This is a first for the HZOB in that we are revisiting some products for a manufacturer whose products we adore. Back in May of 2005, we did a Feature on some of the Peppermaster sauces, which we truly enjoyed tasting. After sharing some tasting notes on tequila online with Tina Brooks of Peppermaster, she offered to send us a couple more items to try. Yay!

Raspberries in Heat: Raspberries, Spring Water, Dark Maple Syrup, Lemons, Scotch Bonnet Peppers, Finger Peppers, Cornstarch

Molten Maple: Pure Dark Maple Syrup, Heavy cream, Corn syrup, Scotch bonnet peppers

Our combined take:

Raspberries in Heat: See the above picture? You can just imagine those peppers working their sinister heat into those poor, defenseless raspberries. First impression is that the sauce is thin. Very thin…even with some added maple syrup in the recipe. Unlike the other Peppermaster sauces we’ve tried, it pours from the bottle like juice. Tina had a great suggestion about using it in mixed drinks, particularly with good tequila. A half tablespoon in a jigger of tequila for sipping is nice, or we particularly liked a jigger of it mixed into margaritas to gives them a nice spicy framboise twang. (We didn’t experiment with this idea, but we speculate it would be good in other mixed drinks using vodka as well.) For foods, it’s a pretty distinct raspberry flavor, so plan for that accordingly as you use it. Still, it’s pretty versatile. Joe tried it on ice cream before tasting the Molten Maple, and had good things to say about its mix of heat & sweet.

Molten Maple: It was a little ominous seeing those scotch bonnet peppers lurking in the moderately thick mass of maple goodness. Any notion that the heat would adversely affect the taste were quickly dispersed, however. The maple sauce is actually fairly creamy, and pours from the jar a lot quicker than expected. (In an almost very un-brilliant move, Joe almost emptied the jar’s contents out on the carpet. After a severe browbeating by Linda, Joe recovered just nicely.) The most challenging thing about this sauce was finding uses for it. After tasting, Linda’s first inclination was to use it as a glaze on meat, particularly ham. Being the glutton for punishment, Joe thought you could use it with ice cream…particularly to liven up plain ol’ vanilla or any other bland flavor. Aside from that, trial & error is they key. Any recipe which uses maple flavoring could benefit from the sauce, but you may want to try the Maple Cream Coulis if you want to avoid the added heat.