ hot sauce from a company called ‘the Chilli Alchemist’. No, it wasn’t anything to do with mysticism or Fullmetal Alchemist tributes. Rather, it’s a sauce made and sold by a chilli expert from Bristol. I was waiting for an excuse to use it and by sheer coincidence, a shoulder of pork magically appeared last week. Now that it’s just as magically disappeared again along with most of the sauce, I can finally talk about it!

Okay, I admit. Part of the reason it’s taken two months to open is that it just looked so pretty and ornamental! I didn’t want to ruin the wax they’d used to seal it, the effect is fantastic. What I’d been given is one of their ‘apothecary bottles’, which cost £8.50 apiece (sorry Eimear/Phil, I had to know). Normal bottles of their sauces will only set you back £3.99, but the premium you pay for the apothecary style is more than worth it if you know a chilli lover and want to impress them with your gifting skills. Part of me wants to buy all seven flavours and just use them as decorations for my kitchen, but we all know that they would only last for so long.

Taste wise, the Smoke Potion is fairly in line with what you’d expect from a smoky barbecue sauce. It’s not as sweet as your average commercial sauce and it has a nice tang to it. The chipotle chillies take over from there, leading into a low burn toward the middle and back of your mouth. It’s classed as a medium spicy sauce on the Chilli Alchemist website but I personally found it to be on the milder of medium. And of course it’s full of smoky flavour, as the name suggests! It went perfectly with my pulled pork and didn't get lost in the spicing that was already on the meat.

As I mentioned before, the Chilli Alchemist has a range of sauces available on their website with some pretty big hitters on the Scoville scale if anybody is feeling particularly adventurous (try ‘the Everlasting Flame’ or ‘Purus’ at your peril). The man behind it all, Jay Webley, has an obvious passion for peppers and it’s worth noting that many of the chillies used for the sauces are home grown! Do NOT attempt to nick anything edible from this man’s garden.

So with interest in sauce variety growing ever larger (just look at your supermarket's condiment section if you don’t believe me!), it's great to see an independent business like the Chilli Alchemist adding a bit of spice to the market. I'm looking forward to trying some of their other sauces so this probably won't be the last you'll hear of them from me, especially since I've just noticed they're also experimenting with ice cream and popping candy! Whatever next?

http://www.chillialchemist.co.uk/

Cola Flavoured Yop: a Blast of Validation from the 1990s

‘You’re a liar’, ‘it was just a dream’, ‘don’t be stupid, they’d never mix yoghurt with cola’ and ‘my, haven’t we an active imagination?’; all replies I got to my recent suggestions that a Yop that was cola flavoured could be found on supermarket shelves at one stage during the early nineties.

Up until two years ago, Google went at least some way toward backing me up with a few sporadic mentions of it, but recently there’s been zip, nadda; absolutely nothing to suggest that such a Yop ever existed. So, I did the only thing I could: I e-mailed Yoplait’s Irish customer service address in hope that they could validate me where nobody else would. Then I waited. A day, two days, a week... I had visions of everybody in the customer services office having a laugh riot at the implication that a cola flavoured Yop ever existed. So, I pretty much gave up on the idea of ever being able to prove myself right. It was over. Or was it? Yesterday, I opened my hotmail and surprisingly, there was an e-mail from one Eve O’Leary. No prizes for guessing what she said, all that matters is that yes, they did exist and no, I amn’t losing my mind. Yet. Validation achieved, and here’s the screencap to prove it!

What I find interesting is of course the mention that it may be reconsidered as a flavour at some stage. Naturally you’d take a comment like that with a pinch of salt, but my nostalgic, ignorant inner child really does hope it happens. If they did, I’d at least know if my memory’s in full working order and I still do actually remember what they taste like. Back then at the age of four-ish, anything cola flavoured was considered a treat so naturally I only got to taste two or three of these pan dairy-mineral delights before they were banned altogether. Nonetheless, the flavour has, for some odd reason, stuck with me. Well, what I think it tasted like has.

So, I’d like to say a big thank you to Eve O’Leary at Glanbia for taking the time to respond to my odd enquiry. Not only has she validated my sanity, but she’s proven all of the doubters wrong. All that’s left now is to kick start a petition to return cola flavoured Yops to our shelves and my work here will be done!

Tesco Finest Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice Ice Lollies

I have a confession to make: I'm a slave to Tesco. Yup, it's where the majority of my had earned money that isn't being spent in restaurants goes, on an almost nightly basis at this stage! Whilst other Dublin foodies are off buying fresh ingredients from the various markets and high quality food halls dotted around the city in their ample spare time, I walk the aisles at midnight looking for somebody, anybody to tell me where I might find stem ginger. Instead of haggling for a discount at the weekends, I tear my hair out as I once again am told that an unexpected item is in the bagging area. It's the predicament you find yourself in when you live bang in the middle of the lamentably market-shy North Side and work until between seven to ten on most nights.

Thankfully, I'm not alone; most of you will find yourself in a similar situation. Even better is that it isn't really a bad one at all; Tesco, in general, offer a suitable range of ingredients with special emphasis on the exotic in some of their larger stores. You aren't going to find them selling a wheel of Bluebell Falls cheese or jamon Iberico freshly cut from the leg, but everything you need to make a varied sushi platter is ready and waiting. There are also any number of gems you can discover in the 'Finest' range, a line of food products that are touted as being just a slight cut above the rest. In many cases this is true, some not so much. The gems I speak of are those that exceed any and all expectations; some making you question why they aren't being served in your standard restaurant for treble the price!

One such gem is the Finest freshly squeezed orange juice ice lollies. Yes, the name is a mouthful and looks to be sexed up M&S style to deceive, but there actually is a surprising amount of orange juice in there. 83% to be exact! You can deduce as much from the first taste; the flavour is remarkably close to that of a real, tangy orange. This sensation is enhanced by the amount of pulp in each lolly, a lot of which you'll find accumulated at the bottom (top?) of the stick as you get further down. The ice itself is extremely delicate once slightly thawed, and crumbles delightfully where other ice lollies tend to flake and fracture.

Personally, I've found these little frozen delights to be a fantastic way to deal with a hangover; they're light, cold and refreshing, without offending your stomach too much. Also noteworthy is the fact that, for a treat, they're rather healthy! All of that orange juice is your standard source of vitamin C, and each lolly contains just ninety calories.

With summer having already shown its head peeking around the corner and it looking to be very much a good one, we're going to need ice lollies. Lots of them. The Finest orange ice lollies will never quite catch on in the same way that a Tangle Twister has, but they will cost you less in the long run at only €2.45 for a box of four. That works out at sixty cent per lolly; effective time travel back to the early nineties. You'll get a much better and more refreshing taste experience for your buck as well, so what are you waiting for? Head on down and stock up for the summer!