Personal thanks to the Big Kahuna himself, Tahiti Joe, for sending us a couple of bottles of yummy hot sauce for our consumption and culinary combustion.

We’ve known about Tahiti Joe’s sauces for quite a while. Somehow, we’ve never had any of them for very long…which is testament to just how good they are since we’ve used them up pretty quickly. We recently tried a few of them while up in the Cleveland, Ohio area and visited Chili’s Fire Pit to do a little hot sauce shopping.

Tahiti Joe’s is the only full line of award winning gourmet hot sauces made with honey and clam juice. The secret of the sauces is heat with flavor. You can enjoy the all purpose Polynesian to the extreme heat of Kumawanakilya. You won’t find any pepper extracts in Tahiti Joe’s hot sauces. We caught up with Joe to ask him a few questions from his adoring hot sauce-loving public….

So, how did you get into the hot sauce business?

Someone I know bugged me for two years to put my sauce on the market. He told me that it was the best hot sauce he had ever had.

Many of your sauces have some unique names. How do you come up with these?

The names really just pop into my head. I think they call it fartstorming. Kinda like pop up video, if you know what I mean.” (If VH-1 could ever work in the concept of “fartstorming” into an episode of Pop Up Video, we might actually watch it again!)

Have you ever been to Tahiti? If so, what did you like most about it?

Well, we were able to discern that Tahiti Joe isn’t actually fromTahiti. However, he and his wife Charlotte were married there. We pirated a picture of them from their wedding. Funny how they look like Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, huh?

Do you have any new products coming out soon? If so, what?

I do have a new sauce coming out this year, but I always keep it a secret on what it is. (We tried to pry the secret out of Joe, but suddenly the phone line went dead. Coincidence? Sounds like something that should have been on an episode of The X-Files. Ha!)

Some words from the “Kahuna of Sauces” about these two fantastic Hot Sauces:

When Tahiti’s Hot Sauces got into the hot sauce biz, his Makua Kane (Father), Tahiti’s Hot Sauces Sr, said ” Keiki Kane (son), if you want to make it in the hot sauce biz, you have to Puhi (burn) the competition”. With that in mind (what’s left of it), Tahiti’s Hot Sauces went off to the islands to ravage the “Killer Habanero Patch”. In taking no chances of the Killer Habs and their painful resins, Tahiti’s Hot Sauces puts on a mask, surgical gloves, and two x-large condoms, (have to protect the “jewels” you know). Tahiti’s Hot Sauces sneaks in at broad day light and it became an instant WAR. The Killer Habs put on a great fight, but no match for the “Kahuna of Hot Sauces”. He escapes on his getaway outrigger being belted by crushed tomatoes (get the connection?), that’s how tomatoes got into the sauce. So the next time you get “orange crushed” by Brentiki the Crush Meister, Kumawanakilya will take the pain away for good! P.S. If Kumawanakilya doesn’t get you in the beginning, it will get you in THE END! P.S.S. Banned by all Proctologists.”

Camel Toe is a delicious Chipotle/Smoked Mango Hot Sauce. So no matter what you call it; snapper, bearded clam, cooter cleavage, the pink taco or beavage, there is nothing that tastes or smells like a Camel Toe. Love at first sight!

So what’s in all this stuff? An Ingredient List!

Kumawanakilya Hot Sauce: Habanero Peppers, Apple Cider Vinegar, Crushed Tomatoes, Key Lime Juice, Clam Juice, Worcestershire, Honey, Carrots, Fresh Garlic in Water, Fresh Onions, Spices, Corn Starch.

CamelToe Chipotle Mango Hot Sauce: Vinegar, Aged Red Peppers, Mangoes, Apple Juice, Sugar, Worcestershire, Ocean Clam Juice, Honey, Diced Tomatoes, Tomato Juice, Habaneros, Jalapenos, Chipotle Peppers, Sea Salt, Onions, Parmesian Cheese, Garlic in Water, Carrots, Cilantro, Spices, Tic Gum

Joe’s $0.02 Dig it…

Kumawanakilya Hot Sauce: When considering habanero sauces, you always have to factor heat vs. flavor…and heat usually wins with the habanero pepper. However, this sauce’s taste is excellent and benefits greatly from the addition of fresh ingredients. The aroma is pure habanero-ey goodness, and the taste of the tomatoes and garlic is enjoyable right before the heat smacks you upside the head. Despite its heat, I found the sauce to be multi-purposeful. I used it in everything from chili & Cajun food to using it as a dipping sauce. Thumbs up.

CamelToe Chipotle Mango Hot Sauce: Some of the sauces with ‘novelty’ names are just clones of basic sauces with souped-up graphics. THIS IS NOT ONE OF THOSE! This sauce is surprisingly sweet with its mangoes, but the chipotle flavor follows to give you a fine-tasting sauce that won’t destroy your tastebuds like its hotter cousins. I found this sauce to go best with ‘lighter’ meats such as chicken, turkey, and even fish. Admittedly, I’m not the biggest fan of chipotles (ask Linda), but I do recognize a good sauce when I taste it. Give this a try.

Linda’s $0.02

Kumawanakilya Hot Sauce: While the tail end of the title of this sauce reads, “KILYA,” it really doesn’t. But don’t let that fool you. It IS a Habanero sauce. It’s a Habanero sauce with a lot of flavor. I like that the salt content is enough to really liven food without being overpowering. I would definitely make this a chili number one. This would also be a fine addition to a Bloody Mary or Virgin Mary (for us pregnant ladies). One really amusing thing about this sauce is the small print. If you look very closely at the bottle below the title, you’ll see, “*Death Not Included. See Blair.” Ha ha ha.

CamelToe Chipotle Mango Hot Sauce: When I see sauces that have fruit in them, I always think that they may have some limited use. But this sauce is not that way at all. The Mango doesn’t permeate the sauce and limit its possibilities. And as everyone knows, I just ADORE chipotles. Try using a 1/4 to 1/2 cup of this sauce mixed with some baby shrimp over cream cheese. Have a bland salsa? Add some of this. Like your tuna with sweet relish? Use some of this in addition. Or try adding some to your every-day mayo to compliment a turkey on rye. Trust me, you won’t have trouble finding a way to use this sauce.

Don’t just take our word for it! Here are some online reviews of these sauces:

www.nettally.com/saints/hotstuff.html
www.hotchili.st/0museum/tahiti_joes.html

Want to review Tahiti Joe’s sauces for yourself? Go here and leave your own opinion:

www.rateitall.com/t-1125-hot-sauces.aspx

Give these reviewers a shout and ask them to review Tahiti Joe’s sauces as well:

www.geocities.com/alienzombie13/hot_sauce.html
www.saucerater.com
www.geocities.com/jgano2/hot_sauce_guide.htm

Recipe Ideas

Tahiti Joe has a number of mouth-watering recipes listed on his website. You can find them at:

www.tahitijoeshotsauces.com/recipes.htm

Most of these reference a different sauce/salsa than we’ve featured, but that just gives you an excuse to buy some of that when you order these two as well.

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI